DIY a Basic 8ft Faux Garland for Under $50 and Dress it Up

We have yet to complete Christmas decorating this year between all the travel we’re doing for work and school, but that just means extending the joy over the whole month 😉 One quick way I usually create holiday vignettes is with tree trimmings, but with our new “faux mantle” this year, I wanted a slightly more full garland look. Which led me down an unexpected rabbit hole…

I swear Christmas items get the same markup as wedding items. Faux pine garland? Looks about the same effort as a spring garland but hey, call it a Chrismas garland and now its twice the price! I spent the better half of December trying to find a basic, real or faux garland that I could add my own touches to and was too close to convincing myself that a $150 real garland for just 5ft was fine before the “not available for shipping” status saved me. *relieved exhale*

This has been a journey that eventually led me to Hobby Lobby’s garland filler section. Right behind all their glittered and ornamented options were these fairly realistic pieces… that seemed to be just garland puzzle pieces… for how much? I quickly started scheming and laid out my picks on the floor to get a sense of size/price and bam! Under $40 for 8ft ain’t so bad!

The price might fluctuate based on where you get your faux fillers, but just keep an eye out for ones with long, realistic stems and color variation for the most realism. I went with a fir needle in 3 colors for dimension for the base, knowing that I would weave in some real elements later.

Basic Faux Garland Supplies
assorted, faux pine vase fillers
floral wire
floral tape
wire cutter/nail clipper

1. Lay out your complete design to get a good sense of spacing, length, and layering. Imagine a vertical line running down the middle of your garland and alternate which side the garland pieces will lie on.
2. Working from the front of the garland, tie your second garland piece to the first. Try to find an overlap point where you can wrap the wire in an “X” instead of just around both pieces to prevent sliding around.
3. Continue all the way down, making sure to pause every once in a while to see if any spots need filling in. I also like to pick it up to see if any pieces shift then go in from the backside to find a second place to secure the piece down.
4. If your garland pieces don’t have realistic branches, you can wrap the wire base of the last garland piece in floral tape and tuck underneath the fir needles to completely disguise it.
5. With the base layer done, now you can add berries, pinecones, or other greenery to the mix! Like….

How to Dress Up Your Faux Garland

You’ll Need
real eucalyptus bunches
real, secondary type of pine tree greenery
real pinecones
floral wire

1. Start by adding clippings of your secondary pine greenery throughout the garland with the floral wire. I found it much easier to add the extra pieces after getting the faux garland in place to get a better sense of placement. I used the extra trimmings from our real tree, but you can also grab FREE trimmings from any tree lot.
2. Repeat with the eucalyptus and pinecones.
3. BOOM! Done 😀 The great part of using faux pine as the base is that it allows you to “fluff” and rearrange depending on where you want to add your extra pieces and gives extra grip.