Incorporating Winter Greenery Into Your Christmas Decor

October 21, 2024By west-coast-gardens

Holiday Greenery Everyone Will Want to Come Home For (Even the neighbours!)

The most magical time of the year has finally arrived, West Coast gardeners, the holidays are around the corner! Finally we can start planning out our seasonal strategies, check our Christmas card lists, eat gingerbread and drink eggnog.

A big part of the holidays (especially if you love to entertain) is how you decorate your home inside and out, and we’re here to tell you that using fresh smelling greenery in your decorating has never been so popular or easy to incorpoprate.

Whether you’re hanging garland around your doorway, filling up window boxes with fir boughs or adding some charm to your mailbox, it’s definitely starting to feel like Christmas!

Chances are you have a few holiday decorations from previous years (that giant stack of boxes under the stairs that smells suspiciously like cinnamon and spice).

You’ve probably even collected decor that leans towards a certain style or colour scheme. Luckily for you, adding in greenery to your existing holiday style is simple to do. It’s probably the most versatile decoration out there (and hey, you don’t have to box it up after Christmas or store it until next year!)

Creating a Winter Wonderland Without Completely Changing Your Home Decor Style

No matter what colour scheme or decor style you have in your home at this festive season, winter greenery can act as an accent that adds a dash of freshness and a spicy Christmas scent throughout. (No colour swatches required!)

Farmhouse Style Holiday - Super popular, the farmhouse style is known for a vintage, rustic feel, with a DIY home craftsmanship and country charm. Christmas farmhouse often incorporates vintage items (such as toys, kitchen finds and wood skis or sleds) with rustic accents like burlap and old tin or metals.

Adding winter greenery to this kind of style is easy, as it already incorporates a lot of “love for the land” in the predominantly wooden materials and farm feeling. Add other woodland finds such as pinecones and holly to your greenery arrangements and accents, as well as antique ornaments, copper bells or kitschy bows.

A Modern Christmas - If your home favours the minimalistic and monochrome, such as a black and white colour scheme, don’t worry there’s still room for winter greenery! Rather than going all out with additions and accents, keep it simple. Skip the red and just go with variations of greenery (pine, fir, cedar, eucalyptus etc).

Mixing them with white lights will add a twinkle without distracting from their simple elegance. Gathering boughs in a metal or wire basket, or using just a single stem in a black or white vase, will show off the natural beauty of the greenery. Dark green boughs, such as Frasier Fir or Juniper, fit in well with this decor.

For A Blue Christmas - The blue and white Christmas style is always elegant and gives the home a winter wonderland feeling. Gorgeous turquoise and blue ornaments in new and vintage styles mix beautifully with whites or silvers. Try Blue Spruce for its hint of blue tones or Silver Fir boughs for their beautiful white side underneath.

You can also get a greenery option that comes with natural blue toned berries such as Juniper or Cedar. Eucalyptus also has a natural blue tone that can accent your home decor for the season, and comes fresh or dried. Tie it all together with blue mini-lights and you’ll swear you were in the alps somewhere!

An Elegant Classic Holiday - Go with the traditional Christmas full of reds, greens and even a few golds. Add in a plethora of holly, mistletoe and ribbon for this festive but elegant style.

You can mix in some rustic charm by using birch logs or pinecones, then elevate the look with touches of gold with ornaments, long ribbons or sparkling branches. Creating long garland for the fireplace mantle, placing it on the table as a runner or accenting candle centrepieces with fir and pine will give your home a touch of natural classic style.

All I Want for Christmas - A Few Things to Add to the List!

When you’re adding winter greenery to your Christmas decorations it’s always fun to get creative with the accents and mix it up a bit! Use add-ons that go with your home style and really create a unique look that’s all your own. We’ve created a list of ideas that you can browse for inspiration when creating your own Christmas greenery decor:

Berries (real or faux)
Lights (use LED lights as they won’t add heat to your boughs)
Pinecones (large and small)
Ribbons and bows
Burlap accents
Sticks and branches (Birch looks great!)
Ornaments new and old
Fake birds that match your decor
Pheasant feathers in beautiful patterns
Christmas scarves and furs
Candles and lanterns (use battery operated ones for safety!)

Other greenery can also be added to the traditional evergreen variety. Mix it up with eucalyptus, holly, mistletoe, magnolia leaves, sage and boxwood.

A Long Winter’s Night - Keeping your greenery beautiful through the season

No matter what your style for Christmas, you definitely need to keep your greenery happy by hydrating it throughout the season. When you first bring home your winter greens from the garden centre (or maybe you’ve foraged in the forest for your boughs?) you need to give the ends a fresh cutting and then gently break them up with a hammer so that the fibrous stems can better absorb the water you’re going to soak them in overnight.

Another secret is to continue misting them everyday so they doesn’t dry out too fast. Keeping greenery away from direct sunlight and your heaters can also prolong its life. Enjoy the wonderful scent of real winter greens while you stay cozy in your warm home!

Browse our collection of ideas for using winter greens in your home, on Pinterest!