12 Days of Underconsumption is a special series from one5c laying out everything you need to know to celebrate more sustainably.
12 Days of Underconsumption is a special series from one5c laying out everything you need to know to celebrate more sustainably.
Nothing quite smells like the holidays: cinnamon, pine, orange zest. Even if you made the call to snag a fake tree and keep it for decades, you can still easily sniff out the yuletide aromas your noggin associates with a winter wonderland. What’s better, they’re largely free, natural, and can go right in the compost or yard waste pile once the festivities are through. We’re talking about decking the halls using items scavenged from your home or yard.
We get that not everyone is made for DIY, so we curated some plant-based decor projects that range from literally anyone can do this to hard but not impossible. Consider these five ideas as a baseline, and play around depending on what you have on hand. “Color, shape, texture, smell make lovely decor,” says Jean Ponzi, an environmental educator at the Missouri Botanical Garden. “Think: What kinds of things are around your house, around your environment that you’d like to pull into a little highlight area.”
Of course, this list is far from the extent of what you can do, so we’ve also made a Pinterest board with tons more of our favorite nature-based seasonal inspo.
Easy: Centerpieces
Pine cones and felled evergreen sprigs make a perfect pairing with LED-lit pillar candles, blending aroma and warm, soft light. Arrange them all tightly on a tray or bowl or plate, or you can go just pack a big Mason jar and nestle a single LED inside. If you’re using pine cones, it’s a good idea to prep them to clear them of any bugs or debris: Either bake them at 200 degrees F for 30 to 45 minutes or freeze them in an airtight container overnight.
What you’ll need: pine cones, evergreen branches, some kind of vessel, and LED candles
Time: 10–15 minutes to arrange, plus time to prep pine cones
Medium: Garlands
Anything you can gather up dozens—even hundreds—of can get strung into garland. There are classics like popcorn and fresh cranberries, but also consider more offbeat options like dried citrus slices or wine corks. Get a needle and some twine or heavy thread, skewer up your decor of choice, and drape your finished creations over mantels, doorways, and trees.
What you’ll need: dozens of something small, needle, and thread
Time: 1–1.5 hours
Medium: Can candles (instructions)
Making your own cozy candle holders might not require any scavenging at all—just rooting around in the recycling bin and spice cabinet. Wash out a few aluminum cans, peel off the labels, and hot-glue cinnamon sticks (or actual sticks, if you find ’em outside) around the exterior. For a little extra flourish, finish things off with a bow of baker’s twine or a castoff piece of ribbon. Plunk a pillar candle inside, and you’re done.
What you’ll need: aluminum cans, sticks, hot glue, twine, and a pillar candle
Time: 30–45 minutes
Medium: Acorn wreath ornaments (instructions)
Tiny wreaths pack a bunch of cheer into a miniature package. The project centers on using up any acorns your friendly neighborhood squirrels haven’t already socked away for the winter. Glue those along the band from a canning jar lid, and tie a ribbon with a loop on top. Live in a place where acorns aren’t an option? You can wrap the ring in scrap yarn or fabric or glue bits of branches around the ring.
What you’ll need: canning jar band, hot glue, and acorns, branches, or fabric scraps
Time: 30 minutes–1 hour
Advanced: A full-sized wreath (instructions)
If you’re feeling really ambitious, the outdoors has much of what you need to make a wreath from scratch. The first step is curving and weaving foraged branches into a ring and leaving that to dry for at least a week; this creates the overall shape of the wreath. Once that’s done, use gardening wire or glue to attach more branches, berries, evergreen sprigs, pine cones, or whatever you fancy to the ring. If you want to speed this project up, replace the woven branch ring with cardboard and decorate from there.
What you’ll need: Sticks or some old cardboard; bits of ribbon, pine cones, citrus, cinnamon sticks, and more natural flora flair of your choosing; and gardening wire or glue
Time: 1 hour or more, depending on what you use to form your ring