Stringing Up a Homemade Christmas
Part II: Cranberry and Popcorn Garland
My favorite homemade decoration this year was cranberry garland. The rich, deep, garnet red of the cranberries was stunning, and I loved their natural color variation. A bead garland from the store would likely have beads uniform in color and size, but nature, of course, is always brilliantly wild. Some of the cranberries in my natural garland were deep and dark, while others were closer to a bright scarlet. Some faded from dark to light. Others were dappled. A natural cranberry garland will not last forever, of course. If it is not sprayed with a shellac coating, it will last seven to ten days. Because we want to give the birds hardy enough to stick around during our Wisconsin winters a tasty treat, we will be keeping the garland natural. When the cranberry garland is at an end, we will put it in our backyard in hopes of attracting a cardinal or two. In addition to the cranberry garland, I also made a popcorn garland for our tree. The instructions are below. And, if you missed Part I about orange and apple decorations, I hope you’ll check that out as well.
— April
What You Need
•Clear fishing line
•Large needle with eye big enough for the fishing line to fit through
•Two 12-ounce bags of fresh cranberries
•Large bowl of plain popcorn
What You Do
Simply thread your needle with the fishing line and thread it through a fresh cranberry lengthwise. If you encounter any cranberries that aren’t firm, discard them. If you prefer, you can measure your line first and tie off one end, or you can simply start threading cranberries until you reach your desired length, and then tie off both ends at once. I made two garlands, with loops on the ends to help me hang them on the tree.
One twelve-ounce bag of cranberries made a thirteen-foot garland. For our narrow, seven-foot tree, two bags of cranberries making two, thirteen-foot garlands) were perfect. A smaller tree may need fewer cranberries and a larger tree, more. Of course, how the garland is draped will also affect how long your garland needs to be. When you are making your own garland, you can easily make it the perfect length for you.
The popcorn garlands were a little more challenging (and messy), but nothing a quick run of the vacuum cleaner couldn’t fix. Because popcorn can split in two more easily than cranberries, you may want to use a sharper, narrower needle. Of course, the eye of the needle still needs to be large enough for the fishing line to fit through. Simply thread the popcorn until the garland reaches your desired length. If you need to make more popcorn, do so. I find that when it comes to hanging garland on a tree, sometimes two shorter garlands are easier to handle than one long garland. They don’t get tangled up quite so much, and they are easier to straighten out if they do get a little twisted.
Some people put popcorn and cranberries on the same garland to create a kind of pattern with them, but, I loved the look of solid color garlands on the tree — one all cranberry and one all popcorn. You can decide what you like best.
