Make Wreaths for Winter Dollars
Use cuttings from evergreen trees to make wreaths for your family, friends and to sell for holiday cash.
November/December 1975
By Gillian G. McDaniel
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Tipping materials: string,clippers, and carrying stick.
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Up here in Maine, winter sets in early and we've all had a busy time getting ready for it. Everywhere wood has been cut and stacked, hay stored, and vegetables and jams canned in anticipation of our long cold days to come. Now, along about the beginning of November, we start to spend more time indoors beside the old wood stove . . . and wouldn't it be nice if we could turn those warm hours into cash for the coming holidays? Well, we can . . . and if your area is blessed with fir trees, you can too!
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There's a huge seasonal market in this country for holiday wreaths, and it takes only a little effort to cash in on that demand. What better occupation than to sit by a warm fire and breathe the fragrance of balsam fir, while you shape the trees' boughs into beautiful ornaments which will hang in windows and doorways far and wide come December?
TREES
The first ingredient in your new occupation is access to suitable trees. Here in the Northeast, balsam fir—the ideal material—is quite common and can be recognized by its smooth, even cones and by the bluish-white line on the underside of each needle. Other parts of the country boast different species of fir: white, red, silver, grand, and Douglas. I don't know much about these, except that they're cut as Christmas trees and so most likely could be used for wreathmaking too. Your local forester or nursery should be able to give you all the facts you need about the resources of your area's woods.
TIPPIN'
Once you know that firs of one kind or another thrive in your parts, your next step is to go on a "tipping" expedition to gather boughs. This is just as much fun as "making" and gives the whole family a chance to get involved in the project, even if they're not much interested in the actual construction process.
Bough collecting calls for a good pair of garden snippers, a ball of string, and a whole batch of carrying sticks. (I use alder or maple branches, about 6 feet long and an inch in diameter, cut in a sort of "Y" shape.) Then it's off to the woods to find a good stand of trees . . . and when you've done so, you simply snip off the ends of branches—"tips"—in lengths of about 15 to 18 inches and hook them over your stick, beginning in the crook of the "Y". Keep stacking on the greenery until the holder is full (but not too heavy to carry). Then tie the string tightly from one end of the "Y" to the other, and you have a neat two-handled carrier full of fir tips. The loaded sticks are easily toted out of the woods, a pair at a time, between two people.
A couple of hints: Don't cut the tips too soon before you need them, or the needles will dry up and fall off after the wreath is made. And, more important, please don't strip the fir grove bare! Unless you're going to be clearing the land where you gather materials, be selective and kind to the trees. Think of the process as pruning . . . because that's what it is. A well-trimmed evergreen will actually grow fuller and thicker and will be ready for more tipping in years to come.
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