How to Upgrade Cheap Faux Christmas Garland in No Time

Try these very easy tips to upgrade inexpensive faux Christmas garland into amazing garland that looks real and expensive!

I know what you are thinking….umm its only August, why in the world are you posting about Christmas?  Well, for a few very good reasons!  I wanted to get this post out a little early in hopes that it would have time to circulate and get in from of those people that may be interested in doing a project like this with their Christmas garland.  

So, make sure you save this for later when you get done with this post!

Christmas is a very expensive time of year, which means that sometimes it leaves little left in your bank account for decorating your home and adding frivolous Christmas decor.   

The problem however is that I love to decorate my home for Christmas, and I know that you do too.  

That means that sometimes you have to get creative when you are want to decorate you home and make things look expensive and have a bit more style.  

One thing that you can do is take inexpensive Christmas garland and transform it with some real greenery.

Have you ever tried to buy the high end Christmas garland?  It is soooo expensive.  I have a hard time spending that kind of money on something I only use one time a year.  That is why I buy the cheap stuff.

You can often find inexpensive faux garland at stores like Walmart or Target.  The only problem with some of these Christmas garlands is that they can look inexpensive.  That is no good in my book.

That is why I upgrade my faux Christmas garland:

Now, I want to tell you how I upgrade mine, and this will hopefully give you some ideas on what you can do for yours.

Why not watch my video here and see how I did it, and then I’ll write a few notes at the end.

 

If you watched this video you will see how I upgraded my Christmas garland, but if you decided you didn’t want to watch it, make sure to check out these easy step by steps tips:

To upgrade your Christmas garland you will need:

• light gauge floral wire
• wire cutters
• real greenery…(I used eucalyptus and olive tree branches…you can find these at Trader Joes, but you can also use any greenery you can find.  Maybe you have some in your own backyard that you can use or you can find a sister like I have that had some in her yard.)  You can also use faux greenery if you can find it on sale at places like Joann’s.

 

Okay so let get down and talk about how to add the greenery to the Christmas garland:

What you want to do first is cut some pieces of  wire that you can use to create bunches of real foliage.  I would cut at least 20 pieces for one 9 foot piece of garland.  Cut them about 8 inches long.  You can do however many you want though.  There is no real rule.

Now its time to break out your real greenery into smaller bunches.  I like to add a bit of eucalyptus, some boxwood, and whatever else I have, maybe some olive tree branches. 

Take your small bunches of greenery and twist the wire around the end of it, where all the real greenery comes together.  Twist the wire tight so that the greenery stays taut together and will not fall out over time.

You should end up with some length still on those wire pieces after they have been twisted around the greenery.  You want to take these pieces and twist them around the faux garland.  

You want to start at the end of the faux garland and lay out the real greenery before you secure it.  Make sure you hang and secure them all going the same way, so that they swag nicely when hung.

I secured mine about 6 -12 inches apart, depending on what it looked like. You can eyeball this and hang then as close or as far apart as possible.  

Continue doing this until the faux garland is all dressed up with the real greenery.

Check out this Facebook Live video where I show you step by step how to upgrade Christmas Garland:

 

This was one of my very first Facebook Lives and I was a little nervous!  Hopefully you learned something and enjoyed it!

I love this project.  Last year I did it on all of my fake Christmas garland. It just adds such a wonderful bit of texture and makes them look so much more expensive.  

How to take care of your upgraded Christmas garland once they are assembled and hung:

Now, I know you are wondering….how do you keep them live an looking good through the holiday season?  There are a few things you can do, but the one I find helps the most is to take a spray bottle and lightly spray the Christmas garland a few times a week.  This is similar to what you would do with real Christmas garland or something made with reindeer moss. 

I find that doing this makes a huge difference on how they look and feel as the weeks go on.  I find that you dont need to worry much about it.

How long will your Christmas garland last?

Many people have asked, how long does this upgraded Christmas garland last. Well, it last about 4 weeks, which is just about perfect when you are using them seasonally for Christmas.  So, if you create these at the beginning of December, they will easily last through the holidays.  You may have some pieces break or fall off, but it will be considerably less that if you used real Christmas garland.

I think that it is incredibly worth the little bit of effort and time to make your faux Christmas garland shine.

What to do with your Christmas garland when the season is over:

You may be wondering what to do with the faux garland once the holiday season is over.  You obviously will not want to store them with the real greenery on them, because they will become brittle and break apart.

What I do is grab my trusty wire cutters and simply clip the wire that connects the real greenery to the faux Christmas garland.   It makes quick work of this and you will have it done in no time.  It also prevents a big mess that can result from trying to remove the greenery by untwisting the wire manually.  This is time consuming and pointless.

Simply cutting the wires with a set of wire cutters is so easy and quick.  Trust me, just do it this way!

Now that you have this easy tutorial in your hands, what are you going to do with it?  First, off, share it with your friends of Facebook and PIN IT to Pinterest!  That way you can save it for later, and share this ideas with family and friends!  Make sure you PIN IT!

 

There are so many other great Christmas posts, here on my website, make sure to check them out!  Here are a few:

A Cozy and Simple Farmhouse Christmas Living Room

Red and White Farmhouse Christmas Tablescape

A Farmhouse Christmas Porch and Entry

My Woodland Farmhouse Christmas Porch with Home Depot