Christmas Garland Decorating Ideas

A parade of felt flowers is a sweet alternative to the usual ribbon and pinecones adorning evergreen boughs. To make the flowers, cut six 2-inch and six 1-1/2-inch felt circles. Layer a small and large circle, with one edge touching. Pinch a set of circles together at the bottom; run a threaded needle through the four layers. Repeat for remaining five petals; knot ends. String finished flowers through centers with a needle and thread to form garland.

Editor's Tip: If you don't have enough felt flowers to line your banister, use them to decorate small spaces, such as bookshelves, windows, and mirrors.

Go easy on the garland and use just a few simple purchased swags in most-seen places, such as this wide kitchen window. Hang colorful, dangly ornaments in each window pane for additional holiday cheer.

Fashion a swag with flower power by stringing button-capped flowers and old-time yarn pom-poms together. Hang the swag from a shelf or window to highlight its puffed-up blooms.

For a dose of fragrance and color, bring the outdoors to your front door with a garland made of boughs, berries, and ribbons. Purchase a long evergreen garland to serve as the base, then use floral pins and hot glue to secure pinecones, berries, apples, magnolia leaves, and festive holiday ribbon.

You'll forget you're entering the kitchen when you walk through this wintry evergreen arch. The evergreen garland hung around the doorway is decorative and useful -- it holds Christmas cards.

Editor's Tip: Secure the Christmas cards to the garland by tucking them neatly into the boughs or hanging them on the branches with small pieces of twine.

Garlands go beyond fir. Add modern flair to your stair railing with a snowflake garland handcrafted from wooden craft sticks. Use two or three pieces of double-sided mounting tape per snowflake to hold the lacy patterns flat against the railings.

Add texture to your banister with a purchased garland made from unadorned boxwood roping. Simple yellow ribbon ties add a pop of color.

Editor's Tip: For similar simple accents, gather garland with pretty handkerchiefs, napkins, or doilies.

An evergreen garland provides a natural valance for this kitchen window. Add color by mounting red straw stars to the window panes.

An unadorned garland of bay leaves draped across a mantel adds a fragrant, unexpected decorative touch that could be used all year long if desired.

Decorate your mantel or stairway railing with a colorful citrus garland for the holidays. Not just for wreaths, these beautiful green leaves and aromatic citrus fruits create a tantalizing combination.

These gingerbread friends hold hands to create a delicious holiday decoration for your mantel. Make the garland with actual gingerbread cookies or with oven-bake clay for a longer lasting decoration.

Cut out scenes from holiday cards and attach them to a sturdy ribbon hung over a chair back or doorway. Use wide, clear box-sealing tape to adhere the cutouts to the ribbon, or staple or glue them in place.

An elegant green-and-white garland frames a fireplace filled with multiple red poinsettias. Arrange a purchased evergreen garland along the mantel and adorn with pinecones, berries, and wide ribbon tied into bows at either end for a traditional holiday look.

Seven clusters of boxwood and magnolia leaves hang from a ribbon for an easy and unexpected mantel decoration. To make, cut the boxwood and magnolia branches to the desired length (about 8 inches for most swags). Gather the greens into small bunches and wrap the stems together with florist's tape. Cut 3-inch-wide ribbon double the length of the mantel. Tie knots in the ribbon at equidistant points. Before tightening the knots, slip the stems of the greens into them. For the ends, use slightly larger bundles of greens and multiple knots.

Put a button collection and mismatched mittens to use for this homespun holiday garland. Thread buttons and mittens onto wire and tuck a holly sprig inside each mitten, securing with a dab of hot glue.

Dress a window with a basic pine garland for instant holiday cheer -- simple yet stunning. If you want a little extra decoration, hang a small wreath topped with a bright red bow inside the window.

Natural greens accented with oversize dark pink bows set the seasonal theme for this entryway.

Add holiday cheer with this slim, simple garland.

Recycle old Christmas cards and dress up a handsome evergreen garland at the same time. Trace Christmas shapes (we used a reindeer) onto old cards and cut them out. Thread red string through holes punched in the tops to hang the shapes from the evergreen swag.

Editor's Tip: If you don't have many old Christmas cards, supplement with scraps of holiday scrapbooking paper.

For a twist on the traditional garland-dressed banister, try this accent. Wire double swags of green tinsel garland at intervals along the banister rail, and tie ornaments dangling from silver ribbon. To add clusters of greenery and holly, tightly wrap wire around the railing for each cluster and tuck cuttings securely beneath the wire.

Graceful bows with long tails dramatically enhance a simple evergreen garland. Cut extra-long strips of material, tie into bows, and attach to the stair railing about 3 feet apart.

Create a simply stunning garland with ribbon and ornaments. Start with a piece of ribbon cut to the desired garland length. Cut shorter pieces of ribbon to thread through ornament hooks and wrap around the long ribbon, securing with a knot. Tie a cluster of ornaments topped with a wide, complementary-color ribbon to each end of the garland.

Hang a simple green garland around a doorway to create a frame around the Christmas scene ahead. To attach the garland to the molding, wrap florist's wire around the garland and tie to small nails spaced every foot or two.

Bring the forest inside with a pinecone garland. Cut a length of wire and twist around the stem of a pinecone; repeat until the garland is the desired length. Display with plenty of evergreens to capture the holiday woodland look.

For an alternative to greenery garlands, swag ribbon along your banister and accent with small wreaths. Simply wrap a length of wire around each wreath and twist the ends together around the rail.

No fireplace to hang stockings? No problem. Simply hang your family's stockings from the stair railing. Here, red stockings are paired with a garland of greenery for a classic Christmas look.

Sprigs of holly are so varied in color and shape that they add enough holiday embellishment to your decor simply lined up across the mantel.

Instead of one large garland, consider hanging three or four smaller garlands together. Here, two slim lengths of tinsel are swagged at different depths for visibility, then paired with a string of beads (and pom-poms) and a white feather wreath.

Green garland accented with red bows turns a simple pot rack into a festive focal point for the kitchen.