O Christmas Corn, O Christmas Corn!

 I took a break from some other craft projects today to make this pretty garland for the Christmas tree! I’m going with a bit of a homemade theme this year, not completely of course, but I made some starry snowflake embroidered ornaments with sparkly floss and sparkly felt. Sparkly!

And then, popcorn and cranberry garland. I’ve never made it but have always wanted to. This year, with a REAL live tree - a rarity for me - and some homemade ornaments, it felt like a good time to do it.

I had cranberries, so just needed popcorn. I figured getting a bag of already-popped corn would result in more fully popped kernels than doing microwave popcorn, so I went in search of plain popcorn: no butter, no cheddar, no nothin’. It was so hard to find! Finally found some “diet” popcorn, nothing added. I tasted it. Blech. And therefore perfect!

In my sewing stash I found some invisible nylon thread, like very fine fishing line. Also perfect. That is, if you don’t count that minor not-being-to-see-it-when-you’re-threading-the-needle detail. 

After a bit of trial and error in knotting the ends, I ended up leaving about four to five inches of thread at the beginning and end of each section, then tying off these ends with a bit of yarn that I trimmed. This gave a bit more bulk so that the piece of popcorn or cranberry at the end of each section didn’t fall off of the thread. I tied several sections together for garland swags. When placing the garland on the tree, it’s pretty easy to tuck the bits of yarn into branches so they’re aren’t visible. Ok, back to the actual stringing.

I did one cranberry followed by four to five pieces of popcorn. Use a regular, all-purpose sewing needle. For cranberries, pierce the berry in the middle rather than the stem end...

For the popcorn, pierce in the fluffiest part of the kernel you can find...

Try to avoid the hard kernel-y part (well, it’s a word now) because it’s brittle and tends to break the whole piece apart. Also try to avoid stabbing yourself in the thumb. Repeatedly. 

It was at this point that that I decided drinking eggnog with rum was an absolutely stellar idea...

Oh...SO much better now. Also put on the movie Elf (I love you/I love you/I LOVVVVE YOU!!!!) to keep me company.

Ok, this is pretty...

I wonder how much I need? Well, a lot, as it turns out. But guess what? That’s okay! Because I love the way this looks...

Bottom line: it wasn’t difficult (especially after I started drinking eggnog), but it did take a while. Totally worth the effort, however!

If you’ve got a bit of time, try it this year. Happy decorating!

❤️Bonnie