How To Choose And Use The Best Christmas Greens

Do you love the smell of live Christmas greens in your home? And the beautiful mix of evergreens that can be added to decor? Well, I do too! But I don’t like cleaning up dropped needles and changing the sap laden water in my arrangements that are scattered around my home.  I knew there had to be an easier way to bring the beauty of Christmas greens to StoneGable without the mess. And there is! Faux greens. Let me show you how to choose and use faux Christmas greens so they make your home merry and bright!

This post is sponsored by the kind folks at Balsam Hill. All the beautiful greens, lanterns and lights are from Balsam Hill!

Decorating with real greenery is quintessential Christmas! But if you are like me, and tired of the mess they cause then you might want to think about switching to fabulous faux! If you do… you won’t go back! 

One year I just got tired of all the work live greens make! There had to be a better way! So I went on a quest to find great faux greens that looked like the real deal!

And my search paid off!  It was like a Christmas miracle! I had no idea such beautiful faux evergreens really existed! Okay, they did not smell Christmassy but they certainly looked Christmassy… and real! And I can show you how to get that wonderful Christmas tree aroma in your house too! A double Christmas miracle!

I’ve collected boxes and boxes of live greens over the years. And now I think of myself as a faux greenery aficionado of sorts. So today we are talking about choosing and decorating with faux Christmas greenery!

See the Fraser Fir Meadow Garland HERE.

When I decorate with faux Christmas greens I like to keep it simple and let the greens show off their beauty! Here are a few tips for choosing and decorating with faux Christmas greens.

See the tabletop tree HERE.

Real or faux? Hard to tell! These are my go-to faux Christmas greens!

  • Buy the best fakes you can. I know I might get some blow-back when I say this but when you want artificial greens that look as close to the real thing as possible skip the large craft stores. They do have greens but they are usually not the best quality.
  • Check out BALSAM HILL for the most realistic greens on the market!
  • Shop sales! You will be amazed at all the Christmas decor on sale now. BALSAM HILL has gorgeous trees, garland, wreaths and more on sale now!
  • Choose greens that are life-size. If you want your faux greens to look real, they have to be the right size.
  • Think about buying a realistic garland to cut apart. You get lots of greenery for the money!

See the red lantern HERE. It comes with three battery-operated candles and greens and berries to decorate it with.

  • Mix different types of greens. When arranging greens make sure to mix a variety of different evergreens and other greenery together. You will be rewarded with a much more interesting and realistic arrangement.
  • Add the correct pinecone to the type of evergreen. It will make your arrangments look so much more authentic.
  • Fluff, bend and arrange each evergreen branch individually. Don’t just plunk down, hang or put up faux greens in without “arranging” them.
  • The most popular types of faux greenery are… short needle evergreen, pine evergreen, cypress, boxwood, and juniper.
  • Mix other faux greens like eucalyptus and berries with faux evergreens.

See glowing pinecone garland (set of two) HERE.

  • Collect faux greenery little by little. I’ve been collecting high quality (all on sale) fakes for years now and I have accumulated quite a stash. I can now decorate my home with all the greenery I have collected. It takes time to build up a great collection. Add to your collection every year!
  • Choose 3 or 4 different types of greenery to collect and keep collecting just that. I chose a short needle evergreen, pine, and boxwood. It’s so easy to mix and match them!
  • Collect other “add ins”. I also collect red berries, white berries, tiny stars, pinecones (you know my obsession with pinecones), antique ornaments and more! I accent my arrangments with these items but most often I let the greens be the star!
  • Don’t be afraid to cut your faux branches and garland apart. I do this all the time! I save every little piece of green. Sometimes all you need are a couple sprigs of some pretty greens to make something look festive!

See balsam fir wreath HERE.

  • Take care of your great faux greens. When the season is over swish them in warm sudsy water, rinse them and let them air dry. They collect dust and grime and need to be cleaned. Just make sure they are totally dry before putting them away.  * Do not do this to greens that are lighted.
  • Straighten out the stems and branches before storing them away until next Christmas.
  • Store like faux’s together in clear plastic boxes with tight fitting lids or the storage bags and boxes that with any faux greens. Store them in a cool, dry place.
  • It’s a good idea to wear a light pair of garden gloves or gloves that come with quality greens when working with faux greens. Like their real counterparts, they can scratch!

Enjoy the Christmas season with the beauty of evergreens by using amazingly real faux greens. I won’t tell a soul!

Stop back next week to see how to decorate a tabletop Christmas tree. I can’t wait to show you this pretty little tree all dressed up!

A big thank you to the very kind people at Balsam Hill. These are my hands-down favorite stop for Christmas trees, greens and more! No one is twisting my arm. I’m thrilled to this is my honest opinion!

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9 Comments

  1. Loved seeing the vibrant RED added to your pretty neutrals! So very pretty…

    Blessings to you at this sacred time of the year!

    Bunny

  2. Jill Miglin says:

    Great information. I purchased a Mountain Meadow Wreath, with LED lights, last year for our front porch. I’m extremely happy with it. So realistic looking, along with be well made and beautiful. So this year I treated myself to a new artificial Christmas tree. We have lower ceilings and need a 6′ tree. They are difficult to find at that height, unless you don’t care what they look like. We ordered the 6′ Frosted Yukon Spruce with the Micro LEDs. I can’t wait to get it set up.

    1. When storing your greens you have really great tips. Thank you for that. A truck I learned years ago was to add scented cinnamon pine cones to my plastic containers when packing away Fall/Christmas decor. The next year when you open your containers, you will have the scent of cinnamon fill the air verses plastic. And the plus is my decor keeps that scent throughout the holiday. Your home instantly smells like the holidays even in the mess of unpacking. It helps to put the holiday spirit in my step.

    2. Kathy Menold says:

      Just came back from a Christmas tour of 10 houses and the use of faux garland and trees seems to be the trend at least for inside decor. Outside the fresh greens.were used more often. For a natural touch the home owners used lots of real plants of the season like paperwhites,amaryllis ,poinsettias and even white lilies and red Rose’s. So pretty.

  3. Dorian L Valles says:

    Hi Yvonne,
    I love all your posts! You have really captured the beauty of Christmas with these great tips for using faux greenery. You had mentioned you would tell us “how to get that wonderful Christmas tree aroma in your house too!” but I don’t see where in your post you show this information?
    Thanks 🙂

      1. Dorian Valles says:

        Thank you Yvonne! Much appreciate the tip <3

  4. Candice johnson says:

    Love love love all the Faux greenery and I did not know that it could be washed. Thank you

  5. Candice johnson says:

    Can’t wait to get a great stash of faux greenery
    Like yours… Thanks Yvonne for all your wonderful ideas…