D-I-Y Christmas garland

I have always loved the look of a pine garland on a staircase at Christmas time. As a matter of fact, when we bought this house, that was one of the first things I dreamed of decorating for the holidays. I did it a couple of times, but wasn't very pleased with the results. I had a difficult time finding the right battery-operated lights and I really wanted lights in the garland.

I finally found them at Walmart! (Which explains why I never found them in the past - I rarely venture into Walmart!) I saw some in one of the stores in downtown G'burg, but they were $25 - they were only around $10 at Walmart.


The pine rope garland was purchased at Kroger - 20' for $9.99. The ribbon was purchased for half price at Hobby Lobby.


I decided to do two swags since the staircase railing is pretty short on that side. I doubled the pine rope and gently wound the two pieces so they would stay together. I anchored them to the railing by tying them with strong waxed twine. I then used wide painter's tape to anchor the battery box to the wall under the top edge of the garland (you can only see it if you stand at eye-level with it, but it's easy to turn on/off), and wound the lights around the pine rope.


Then I added the ribbon, just loosely wrapping it around the pine rope, trying not to cover the lights. To finish, I tied bows around the rope & railing, over the twine that anchors the rope to the railing.

It was a little awkward trying to find a way to finish the garland at the bottom of the stairs since the railing twists at the end. There is a newel in the center of the twist, so I decided to wrap a single strand of pine around and down that. It's not anchored at the bottom, just tucked in.


I think next year, I would like a fuller garland and maybe some berries and pine cones, but I'm really pleased with the way it looks!