So we’ve officially packed up Christmas and changed over to general winter decor inside the house - now it’s time to tackle the outside starting with the front door!

Today is slightly less frigid, so I thought it might be a good day to get on a ladder and take down the wreaths, garland, and lamp post swags that scream Christmas…mostly because I used red in the ribbons and bows.

I could juuuust reach the bottom of the wreaths to get them down and the ribbon ties on the lamp posts to cut them. It was too late in the day and too windy to be messing around on a ladder, as it turns out, so I just yanked the ribbon out of the overdoor garland while perched on the threshold.  This resulted in a shower of red glitter from the ribbon.  I didn’t realize I was covered in red glitter …my face, my hair, my coat…until I came home from running errands…I was very sparkly.  Glitter is impossible to get rid of 🙄.  

And the garland really needs to come down. It looks pretty sparse without its ribbons and I need to get it down before some finches decide it makes a nice spot for a nest and I’m stuck leaving it up until they fly in spring! It has happened before…

In some years, I’ve used white or silver and gold and those seem to have a longer expiration date on not looking so Christmassy.  

I’m leaving the filled urns because those are still just “winter” with their evergreens, pinecones, branches, and berries.  And the window boxes overflowing with evergreens are fine for a couple more months too.

The new door wreath will be crafted from an old faux one I have used inside during Christmas season for years.  It is tired and has retired from Christmas duty.

I tried to give it away on the local Buy Nothing FB group, but it either got buried under other posts or was just unwanted.  I feel kinda bad for it and it’s not TOTALLY rubbish, just a little frazzled from battling years of attic storage and the occasional mouse visit…and suffering from a few bald spots.

So in the ultimate in recycling, I thought I’d give it a nice purpose for its twilight years and zhushed it up with some stuff I had laying around to make a winter wreath for the front door!

If you have an old faux wreath - this might be a nice DIY project for you!  

It needed some fluffing, some added greenery and decor, and of course a new bow.

I have a black front door, which makes an EXCELLENT foundation for so many things - a lot of colors really pop against a black background.  

And I can’t believe I just used the phrase pop and color in a sentence - I hate that hackneyed expression!

Let’s restate - a lot of colors really stand out against a black background!  

Black is one of my favorite classic front door colors - but I have several others I’ve written about HERE.

I’m like distractible squirrel today, sorry! So the wreath.  The wreath itself is about 30” across.  I really like a generous sized wreath for the door.  It just looks more lush and welcoming than a stingy sized one.

A word of caution though - I hang this on the outside of my storm door which opens out, so big is not a problem.  If you plan to hang it on an entry door that swings in, make sure it fits without catching on the door every time you open it!

Also, if you have a storm door PLEASE don’t hang it between the door and the storm door.  This A, doesn’t give you enough space for anything lush and generous, and B doesn’t show well from the street because the glare/reflection of the glass storm door obscures it.

I have been using a wreath hanger over my storm door these days out of laziness…the door doesn’t close easily with it.  I fare much better when I hang my door decor from a ribbon or monofilament line that I tie to a bit of metal on the inside top of the door. 

This wreath is so big it looks a bit ridiculous at the height the wreath hanger puts it, so I am back to the ribbon bit 

There are also heavy duty magnet hooks that you can use on storm doors, but they will only hold very lightweight items without sliding down the door window. 

I’ve added some green ivy to fill out the wreath. And I’ve chosen a snow theme for winter. I have some flocked white holly leaves that look snow crusted, and some glittered snowflakes. And the bow is of snowflake ribbon in white and silver.

On a 30” wreath, I recommend a bow that is around 10” in diameter. I used 3 types of ribbon - a 2” white and silver snowflake pattern, a 1 1’2” white satin, and a 2” sheer silver. The bow has 6 loops of each ribbon for a total of 18 loops and each loop is around 7” long (14” of ribbon). See this post for the secrets on how-to make an elegant bow.

Because I wanted it to show up on the black door, I distributed the white more or less evenly around the whole wreath.

This should take me through the rest of winter for door decor, and it is flexible enough to add to for other random winter holidays if the need arises.

Now it’s time for some celebratory Bailey’s laced hot chocolate - it totally goes with snowy blustery weather!

I don’t love winter with its short days and frigid temperatures, but at least it is pretty when it snows and is an excellent excuse for hot chocolate!

Happy Hot Chocolate Season!