A week and a half ago was the first time Doug and I cut our own Christmas tree instead of buying a precut one:

We got it up and decorated pretty quickly:

What I didn’t get around to as quickly was disposing of some extra branches we had to cut off the bottom of our tree. Luckily, today was our first snow day of the season! There’s nothing better than an unexpected day off during the holiday season. It’s nice to have a day at home when you’re not expected to be going anywhere and you can finally get around to those projects you thought you’d never have time for – like these branches:

I had enough extra fir branches to make a wreath! This is the first time in my adult life that I’ve had a Christmas wreath. It was actually super easy to make. Here are the steps I followed:

Step 1: Make a wire frame

 

Step 2: Gather materials

Step 3: Cut down branches into short, even pieces

Step 4: Add branches to your frame

Here’s the finished product, back and front:

I searched all over the house for ribbon or embellishments I could add, but I didn’t find much. All I had was a pinecone with some fake red berries and white ribbon. The white ribbon is hard to see, so I’ll probably switch that out later. Now all I need is a place to hang it! For now it’s outside chilling on a rusty old plant hanger by the front door:

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for, especially when the decorations don’t cost me anything. Here are a few bonus photos of one of my other cheap DIY Christmas decorations that I love – paper snowflakes! This is the fourth year I have hung these up, and the third apartment they have hung in. Enjoy!