There are very few things you can do to help you and your family feel more Christmassy than make your own decorations.
Here, we look at making popcorn garlands. A fun, low-cost and tasty way of getting in to the spirit of Christmas and making some decorations for your home.
What’s more, if you do it with your children (supervised), it can probably teach them something too, be it simple patience skills, or hand-eye coordination. Who knows?!
Popcorn Garlands
Whenever I think of these, I think of kids putting them together on all our favourite cheesy American Christmas movies. Quite where the tradition started I’m not sure, but some initial research suggests North America.
They have been around for centuries though, and there is nothing like making your own decorations at Christmas. Many people struggle to feel Christmassy these days, modern life no doubt a main contributing factor. This may help ignite a small amount of festive spirit in them.
Step-by-Step
1) First, gather the equipment. In its simplest form, you will need the following:
– Popcorn: salted is good for being less sticky, but whatever your preference!
– A darning needle
– Some cotton, string, yarn, etc: whatever will fit through the needle. It probably needs to be around 1m long per garland
Extras
You may also like to add other things to your garland such as dried fruit, bits of coloured card cut in to shapes (snowflakes, etc) or anything else you can think of.
2) Tie a knot in one end of the cotton/yarn and thread the needle through the other end.
3) Next, carefully pierce the needle through the popcorn and thread the corn right the way to the end of the cotton/yarn. You can alternate the popcorn with dried fruits or anything else you may want to add.
4) Continue to build your garland this way until it is full up.
5) Finally, withdraw the needle and tie a knot in this end too so that the gardland cannot fall apart. You may need to trim each end to neaten it up if you have any surplus yarn/cotton.
There we go, done. In 20-30 minutes, you can some some lovely homemade decorations hanging around your tree that you and your kids made.