I love decorating our mantle for the seasons. Like so many homes, the mantle is the focus point of our home. We live in a split level home, so you can really see the mantle from nearly any of the main rooms you are in. For the past three years, I’ve placed a large wreath on the mantle. I decorated it with lights and colors of the theme of our tree. This year I decided to do something different…
Originally, I was going to make a snow man wreath. I had seen it done on pinterest and it seemed easy enough! The idea is to get three different sized wreaths, small, medium and large, string them together and dress the wreath up like a snow man.
I’ve seen some people do a grapevine wreath for a more rustic look, other’s spray paint their wreaths white or string the wreaths with white lights.
You can then tie a scarf around the small wreath and decorate the top with a top hat or Santa hat.
There are lots of fun ideas! My mother-in-law made the one directly below for her front door and I think it turned out great!
When it came time for me to put my wreath together, I made a quick run to the dollar store and had a change of heart. I found a Santa beard, hat and stockings… I decided I would make a Santa wreath instead of a snowman! It would be less expensive, no paint necessary and the best part… I hadn’t seen one made before! I love making new things.
Here are the items I purchased for a $1:
- 2 red stockings
- 1 Santa hat
- 1 Santa beard
- 1 decorative flower (unnecessary)
- Gold tensile
- Zip ties
Items purchased from Michaels:
- 2 wreaths for $6. I got a small one and a large one, but depending on your space, you could do small, medium or medium and large.
Items I already had:
- Red felt ribbon
- Black belt
- Tissue paper
- Hot glue gun
Okay, here is what I did.
First, I zip tied the two wreaths together. The wreaths I used were made of straw. This worked nice for the face of Santa because it was a natural color. They also came in a plastic wrapping. For the body (the large wreath) I left the plastic on so that it would be smoother.
After the two wreaths were tied together, I wrapped the large wreath, Santa’s body in red felt ribbon. We left a small opening at the top, to appear like a neck, but the beard ended up covering it up anyways.
Next, I warmed up my hot glue gun and set it aside. I stuffed the stockings and hat with tissue paper to make them appear fuller. I hot glued the opening of each stocking together and then hot glued it to the bottom of the large wreath.
I placed the white Santa beard on the small wreath for Santa’s face, cut the string off of the back of the beard and hot glued it in. Next, I hot glued a small decorative holly flower onto the Santa hat to give it more pizzazz. Once that was done, I got glued the hat onto the top of the wreath. I made both the hat and the beard tilt a little as that was the look I was going for, but you could hot glue them directly on top as well.
Finally, I got an old belt out of my closet and strong the belt loop with gold tensile. I then wrapped the belt around the wreath and secured it on by fastening it. I didn’t need to hot glue this as it fit pretty tight.
The finished Santa has been on our mantle since December 1st and the hot glue is holding strong. This was a fun, simple and easy DIY project and my 18 month old daughter loves it! She may not be a fan of Santa this year, but she loves the Santa wreath.
Happy Holidays!
The Mommies 