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Christmas

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Original poster

How do you feel about Christmas wreaths

50 replies

HeeeeyDuggee · 09/11/2020 14:24

My mum always said we weren’t allowed a wreath growing up because she associated them with death and funerals.

I really want to get one and every year I think about it but then chicken out because I remember how severe she was about it!

If you buy one do you get a read one or artificial ?

OP posts:

Lottieskeeper · 09/11/2020 14:28

My mum said the same thing about wreaths being for funerals. So we never had a Christmas one.
I've never had one since I've moved out because its stuck with me.

livingthegoodlife · 09/11/2020 14:29

Fake here. One with with snowy foliage and one bronze coloured one made from twigs.

I love wreaths!

XiCi · 09/11/2020 14:30

I love them. I have 2 good quality fake ones. One with traditional foliage and poinsettia and another more modern eucalyptus one.

yellobricktoad · 09/11/2020 14:32

My parents said the same thing. So now that I live far away from parents I get to do whatever I feel like. Saying that I'm yet to go to a funeral for a wreath so I fail to associate a wreath with a funeral.
My parents also banned purple as a colour to be worn or even acknowledged due to its association with the dead. Again haven't come across this in real life so enjoy enjoying purple now as an adult

pastandpresent · 09/11/2020 14:32

I have many, and I love them. I like both natural one and artificial one.
We normally collect pine corns during summer holiday but haven't been able to this year. So I will go for the artificial one this year.

Lindy2 · 09/11/2020 14:32

I love Christmas wreaths.

I think of it as a nod to the Pagan element of Christmas and linked to nature rather than funerals.

A beautiful wreath on a front door makes me feel very Christmassy.

WitsEnding · 09/11/2020 14:32

My mum always used to get one to put on her auntie’s grave. I wouldn’t want one on my door, it would feel like a bad omen.

Rainallnight · 09/11/2020 14:33

I have a sort of heart shaped straw thing (it doesn’t sound very nice but it is!). It doesn’t have to be round - you can do different shapes or just a spray is nice

steppemum · 09/11/2020 14:37

I love them.

It is interesting though that we use them for both Christmas and funerals. I wonder why. Was it to show the detah of the old year/death of winter?

Anyway I made one, so easy, using scraps of fabric. In fact I have 2, one blue and silver with lights, and one red/green/gold.

I hang the to a screw in the top of my door, so during the day I can put it outside, but at night or when it is windy, it hangs on the inside of the door.

I'd love to have a real one, but think it would get nicked!

Mrsjayy · 09/11/2020 14:38

My parents buy wreaths for graves of parents every Christmas so I feel weird about them too, my dd gets one for her house every year and it is lovely somebody at her work makes them but I still feel odd about them, sorry no real help just wanted to sympathise.

Twilightstarbright · 09/11/2020 14:51

I go to a workshop to make one every year, I love it. I've never heard of them being associated with graves, the funeral flowers I've seen aren't wreath shaped or the same foliage as a Christmas wreath.

BiddyPop · 09/11/2020 15:03

We didn't have them growing up - but I don't think it was to do with associations with death etc, just a lack of money.

We currently have a wreath that I bought in a fit of the glums from a florist which was beside the bus stop that DH had just left from on yet another fortnight away in early December (unavoidable, 4 year contract when economy was in the gutter) - it was fresh then, and I spent a fortune on it (to me) - but it was bright, and cheery, DD and I both liked it, it distracted us from that departure - and we have put it up at least 6 of the 9 years since (I put it in the attic to dismantle and salvage lots of bits when I had more time - and it was still perfect the following Christmas so we just hung it again).

I still have it safe, but we have "wrapped" the front door in ribbons and a big bow for the past 2 years which is also nice. So if you want to decorate but avoid the wrath of DM, that could be an idea? (I got 2 different widths of a tartan ribbon, and a hessian which was in between those in width, and a gold, all wired - cut lengths of the tartan and hessian to go up, and across, the door and meet at the back where I stapled the ribbon to itself (and a piece of sellotape to keep it in position against the door). Then a piece of hessian, narrower tartan and the gold were made into a nice bow, which I tied on the front where the horizontal and vertical lines crossed. Kinwoven Home on youtube has good videos on making bows.)

BiddyPop · 09/11/2020 15:04

My wider tartan is probably 6 inches wide, hessian 4 inches and narrower tartan 2 inches. Gold is also about 2 or 3 inches wide.

Crakeandoryx · 09/11/2020 15:05

Love them. My DH says they're for funerals but he's miserable 😂

serialreturner · 09/11/2020 15:07

@HeeeeyDuggee

My mum always said we weren’t allowed a wreath growing up because she associated them with death and funerals.

I really want to get one and every year I think about it but then chicken out because I remember how severe she was about it!

If you buy one do you get a read one or artificial ?

Wreaths = death to me.

Wouldn't have them near the house. My neighbour has one every year and it makes me shudder.

TheCrow · 09/11/2020 15:10

I associate the Holly leaf ones a little bit with death but that's because I always see them being sold on market stalls next to Holly leaf crosses which are supposed to be put on graves 😳 however I have a wreath which is made of pretend pine branches and has gold ribbon and baubles and those little clip in birds and it's lovely and christmassy and doesn't make me think of funerals at all! You can get a lot of unusual wreaths now like ones made of tinsel or baubles or ribbons which are nice if you want to move away from the possible associations of the more traditional foliage ones

Bluntness100 · 09/11/2020 15:11

I love mine, it always makes me feel xmassy and goes up well before the tree does.

I don’t get the connection, it’s like saying I won’t have a bouquet of fresh flowers because people send them to funerals.

Pootles34 · 09/11/2020 15:11

I've seen quite a few recently that aren't round but more like a straight line of foliage - hard to describe! They seem to be in fashion though! Apparently called a swag?

Pumpkinpied · 09/11/2020 15:11

I have an archway to my house so have one on the door and one on each wall then a few in the house. It's simply a decorated circle. I've never bought a wreath for a funeral, just a display so it has no association for me. It's also given me something to do while being at home. I make all my own garlands too.

reluctantbrit · 09/11/2020 15:18

Really interesting viewpoint.

I am from Germany and we have wreath with four candles in December, lightening them on each Advent Sunday. I never heard them being a symbol for funerals. And large wreaths are used for funerals all the time.

We have one each year, we do decorate it with things we collect during autum and stored them carefully for next year.

As we don’t decorate a lot outside or at the windows we also have now an artificial one for the door.

I personally don’t like the door bows but everyone has a different taste.

Crazzzycat · 09/11/2020 15:25

I have quite a low key Christmas, but Christmas wreaths are an absolute essential for me.

It’s probably a cultural thing though. I grew up in a country that is possibly a bit wreath obsessed. I was taught how to make them in nursery school, using fresh pine cuttings and little pine cones, which probably gives you some idea of how ingrained Christmas wreaths are in my culture. They couldn’t even wait until primary school to start teaching us 😂

XiCi · 09/11/2020 15:25

Christmas wreaths are very traditional and popular though arent they. I've never heard anyone say Christmas wreaths are associated with death. I quite like the bauble wreaths as well as the foliage ones. There are a couple of houses around here with beautiful autumn wreaths up on their doors at the moment as well

Sweetmotherofallthatisholyabov · 09/11/2020 15:27

It's funny I've never thought of them for funerals although now that I think of funerals they often have flower wreaths. We put them on the graves every year in Christmas Eve but I always think of that as sharing Christmas with loved ones and bringing some Christmas to them rather than hanging death on our door.

thelegohooverer · 09/11/2020 15:27

I haven’t ever thought about it, really.

But, and this might be an Irish thing, I’ve no particularly strong feelings about death as anything more than a part of life.

Honouring the dead and the living with beautiful flowers aren’t separate things for me, if you see what I mean.

DramaAlpaca · 09/11/2020 15:33

But, and this might be an Irish thing, I’ve no particularly strong feelings about death as anything more than a part of life.

I think you might be right @thelegohooverer. We never had a Christmas wreath at home in England as my DM didn't like them, but since I've been living in Ireland with Irish DH I've always had them. I love seeing one on a front door. We have a crib scene too, my DM wouldn't allow those either.

What does make me shudder is bouquets of those big, white lilies. To me they will be forever associated with funerals. No other flowers, just lilies.

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