Holiday wreaths come in many different shapes, sizes, colors and materials. They have become a popular accent for luxury home owners, as the opportunities to personalize based on the custom home’s unique style are endless. Wreaths are commonly found indoors as well as outdoors, adorning hearths, walls and windows; and as with gingerbread houses, some are actually edible. Nearly every home décor retailer and garden center offers a variety of choices for creative wreaths, but cost-saving measures or family traditions may provide just the inspiration for creating your own wreaths.
The Tradition of Wreaths
Long before fancy holiday lights and decorations were used to create ambiance to accent luxury custom homes, wreaths and their creation carried symbolic importance to many ancient civilizations. In Rome, wreaths were created as a sign of victory and celebration. The Christmas wreath symbolizes strength, as life prevails over the forces of winter weather, and the use of evergreens and wreaths as symbols of life was among many ancient civilizations, including Hebrews, Egyptians and Chinese. Dating back to the early 19th century among European countries, evergreen Christmas wreaths came to symbolize Christian immortality along with the traditional red and green colors, as the circular shape represents God. Green represents the continuation of life through the winter, while red symbolizes the blood of Christ shed at his crucifixion.
Indoor Wreaths
The best rule is there is no rule when it comes to enhancing your holiday decorating with wreaths, as it can be traditional or whimsical to suit the room and decorating theme. Incorporating pieces of nature (such as the traditional evergreen boughs, pinecones, berries and dried herbs) with symbols of the holidays such as bells and bows is a simple way to start, and it looks terrific on fireplaces and hanging in windows. Many clever designs feature cookies, candies, tiny wrapped presents and ornaments as adornments, while some DIYers have used all recycled products such as used wrapping paper, wine corks and scraps of used ribbons. The wonderful thing about creating indoor wreaths is not worrying about the harsh outdoor elements ruining the design. Wreaths can be made room specific, such as candy wreaths on kids’ doors, dried herbs, wine corks or cookie cutters in the kitchen, and silver bells picking up candlelight in the dining room. The following link shows some great ideas: https://www.pinterest.com/colbyconstruct/indoor-wreaths-for-holidays/
Outdoor Wreaths
Typically, fresh evergreen wreaths of all sizes are used to adorn the exterior doors, even garage doors, enhanced by decorative bows. Early Europeans used to create wreaths to identify their homes year round, instead of house numbers, uniquely adorned with flowers and fruits grown on their own land. Today, celebrants of the holidays are equally creative in wreath designs for their custom homes, with many forgoing traditional designs to create a unique identity for their home. Wreaths of lights, tulle ribbons, gilded ornaments, twigs, stars, berries and dried flowers are among the many creations found in the following link:
https://www.pinterest.com/colbyconstruct/wreaths/
Whether you are inspired to create your own wreaths this holiday season or to seek out many of the options available through vendors, incorporating this traditional symbol of strength and life into your holiday décor is a great way to celebrate the season.