Advent Wreath

So far I've avoided putting up outside Christmas lights, but we did manage to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season by making an Advent Wreath. In the past, we'd buy one of those gigantic Christmas wreath and add four candles, but then it ended up taking up most of the table and not really looking right.

With Simone mobile and climbing, it's not feasible to keep a wreath permanently on the table. So I went back to my roots and decided to make one, just like I used to with my mom (well, without stealing branches from the forest).

It ended up being pretty easy and inexpensive. At Michael's I got an 8" wreath form, some green floral wire, a bag of assorted cones and four candles. At a Papa Noel stand we scored free pine branches from their pile of trimming.

Then it was a matter of cutting 12-18" twigs, placing them on the form and wrapping the wire around them. I was going to glue the pine cones on, but we don't have a hot-glue gun, so I ended up drilling a hole in them and Magda attached them with a wire. Ditto for the red sparkly berries that came with the cones. Then I trimmed the overly-long candles and used pieces from a wire coat-hanger to impale them onto the wreath. We put some of the leftover pine twigs around the house and now it actually feels kind of Christmassy - especially now that it's cold outside.

Dinner time now involves putting the wreath on the table and lighting the first candle. We also wrap up dinner by singing a couple of Christmas carols before blowing out the candle. By Christmas I expect Magda to be singing several of them from memory (and Simone humming along).