Have you bought a real tree this year? Unless you are lucky enough to have one of those gorgeous wispy Scandinavian Christmas trees that you see in magazines and which tend to come with a high price tag, you probably have a standard Norman spruce with its significant circumference. Each year I buy my tree from IKEA as it’s five minutes down the road and any size of tree is £29 with a £20 voucher to spend in store in the new year. I tend to buy the fattest tree I can find and then prune it to a more slender shape. This means that I am left with tonnes of foliage in the form of fir branches to decorate the house with. They are, admittedly, not as pretty as the wispy pine branches, but little pops of greenery dotted around the house in the depths of winter is nothing if not joyful, and even more satisfyingly it’s incredibly thrifty and doesn’t cost a penny.

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I’ve had excess pine fronds several years, since we moved to our current home, and I started gravitating towards trees that needed a prune. Each year I challenge myself to use as much of the pine off cuts around the house as I can, they can end up in slightly surreal settings, atop my child’s vintage Lisbon tram arranged as a tree passenger for example. I love a stair Garland, but concede this slightly stiffer waxy pine isn’t the ideal material for the job. So, over the years I have made wreaths, cards, in vases decorated with small baubles dotted in different rooms, as flourishes on gift wrap, hung from mirrors, and this year on pine cone baubles. You name it, I think I’ve done it with pine! So today I thought I’d do a little piece illustrating how effective pine off cuts can be around the home during the holiday season. Some are ideas I’ve covered before, others new for this year, I hope you find something you may want to try yourself. 

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Minimalist wreaths

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I am very partial to a wreath, it’s a calm activity and very simple to do, and it really adds a festive flourish to the home. Here I have used what I had to hand which included pine, an olive branch, some dried baby’s breath from an old bouquet and faux cotton flowers on old embroidery hoops. I have written five blog posts on various wreaths for different seasons (you can see I’m a fully paid up member of the wreath lovers club!), you need very little equipment just a hoop, some floristry wire and foliage, have a look back at my first Christmas wreath tutorial here for full instructions. 

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Simple Homemade Christmas Cards

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I really love making Christmas cards and have been making them sporadically for many years. When I have the time this is a really nice activity to sit and do. A few years back I made some lovely minimalist Scandinavian style cards leaf printing with fern leaves which turned out very well, you can find the card making tutorial here. This year I have simply flicked ink onto the blank cards to create a splatter pattern and then stuck a pine frond on top.

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Wrapping ideas

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This is the gift wrap that I made last year, I don’t often make my own wrap but with a lack of inspiration on the high street and in a bid to be more sustainable (the majority of commercial wrapping paper is non recyclable) I decided to have a go and I was super pleased with the outcome. Some velvet ribbon and small pine decorations, including miniature wreath rings, really made this wrap feel special. See my homemade sustainable Christmas wrapping guide here.

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Pinecone Decorations

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This is a sneak peak of a craft tutorial I will be posting on Saturday. My son and I have been collecting pine cones for a little while with no real purpose in mind so with an adundance of both pine cones and branches I challenged myself to make a few decorations that didn’t look naff. Making them was a little fiddlier than I anticipated, but having rummaged in the cupboards and found some lovely old ribbon I’m so pleased with these little diy decorations which are currently hanging in the bedroom.

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Christmas Vase Flourish with Baubles

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If I could afford to fill vases with flowers and foliage in every room all year round I would! One of my favourite things about December is having a free abundance of pine branches to create very simple sprays in vases in every room. I adorn sprays with a mix of decorations for spaces that are more sparse. This is such an easy and effective way to bring some holiday cheer to every room without overwhelming it.

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A Candle Wreath

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I love the comfort of candles in winter as an alleviator to gloom during those very short and  dark days, and fashioning a small wreath on a circle of wire to sit beneath the candlesticks at dinner is a really simple craft that adds the perfect touch of occasion to regular weekday dinners in our house. Find my Candle Table garland  Making tutorial here. 

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Centrepiece Branches

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My pastel-hued homage to a classic Scandinavian look, thanks to their incredible winter forests our Scandi cousins have made this very chic way to bring the outdoors in during the Christmas period. Hanging branches within the home is really striking, it can cheer up a bare wall and bring a holiday focal point to the room. 

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Festive Fireplaces

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I don’t have the patience for really fancy hanging garlands, absolutely gorgeous as they are, I find them too fiddly and time consuming, a lazy girls attempt is much more up my street. So each year I make a minimal effort with pine on the fireplace, sometimes it will just be a spray on the mantle, perhaps with some pussy willow, other years I have found myself making a swag for the hearth (as you see in the top image). It’s a nice way of mirroring the tree and making the interior more cohesive, should you so desire. 

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Pine Sprays on Mirrors

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Who says bathrooms should be a Christmas free zone?! Not in this house! After I’ve finished with small decorative touches, any left over branches are attached to mirrors as decorative sprays. Well, you can’t say I don’t make the most of every inch of my tree! Id love to hear your ideas on using foraged pine around the home in December.