Beautiful Holiday Wreaths

By The editors of MidwestLiving.com
Updated September 22, 2020

You'll love our collection of wreaths perfect for decorating indoors and out. Make them from scratch or start with a purchased wreath and add personal touches with bows, candy, berries, flowers, ornaments and more.

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Orange crush

In this creation from Detroit's Made Floral, a grapevine base anchors tendrils of honey bracelet greenery, plus cuttings of persimmon, thistle, silver brunia and eucalyptus nuts.

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Study in contrasts

A simple wreath spotlights tone and texture-here, wispy cypress, leafy boxwood, dusty juniper. Assemble your own, or simply add contrasting sprigs to dress up a standard-issue pine wreath. Click or tap here for step-by-step instructions on how to make a statement evergreen wreath.

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Right round

Martha DeFlorio of Detroit's Made Floral says wreaths can look polished even if they aren't symmetrical. Just place items with the overall design in mind.

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Winter greens

Whether starting from scratch or dressing up a basic wreath, think outside the evergreen box with real or faux eucalyptus, artichokes or pomegranates. Add pheasant feathers or backyard twigs to release a wreath's wild side. Wreath designed by Heidi Joynt of Chicago's Field and Florist. Step-by-step instructions

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Spruce up nature

Give a standard evergreen wreath a sweet touch. Start with a boxwood wreath, purchased or made by inserting boxwood sprigs into a damp floral foam wreath base. Add hypericum berries and hydrangea blooms from a flower shop and candy and berries from a crafts store. Hang the wreath with the ribbon used to form a bow.

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Sweater weather

Dress up a wreath in cozy knit-no sewing required! Pin one end of a scarf to a wreath form. Wrap scarf around until the wreath is covered, then pin the other end to the form.

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Make it merry

Go from naturally neutral to bright and merry by spray-painting a purchased or homemade pinecone wreath (hot-glue and wire pinecones onto a foam ring). When dry, use floral wire to attach sticks of berries and pine, and wrap with ribbon. Embroidered fabric hangs behind ours, but a table runner works, too.

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Peppermint wreath

To make this pretty red-and-white decoration, hot-glue small candy canes to cover a 12-inch white foam wreath form. Hot-glue tiny ball ornaments on randomly. Wire on a big bow. Display inside.

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Winter colors wreath

Wrap floral foam with bands of winter colors, using your favorite materials for a creative wreath.To start, cover a 10- to 12-inch ring of floral foam with white cotton batting. Add materials you have on hand or find at crafts stores--we used snowflake ornaments, ribbon, pinecones and branches, mittens, icicle garland and silver-painted leaves and berries. 

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Woodland greens

For an airy alternative to traditional indoor wreaths, wire fern fronds onto a single-wire wreath ring. To punctuate a buffet or mantle, let Norfolk island pines go au naturel: Shake and rinse the soil from the root ball; place in a large glass vase or urn. (The wreaths will last just one day, but kept in indirect light, the pines can stay fresh for several weeks.)

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Striking simplicity

A wreath doesn't have to wear red and green to create holiday spirit; this simple green wreath is made just of bay leaves. While we purchased the wreath, it could be a DIY project. Wire bunches of bay leaves together at the stems then attach to a wire form. Magnolia or eucalyptus leaves would work, too.

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Star performer

Show off your favorite ornaments with a twist on a classic wreath shape. Bend thin-gauge wire into stars and attach boxwood sprigs to the stars with florist wire. Hang ornaments in the center (keeping with the theme, we used a gold star) and finish with a bow.

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Cookie cutter wreath

Inexpensive cookie cutters create a fun and easy-to-make door decoration.

Arrange cookie cutters inside a shape drawn on paper. Each cutter should have contact points with another. Join contact points with a paper clip or wire, and spray paint if you like. Top with a ribbon.

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Cheery holiday

To add Christmas cheer to an evergreen wreath, wire on a vintage or new Santa figurine and an assortment of colorful ornaments.

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Candy cane wreath

To make this festive wreath, start by wiring a loop of picture-hanging wire around the top of a 12-inch white foam wreath form. Hot-glue round peppermint candies to cover inside and outside edges. Hot-glue small candy canes to cover front, alternating hook ends to fill better. Hot-glue more round candies on top of canes. Use polyurethane spray to seal.

A handful of large candy canes hot-glued at the base gives you a place to wire on a red-and-white striped bow. Display indoors.

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Fade to blue

Be dramatic with nontraditional shades. To dress up an artificial evergreen wreath, you'll need sprays of seeded eucalyptus, blue and chartreuse aerosol glitter spray, blue and chartreuse spray paint and small, medium and large silver glass balls with attached wire stems (also called glass ball picks.)

Wire eucalyptus sprays to floral picks; glitter spray an equal number blue and chartreuse. Lightly spray-paint the large balls chartreuse, the small ones blue and the medium sizes either color.  Wire the larger balls at the top of the wreath, medium in the middle and small at the bottom for an ombre effect. Insert eucalyptus sprays in the same order.

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Call to attention

A plaid scarf sounds a bright note behind this wreath. To get this look, tuck stems of hypericum berries into a fresh boxwood wreath and wire a magnolia branch horizontally across the bottom of the wreath. Wire two sets of feathers, a bugle (or any other object with a loop) and pinecones onto the magnolia. Finish by tying a burlap ribbon around the bottom of the wreath.

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Ribbon wreath

Create this pretty wreath with curling ribbon. Just cut equal-length strips of ribbon, tie them tightly around an embroidery hoop and curl away!

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Rings of the season

This stunning wreath is actually two. We designed a smaller oasis wreath (floral foam attached to plastic backing) to fit inside another larger wreath.We used limes, lemon leaves, berries, cypress, thistle and bells of Ireland on the outer wreath. Apples, Key limes, pinecones and boxwood cover the inner one. Secure weighty materials using wire, wood picks and/or hot glue. In the middle, send a holiday message with stick-on letters on a wood slice. Or use the inner ring as a holiday centerpiece by laying it flat on your table with a pillar candle in the center.

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Green on green

On this slide and the 3 following ones are four ways to spruce up a plain evergreen wreath. Here: Weave sprigs of lighter green leaves and berries, such as seeded eucalyptus, into the wreath.

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Sweet as candy

With a large needle, string colorful gundrops on fishing line to create a long garland. Wind around an evergreen wreath, securing with floral wire.

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Star bright

Spray one side of whole star anise (look for this at gourmet markets) with spray adhesive, then dip into a bowl of very fine glitter. Let dry, then wire onto an evergreen wreath.

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Bow ties

Accordion-fold lengths of ¼- to 1-1/2-inch-wide ribbon, then tie tightly at the center with ribbon or floral wire. Snip along the folds with scissors, fan out and wire each to an evergreen wreath.

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Sticks and stones

Copper wire adds a bit of sparkle to an otherwise earthy wreath. Secure pinecones and stones to a fresh evergreen wreath with copper wire, making sure to wrap the wire around them securely. Loop string around the wreath and insert twigs around the edge of the greenery. Hang with a strip of muslin.

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Natural wreath

Wood slices make a pretty, natural-looking and long-lasting wreath. Glue 20 wood slices to the front of a flat wooden wreath form, putting 10 on the first layer and 10 on the second, with the top layer arranged so the slices partially overlap the ones on the bottom. Glue burlap and wire-edged ribbon onto part of the wreath and cover with pinecones, artificial berries and greenery. Attach ribbon to hang.

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Ode to snow wreath

White foam snowballs, soft feathers, crystalline snowflake ornaments and ice-blue ribbons reflect the cool beauty of a Midwest winter.

Begin with a hard white foam circle (ours was 21 inches wide). Use a white feather boa to cover the foam, attaching it with U-shape pieces of wire. Add ice-blue satin bows, and tuck in snowflake ornaments. To finish, spray hard white foam balls with artificial snow to resemble snowballs, and place them into the wreath with florist's picks. More Midwest-inspired wreaths

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Ribbon greeting

Add a special touch to an evergreen wreath with "Merry Christmas" handwritten on a burlap bow.

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Mossy beauty

Show off the natural beauty of moss on a contemporary square wreath crafted from floral foam. Add sparkle with mini-ornaments.

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Lantern glow

Hang a lantern in the center of an evergreen wreath and top with an eyecatching bow. Add a battery-powered candle inside the lantern for a soft night glow.

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Candy fun

Add your own touch to an evergreen wreath by crafting pieces of "candy" from felt or other material you have at home. Tie with red twine or ribbon.

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Natural beauty

This wreath, a smaller version of one that appeared on a cover of Midwest Living, features apples, Key limes, pinecones and boxwood. Secure weighty materials using wire, wood picks and/or hot glue. On Christmas, you can use this as a holiday centerpiece by laying it flat on your table with a pillar candle in the center!

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Layers of leaves

Leaves in shades of copper and red brighten a traditional wreath. This one uses spray-painted dried magnolia leaves, artificial red poinsettia flowers, fresh lemon leaves, sprays of artificial greens with mini pinecones and sprigs of fresh cedar, all wired or glued to a wire wreath form.

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All tied up

A classic plaid bow completes this timeless look. We started with a grapevine wreath and hot-glued sprays of artificial pine with pinecones and berries attached, sprays of artificial angel pine and sprays of artificial berries, then completed the look with a pretty looping bow.

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Nut and star wreath

An 18-inch wire star form serves as the foundation for this beautiful nut-studded wreath. Wrap wire form with 12 yards of 9-inch-wide woven ribbon and hot-glue in place. Glue mixed nuts to the form, then glue fresh, fragrant bay leaves around the perimeter behind the nuts.

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Lotus pod wreath

Dried lotus pods become creative holiday decorations on this inventive wreath. Hot-glue green sheet moss to a 9-inch foam wreath form, then glue about two dozen lotus pods to the wreath, clustering several pods in groups. Glue fresh bay leaves, fresh lemon leaves and arvorvitae sprigs in the moss around the pods.

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