Swag-making Afternoon

Following yesterday's post on using evergreen boughs to decorate, here's a nice idea for a pre-Christmas rush get-together. Why not invite friends over for a swag-making event?

All that's required is some greenery and a selection of ribbons, ornaments and dried plant material. This is a great way to re-cycle old Christmas trimmings.


Keep things simple, have some evergreen boughs cut and sorted by size so that your guests can choose the ones that work for their project.

Once your guests have wired their boughs together to create a swag, the next step is to select a ribbon. With that choice made, zeroing in on what to decorate the swag with becomes easier. Especially if you've already pre-arranged and laid everything out by colour or theme, (for example: home-spun, glittery, or natural).


It's such fun to see what each person creates. Every swag is as unique as its creator.







And best of all, using one's hands to create something is so relaxing, a great respite from all that hectic craziness that surrounds us at this time of year. Stopping to ponder various choices, hesitating over different ways of placing ornaments, these all have the effect of slowing everything down, if only for awhile.

So, have some tea, coffee or hot apple cider at the ready to sip with conversation. And perhaps a yummy treat or two. At the end, everyone has a beautiful swag to take home with them, carrying with it some Christmas cheer gained from a peaceful, creative interlude.