foodie christmas decoration

I know I said I was tired of wreathes, but somehow, the Christmas wreath still makes sense to me. Plus, as I was cleaning out my pantry, I had a great idea for my wreath decorations and I couldn't exactly ignore myself now could I?

I bought this plain wreath at the thrift store last year. It had nothing on it. Please see last year's post for the full story and to see what last year's decorations were.

Anyway, while cleaning up the pantry, I decided I should pull out my cookie cutters because I had thought to string them up on the tree and then I remembered that during the summer, I came across some small cooking utensils and fake vegetables. They were only a buck and I thought they'd look so cute on the Christmas tree as decorations. I still had the fancy dried corn out from fall decorations and many other prop ideas came to mind, hence the foodie wreath was born.

I attached everything with bits of floral wire which I got at the dollar store. I think that's the single most versatile purchase I've ever made there.

The only thing I bought was some pasta. First, the penne for a garland. I was going to dye them Christmas colours but decided I liked the natural pasta look better. There're some fake tiny tomatoes from my fake vegetables and you can see a tiny wooden bowl in the background.

Second, I bought a bag of bowtie pasta for little bows (obviously).

Fake beet! Oh the cuteness!

Fake carrot! And some cookie cutters. I liked these solid types for the wreath because they were a little easier to see than the usual cookie cutter types.

Tiny rolling pin and I added a medium sized pin that came with a ravioli making plate I have. Both of which I've never used. The red beads are a store-bought garland I already had. I thought they made nice "berries." An alternative could be some of those fake beaded necklaces you can find in abundance at thrift stores.

A real clove of garlic! Just push a piece of floral wire right through the whole bulb and tie it on. Those little green and yellow flowers and stems are sprigs of Greek mountain tea. Idle Husband's mom has sent me far more than I'll ever be able to drink in my lifetime (I have a huge peanut jar filled with the stuff plus three arm-sized bags of it). There's no need to wire them on, they'll stay if you just shove them in.

Some other items that were not pictured or hard to see: dried mushrooms (you can buy these literally anywhere and are really tasty once rehydrated, but I also attached wire to them and added them to the wreath), fake grapes, tiny cutting board, tiny mallet, tiny whisk... I just thought it might be nice to add some bay leaves or other herbs, candy canes or wrapped candies, gingerbread men... I mean, there're so many different ways you could go with this idea!

For the outside of the house, I wanted to do simple swags with the garland and lights this year, but I felt like there should be something at the top of each swag. Out came the mountain tea! I made little upside-down bouquets of the stuff, twisted it together with the floral wire, then added a cookie cutter (that I know I'll never use) to the top. I'm not 100% sure I like the cutters (they're kind of hard to see), but I really like the mountain tea bouquets (plus they smell so nice!).

To attach the swags, I used (you guessed it) floral wire! I just put two pieces together so I'd have a long enough wire to go around the railing. There was enough length left on the wire to also attach the mountain tea bouquets.

And that's how I've done up the front of the house this year. It's something a little different than the typical Christmas fodder, but it's still pretty Christmas (who's NOT cooking and baking at this time of year?) and it fulfills one of my main objectives for Christmas decor: It MUST look good during the day when the lights are off.

I hope that gives you some outside-of-the-box (and cheap!) ideas for decorating your home, wreath, or tree this year!