At Lilla makeriet, Christmas starts early. That’s the case for many makers and especially when production needs to be ready in time for the holidays. The ceramics work begins immediately after summer. Right now, ornaments for the Christmas tree and gifts, red apples, pomegranates, gingerbread houses and animals are the most popular items. For Christmas, I also create floral arrangements. Whimsical trees 🌲 and wreaths are sold, among other places, at Christmas markets. When making trees, wreaths and similar decorations, it is important for me, just as before, to use what I can find in nature or what is trimmed from gardens during autumn. Many gardens have thuja, cypress, pine, juniper, ivy and more. All of these work beautifully in Christmas decorations 🎄 Why not reuse them? Pinecones can be found everywhere in the forests 🌳 Bring the pinecones indoors into the warmth and they will open up.

Wreath with cylinder vase

On the small table I created a wreath. The wreath features grey-green tones and combines conifer branches with leafy plants. Mixing leaves and evergreens creates an exciting and soft expression that I absolutely love. Making a wreath for the first time may feel challenging, but if you prepare the greenery in advance and work methodically, you’ll discover that it’s not that difficult. I start by fastening floral wire to the straw wreath. If you don’t have floral wire, a thinner steel wire works just as well. The easiest way is to bind from the outside and down through the wreath. This way, the weight of the wreath locks the wire in place when you let go to cut or pick up greenery. I gather the greenery into small bouquets, which I then attach one by one onto the wreath. I used cypress, pine, ivy, blackthorn, silver garland plant, lamb’s ear and chickweed. Make sure to cover the sides as well. The underside of the wreath doesn’t need attention since it rests against the table. Once I have worked my way all around the wreath, I fasten the floral wire securely so it doesn’t unravel again.

A wreath wrapped around a straw base is very forgiving, as you can easily fix any mistakes afterwards. If there are bare sections or if you want to add pinecones as decoration, this can be done using wired decorations (pinecones or small bouquets of greenery) that are inserted into the straw wreath. If you don’t want to use wire, you can glue the decorations in place with a glue gun.

I placed the wreath directly on the table. Inside it, I placed a glass cylinder vase filled with Christmas lighting ✨🎄✨

Wonderful, isn’t it? ❤️ The grey-green tones add a wintery touch to the decoration, while the illuminated cylinder brings a modern angle to it. Now all that’s left is to wait for the first snow! ❄️❄️❄️

Large Christmas decoration

For Christmas, I chose a lighter decoration for the large table and a slightly more advanced one for the small square table.

Again, I’m using the old wooden baking tray that I’ve used before. I love its soft appearance and size ❤️, The only downside is that it doesn’t have drainage holes at the bottom and therefore doesn’t let rainwater pass through. This is something to keep in mind when choosing trays, pots and vases for outdoor decorations.

In this decoration, I used two different Christmas lights – Glimmer and Pine. Glimmer creates a background glow while also giving me support to stick the stems into. This means I don’t need to invest in floral foam. The light string is simply placed loosely and randomly at the bottom of the tray. Into this “bird’s nest” of cables, I insert the branches. I mixed cypress, ivy, eucalyptus, larch branches, blackthorn, pinecones and apples. If you don’t have an apple tree 🍎🌳 at home, look around during your walks 🚶🏿‍♀️. Wild apples or apples from untended apple trees are often smaller in size, which works beautifully in decorations.

This decoration is incredibly easy to make! I simply inserted branches until the entire tray was filled. Finally, I placed apples and pinecones throughout the arrangement. As the finishing touch, I added a beautiful lichen-covered blackthorn branch filled with berries 🫐

Beautiful both during the day, when all the details are visible, and in the evening when the lights enhance the entire arrangement! ✨ ✨

Above the table, I hung small pinecone decorations. They are wonderfully cute but work best in a sheltered area where they won’t tangle together in the wind. The pinecone decoration is easy to make. I begin by wiring a pinecone. I attach wire to pinecones by wrapping a piece (approx. 20 cm) of thicker steel wire (I use elephant wire) around the base of the cone, twisting the wire ends together and letting them stick out. I chose large cones from white pine, but you can use any larger pinecone. The pair of wires now sticking out from the cone are used to attach branches of cypress, bouquets of lamb’s ear, chickweed and silver garland plant 🌿🌿 Once finished, I leave the binding wire (spool wire) attached at approximately 1 metre in length. This becomes the hanging wire. Finally, I wrap jute string around the stems at the top of the decoration to hide them. Done! 🌟