I thought I would give a little history on the traditional Christmas door wreath and why we teach this method at Bedfordshire Flower School.
The custom of bringing evergreens home during the winter began in the 16th century among northern and eastern Europeans — with Germans commonly credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition. During this period, pruning the tree was a part of the preparation process.
Limbs were often cut off in an attempt to make the tree more uniform in shape or to fit into a room. Besides the aesthetic and practical reasons for shaping the tree, there was also a spiritual significance to practice for Christians. It was important to trim the trees into the shape of a triangle, to represent the Trinity
Christmas wreaths brought a new layer of meaning to the old idea.
Such wreaths originally served as Christmas tree ornaments, and not as the standalone decorations we’re familiar with today. They were formed into a wheel-like shape partially for convenience’s sake — it was simple to hang a circle onto the branches of a tree — but the shape was also significant as a representation of divine perfection.
It symbolized eternity, as the shape has no end.
Over the Christmas period we teach so many Christmas wreath workshops and we always use the traditional moss and spruce method for many reasons. This technique may not be the easiest or fastest but it is the most satisfying and has the longest life span for the design. We do not use any premade base to design our wreaths. Starting with a copper wire base, binding over with moss and using the same continual binding method to create a spruce layer and finally decorating to your taste.
This method reduces any single use plastic (no floral foam base), making this a eco-friendly mostly biodegradable wreath! And the moss acts as a water source and feeds the spruce keeping it alive for 10-12 weeks. Much longer than any foam base wreath methods.
We locally source our Christmas tree spruce from local growers, Merri Flower Farm in Bedfordshire.
Check out our Christmas wreath workshops online at www.bedforshireflowerschool.com
We are also offering private classes for groups of 4/5 persons this year, if you are interested in arranging this drop us an email bedfordshireflowerschool@gmail.com
There will be a range of wreaths available to purchase from mid November at
The Flower Mill, Unit 3 Trumpetons Farm, Thorncote Green SG19 1PU