You may think DIY Christmas wreaths are boring and outdated but that’s simply not true. Wreaths are an important symbol of Christmas, they make our front doors look festive, our homes look welcoming and they bring cheer to anyone who sees them.

Also, the are plenty of Christmas wreath ideas that aren’t boring but look in fact very interesting and have creative and original designs.

So are you ready to reinvent the Christmas wreath this year? How about checking out some cool ideas first.

How long does a live Christmas wreath last?

Live Christmas wreaths and garlands are certainly wonderful and have a charm of their own. They give off that authentic fresh scent that we all love and they look beautiful. However, they’re not so great to look at when they start to dry out and to make a mess.

So how long can you keep a live Christmas wreath indoors before it starts to go bad? They can actually last for two to three weeks but that all depends on how you care for them. There’s a few different ways in which you can prologue the life of a fresh wreath.

Store the wreath in a cool place until the very last moment. This can be the garage, basement or refrigerator. You can buy or make the wreath in advance and keep it here until you’re ready to display it. That way it doesn’t already look half dead before you even use it.Keep the wreath in water the night before you use it. That allows the cut stems to absorb as much water as they can and to stay fresh for as long as possible.After you remove the wreath from the water, use an anti-desiccant spray to seal in all the moisture. Once again, this keeps the wreath looking fresh for longer.Avoid keeping the wreath in direct sunlight or close to a fireplace or a heater. The warm and dry air is damaging for the greenery.Regularly sprinkle water onto the wreath to give the stems a bit of moisture and to hydrate them. You can do this every couple of days as part of your maintenance routine.If you’re making the wreath yourself, cut the stems at a 45 degree angle with pruners. This is also valid for any type of greenery.

What’s the best greenery for Christmas wreaths?

The first to think about after deciding to make your own Christmas wreath from scratch is the type of greenery that you want to put in it. So what tree is used for Christmas wreaths? Well, a few different ones but it’s not just trees you should be looking for.

Cedar – its branches have a nice fragrance and the branches look beautiful when you drape them in garlands or use them on wreaths. They keep their shape well and have well-defined edges.Noble fir – it has beautiful full branches and it’s very versatile. You can use it in lots of different projects like Christmas wreaths, table centerpieces or garlands.Pine – its branches are thin and this gives you more control when making wreaths, making it easy to add details.Boxwood – a favorite for wreaths of all kinds and all sorts of other decorations. The leaves have a beautiful forest green color that contrasts nicely with red and other accent colors.Eucalyptus – a great choice not just for Christmas wreaths but all year round decorations. Boxwood is more versatile and more modern-looking compared to the traditional Christmas tree branches.Juniper – a bit more difficult to work with because of the prickly foliage but a very beautiful type of greenery nonetheless. It’s also fragrant and you get those cute little berries with it too.Olive – it’s not the type of greenery that first comes to mind when we think of Christmas wreaths but you can definitely use olive branches to make some amazing-looking decorations. They’re not as resilient as other evergreens so keep this in mind.

How to make a Christmas wreath – DIY Ideas

A square DIY Christmas wreath idea made of twigs

Forget about round wreaths and try something a bit more unconventional this Christmas, like a square wreath made of spray-painted twigs tied together with cord in the corners. Hang a few ornaments, as well as the wreath, doesn’t look like a clumsy picture frame. Find out more about this on DIYs.

Cute DIY wreath used as the letter O

The JOY wreaths are already pretty popular so the idea may not be that original after all but it’s still interesting enough to stand out. We love the contrast between the white letters and the simple grapevine wreath. If you’d like to find out about this wreath, head over to DIYs.

Related: How To Make A White Christmas Tree The Centerpiece Of Your Holiday Decor

Stylish candle wreath built around a brass ring

Simple and delicate Christmas wreaths are pretty trendy right now too. A particularly stylish idea is to make a eucalyptus candle wreath. You can use a brass ring, a clip-on candle holder and some fresh eucalyptus branches which you can tie to the ring using floral wire.

DIY Christmas wreath using embroidery hoops

An embroidery hoop Christmas wreath can look lovely and original as well. You can use some leftover fabric with a pattern or a color that you really like and then decorate the wreath with a cute ribbon and maybe a few seasonal embellishments as well. Check out momenvy for more details on how to make this.

Embroidery hoop wreath with a light design

You can also make an embroidery hoop wreath without using fabric. Just decorate the hoop with a cute ribbon and some greenery and hang it with a piece of cord. It’s simple, lightweight, chic and modern. Find more similar ideas on craftsbyamanda.

How to make a Christmas wreath from leftover ornaments

Sooner or later we all end up with a bunch of extra Christmas ornaments which we longer use or need. You can use yours in a creative way and make a colorful ornament wreath like the one featured on thecraftedlife. It’s a simple craft with plenty of customization options.

Asymmetrical wreath featuring a custom candle holder

A wire wreath can be customized in all sorts of ingenious ways as well. For instance, attach a funky clip-on candle holder and that can be the centerpiece of your Christmas wreath design. You can make a custom candle holder yourself by gluing toy animals and spray-painting the whole thing. find out more details on dekotopia.

Matching Christmas decorations using greenery

Natural wreaths decorated with greenery are probably the most common ones but that doesn’t mean you can’t make yours look special. You just have to make it suit your style. If you want something simple, chic and modern check out craftberrybush for a few inspiring ideas, including the design you see here.

A great farmhouse Christmas décor addition

Asymmetrical wreaths are pretty fun and interesting so maybe this can be your strategy. You could decorate half with greenery and half with monogrammed wood slices. The frame can be a simple embroidery hoop. Check out this Noel wreath featured on lydioutloud and follow the instructions to make something just as lovely.

Beautiful use of burlap on a Christmas wreath

Foam wreath forms have a lot of potential too. If you want to you can even make your own out of a pool noddle. Decorate it with ribbon, fabric and various festive ornaments such as Christmas tree clippings, berries, bows, etc. If you like this particular design you can find out all about it on thecraftingnook.

Colorful wreath design with a cute theme

If you’re in the mood for a retro-looking Christmas wreath perhaps you’d like a cute winter wonderland theme. you could decorate your wreath with pom-poms, bottlebrush trees and other tiny ornaments and a mini garland. Right now we’re actually describing this adorable wreath that we found on flamingotoes. Check it out and let it inspire you.

Farmhouse Christmas décor using cookie cutters

A creative mind finds ways to repurpose pretty much anything. For instance, we found this wreath made out of cookie cutters. Isn’t it original? If you want to make your own wreath, you’ll need a bunch of star-shaped cookie cutters in various sizes, a hot glue gun and some ribbon. If you need more details, check out inspiredbycharm for a full tutorial.

Pinecones and greenery are Christmas wreath favorites

Wreaths decorated with fresh cut greens are particularly charming because they capture the scent of Christmas. They’re also fairly easy to make. You can start with a metal frame which you can wrap in moss (secure the moss with floral wire) and after that you can attach the branches on one half of the wreath and then on the other. Add a few pinecone ornaments at the top and you’re done. More details can be found on cleanandscentsible.

Stylish wreath made of painted magnolia leaves

You’re not necessarily limited to using pine tree branches or other conifer greens when making your Christmas wreath. You can use all sorts of branches and leaves. For example, this magnolia wreath from apieceofrainbow is plenty beautiful. Those metallic painted leaves give it a particularly eye-catching look.

Christmas wreath idea featuring simple materials

Let your wreath tell a story and this way you’ll be able to customize it in a way that suits your style. For example, have a look at this design from thehappyhousie. It’s simple and yet it’s full of character. This wreath was made using only a few supplies including a foam form, plaid fabric, white yarn, wood slices and bottle brush trees.

Oversized wreath as mantel or wall display

Another way to make your Christmas wreath stand out is if you make it unusually large. The idea comes from homemadeginger. That’s where we first say this giant and at the same time very pretty wreath which uses a hula hoop as a frame.

Classic Christmas wreath using seasonal resources

Pinecones are a great seasonal resource which you can use when crafting a custom Christmas wreath. You can start with a metal frame and glue pinecones in three layers. Then you can fill the gaps with greens, berries and maybe even wrap some battery-operated fairy lights around the wreath as well. Find more details and ideas like this on remodelaholic.

Paper mache wreath with a Rudolph theme

If you can somehow find a paper mache reindeer somewhere that can be the centerpiece of your DIY Christmas wreath. You could use it to make a Rudolph wreath such as the one featured on sheskindacrafty. Feel free to customize yours in any way you want.

Red berries for a splash of color

Some Christmas wreaths are so simple anyone could successfully complete the task of decorating and customizing them, especially when the supplies needed are so accessible and simple. This berry wreath from myblessedlife is a perfect example.

A whole wreath made of miniature Christmas gift boxes

Do you know those foil gift box-shaped Christmas ornaments? They’re pretty cute and they’re not just for trees. You can use a bunch of them to make a gift box wreath such as the one featured on consumercrafts. Use different colors and sizes and glue the boxes to a wire wreath form.

Traditional green wreath with red accents

We should also consider the possibility that a traditional DIY Christmas wreath can look cool and interesting as well. In fact, the design can actually be refreshing seeing how everyone these days is trying to stay away from anything old-school. That being said, we recommend checking out fynesdesigns for some awesome, classic Christmas wreath ideas.

A front door Christmas wreath with functional jingle bells

If you’re planning to hang a Christmas wreath on your front door, here’s a fun idea from drivenbydecor: hang some bells as well. Your guests can ring them and it can be a playful and fun little detail that everyone will enjoy.

DIY Christmas wreath idea using unconventional ornaments

You can think of all sorts of seasonal things to use as ornaments for your wreath, not just pinecones, berries and bells. How about these boots from homestoriesatoz. They definitely give the wreath a distinctively original look.

Basic DIY Christmas wreath customized with seasonal ornaments

The simplest thing you can do is to buy a basic Christmas wreath made of seasonal green branches and to customize it with a few hand-picked ornaments. you could use stuff from your own backyard or you could improvise something using leftover supplies from other projects. In any case, it shouldn’t be difficult to make something pretty. if you need inspiration you can have a look at the ideas from placefofmytaste.

Cheerful wreath shaped like a star

Let’s end this article on a cheerful note with another JOY wreath, this time from sixsistersstuff. It’s quite special and unusual because it’s shaped like a star. If you want to make a Christmas wreath just like it you’ll need the following: five 15”long wood pieces, wood stain (you can also use spray paint if you prefer a certain color), 10 small nails, letters (you can spray paint these as well), ribbon and a few small embellishments.

Super cheap Christmas wreath idea using simple materials

All you need to make this wreath is some paper, a paper plate, a glue stick and a ribbon. Cut out the middle of the paper plate with scissors to make a frame that will be your wreath form. Then cut out pieces of colored paper to make decorations that you can then glue onto like wreath like candles and greenery and finally add the ribbon at the top. It’s very simple but if you need more details head over to diys for a complete tutorial.

An original Christmas wreath with a coastal design

You can also make a nice-looking and original wreath this Christmas using old things like a scarf that you’re no longer wearing. You can use it to decorate a basic straw wreath and give it a fuzzy and colorful makeover. This teal-colored scarf for instance was paired with some assorted seashells to give this wreath a coastal design. Check it out on sustainmycrafthabit.

Faux succulents used as wreath ornaments

Faux succulents are cute and lovely and they can be used in a lot of beautiful ways as decorations or to make various DIY projects, like this wreath featured on craftsbycourtney for instance. Here you can see a bunch of faux succulents glued onto a wood wreath and spray painted so they have this metallic finish that goes well with their colors. Red and green succulents were alternated.

A great use for leftover yarn

If you happen to have some leftover yarn from previous projects it could a fun idea to use it to make a custom wreath similar to the one on shrimpsaladcircus. This one is made with 6 different types of yarn in different colors and textures and looks really nice. The yarn was wrapped around a foam wreath form in sections and then pom-poms also made of yarn were added as decorations.

Big green wreath decorated with mini gift boxes

This gift box wreath is perhaps the easiest one to make because it doesn’t require you to make everything from scratch. Just take a plain green wreath and decorate with a few little gift boxes. These can be jewelry boxes with some ribbons tied around them so they look like little gifts. You can tie them with string onto the wreath if you poke a couple of holes into the bottom of each box. Check out letsmingleblog for more details.

Better in pairs – a double wreath front door design

What if you were to hang more than one wreath on a door? That could look interesting but to also make it looks like a well-planned decoration and not just random wreaths, you could make something like this. But regardless of how you display them, these wreaths look really cute, with all the yarn pom-poms and the tiny metal bells that they have as decorations. You can find out more about them on danslelakehouse.

DIY Christmas wreath ideas using acorn caps

Di you know you can make fake acorns out of felt balls? They look adorable and you can combine a few together to make a mini Christmas wreath. Hang a few of these around instead of a typical regular-sized wreath and everyone will notice them. To make this mini wreath you need acorn caps, colored felt balls, glue, a jar lid and ribbon. It’s all explained on pillarboxblue.

Not your typical circular wreath

Another idea if you’re not a fan of classic DIY Christmas wreaths is to use materials similar to what you’d normally make a wreath out of and to craft something original with them, something that’s not shaped like a wreath but can be used as a decoration in a similar way. The idea comes from jojotastic and here the supplies used include a maple tree branch, dried flowers, floral wire and zip ties.

A layered Christmas wreath design using a variety of materials

You can also make a simple and rustic Christmas wreath that also has a modern vibe to it using embroidery hoops and a hula hoop instead of the usual wreath form. This one from diyncrafts is decorated with things like greenery, branches and some common Christmas ornaments which should be easy to find.