I love Christmas. Like, LOVE it. It is undoubtably my favourite time of year and really, what’s not to love? Eating all the mince pies, drinking all the Bailey’s, dancing around to feel good festive songs, sharing gifts and spending quality time with family; December is the best month of the year for me.

During December, I like to space out my festive traditions so I have enough to excite me throughout the month. Included in those December traditions are, of course, getting the tree and adorning it with every bauble going, making mince pies (if you haven’t made my shortbread mince pies then you really should), putting up a festive window display in our lounge, creating a foliage filled fireplace and finally, covering the staircase in paper pom poms (you can see exactly how to get that look here).

But one tradition that I now start every December with is making my own wreath. I just love a front door with a beautiful foliage filled wreath on and I always think that if you’re going to have a wreath, then you should get it up early so you can make the most of it throughout the whole Christmas month!

Now, I am not the most hands-on creative person, so rather than make it at home, I make my wreath in a class. Not only is this helpful to remind you of what to do (it’s surprising how much you can forget in a year!) but it’s much more enjoyable in a room full of other festive people drinking mulled wine and listening to Christmas songs. Also everything is provided for you, rather than having to go out shopping for it all, and let’s face it, there is already enough shopping to do in December! For £40, I think it’s pretty reasonable as a nice wreath will cost you that anyway.

I go to a class with Stockport florist Carla who runs Classy Blooms. Carla is a lovely lady and a great teacher and her wreath making classes are extremely popular, selling out every year. I thought I’d show you exactly how I made this year’s Christmas wreath - perhaps it will inspire you to find your own local class or even have a go at making one at home!

START WITH A METAL WREATH FRAME

To start with, you need a round frame to make your wreath with. This is what you attach all of the moss to before you start adding foliage and forms the basis of your wreath.

Then, you need to make a loop with some garden wire and twist this around the top of your wreath, as this will be the hook to hang your wreath. Use some ribbon or string to tie to the top of the wire loop as this will make it easier to find the loop behind all the greenery and can be removed later.

Using some metal binding wire, wrap this a few times around one side of the frame so that it’s secure, as this will be used for the next step - adding your moss.

PACK THE MOSS IN

The moss is going to form the basis of your wreath so you need to make sure you get enough in (seriously, be generous!) so that it is thick enough to secure foliage to and also, this will make the shape of your wreath so you want to make sure you’re even with the moss as you work your way around the frame.

You’ll need a third to a half of a big bag of moss per wreath (depending on how fat you want it!) and you need to take a big handful, roll it and squash it down then place it into the wreath frame. Then you need to secure this by wrapping the binding wire you attached earlier around it a couple of times, looping it over and underneath the moss.

After we’d packed our moss in, we turned our wreaths over and pinned some plastic coating to the back so that it didn’t damage our doors by leaving a moss coloured mark when hanging.

ADD THE FESTIVE FOLIAGE

Next, it was time to create our wreaths with different pine and eucalyptus. To add each sprig of foliage, these must be wired at the bottom to fit securely into the moss but luckily for us, Carla had already wired up all of the foliage. However, it’s simple to do by twisting garden wire around the bottom of each sprig leaving a stem of wire at the bottom to put into the moss.

With the foliage, you want to start at the top and then work your way around the wreath adding it all in the same direction, turning the wreath as you go. The technique when adding the foliage is to poke the wire into the moss in the direction of the angle you want the foliage to fall. You then fold the foliage back so it’s sat across the moss - it’s easier than it sounds, promise!

I created mine but adding alternate types of pine then hid the moss by creating a circle of eucalyptus in the middle.

SPARKLE AND ACCESSORISE IT UP

The last bit is the most fun bit and here you can have a bit of fun and create something completely unique. Personally, I like a simple wreath with hints of gold and I added the finishing touches to mine with gold spray, gold glitter, feathers and gold thistles.

You can go to town with your wreath though if you like and some of the accessories Classy Blooms had available were berries, fake snow, pine cones, cinnamon sticks, dried orange slices, gold and silver eucalyptus, festive branches, baubles and ribbons. These can all be added using a glue gun and the ribbon can be tied into the wreath.