This year, the boyfriend and I wanted to be safe and only celebrate Christmas just the two of us. And since it’s just us two, I wanted to make it a little special to lift up our mood! So I decided to venture out to a florist to see what I could find. I originally thought of getting a wreath, but then I saw a tall glass case of large tree branches (fir or spruce maybe?). The large branches inspired me to to suspend one from the ceiling, so I bought one and thought of hanging gingerbread cookies over it.
Suspending floral arrangements from the ceiling always intimidated me, but a tree branch is actually very simple and easy to do. All you need is strong fishing line and, if you don’t have anything on your ceiling from which to tie the fishing line, some damage-free utility hooks.
How To
- Fishing line (I got mine from Amazon)
- Damage-free utility wire hooks* (such as 3M Command)
- One large branch
- Decorated gingerbread cookies with holes for threading string through*
- Kitchen twine for threading cookies
- Tools: Scissors, ladder
- Get a general sense of how you want to display and position the branch, then start applying the hooks to the ceiling directly above from where your branch will be suspended.
- For each hook you are using, cut a piece of fishing line that is twice the distance of how far you want the branch to hang from the ceiling. Tie the ends of each piece with double knots. Each piece should now be a loop of fishing line. Hang each one from the hooks on the ceiling.
- Take your branch and “thread” it through the hanging loops of fishing line.
- If hanging cookies, cut out varying lengths of twine and thread them through the holes in the cookies. Hang each one over the branch and tie the twine with knots.
Note on Hooks: The amount and type of hooks you need depend on the final weight of your branch. I would use an extra hook in addition to the number of hooks required to support the final weight, just to make sure it stays suspended. For example, my branch weighed about 4-5 lbs, so we used three 2 lb hooks.
Note on Cookies: When baking gingerbread cookies, make sure to use a chopstick to create holes in each cookie right before baking. This step is important so you can thread string through them to hang from the branch. Immediately after you bake the cookies, use the chopstick again to open up the holes as the cookies may have spread and covered up the holes slightly.
