A wreath made out of ornaments has become a classic Christmas decoration. If you’ve always wanted one, you will be happy and surprised to find out just how easy and cheap it is to create your own! You can even use scratched or damaged ornaments for this project, making it a great way to give new life to old decorations that might otherwise be destined for the trash.

Project estimate:

• Wire hanger, on hand
• Round plastic ornaments, on hand or $1 and up
• Hot glue, on hand
• Pipe cleaners, on hand or $1
• Tinsel garland, on hand or $1
• Wired ribbon, on hand or $1
• Assorted Christmas decorations in different shapes, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  Free and up!

The hangers on the ornaments often break easily or the hole is too small. Do yourself a favor and go ahead and remove the top. Cut the pipe cleaners to 1 & 1/2″ and bend them in the center. Put a bit of hot glue inside the top of the ornament and immediately put the pipe cleaner in. You’ll save a lot of time and no one will see this part, anyway. (I learned this the hard way – you’re welcome!)

Take the hanger apart at the neck. DO NOT CUT IT. Fold over the hook part and fashion it into a loop.

Thread the ornaments onto the other end of the hanger.

I didn’t count how many ornaments I used because I was using several different sizes, but keep adding the round ornaments until you have 3/4 of the hanger covered.

Bend the other end of the hanger and hook it to the loop at the beginning.

Shape the hanger so that it is round. At this point you will be certain that you don’t have enough ornaments, but you’re not finished. Arrange the ornaments to where they are symmetrical all the way around.

Take the tinsel garland and wrap it around the hanger. Please don’t try to wrap it between each ornament, it won’t be noticeable when we’re done. I had enough garland to go around the wreath twice. Notice in the picture that the ornaments aren’t perfectly spaced around the wreath. We’ll fix
that, I promise.

At this point, add the assorted shaped ornaments working in the triangle method. Put a generous amount of hot glue on the back and hold the ornament down for a few seconds to make sure it takes hold.

You are going to notice that your wreath seems a little sturdier now. This is what we want, you should also put spots of glue between the round ornaments.

When you’re finished, the ribbon and put it under the wreath and tie it on top, like you tie your shoes. Position the wreath to where you want the tails of the bow to be away from your body and tie a bow, again, like you tie your shoes. By tying the bow this way, the tails will automatically be at the bottom of the bow.

The last thing I did was add an ornament, bell and piece of tinsel to the center of the ribbon. Stand back and admire your wreath. If it seems a little unsteady, spot glue that area in between the ornaments.