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Decorate a Christmas Tree
With Gifts From Nature
UNSS member, Mrs. Marguerite Wright, of Riverton, Utah, is chairman this
year (1973) of the Midvale Community Club's Christmas Tree decoration
committee. The tree the club is decorating for the annual Festival of
Trees this year is a natural green tree decorated with natural materials.
Large teasel seed heads are hung upside down for very fancy "balls".
These are left in their natural state. Milkweed pods are also being
used. The outsides of the pods are left as found in nature in fall, but
the insides are lined with red velvet. Gold braid is placed around
the edges to give them a finished effect.
Each milkweed pod is unique and different because of their variability of
size and shape, so the linings must be custom made. To make the linings,
each pod is outlined with soap on the reverse side of a piece of velvet
fabric. This shows the size and shape of that particular pod. The piece
of velvet is then cut out and glued into the pod. Finally, the edge is
finished with the gold braid. Some of the pods have a cocklebur, painted
with white enamel, set in the bottom of the ornament. In others, the
paper-like placenta of the pod is carefully removed and saved, then replaced
after the velvet is glued in. In a few, a tiny white angel is added.
Some of the milkweed pods come in clusters of two or three, and are left
attached. The top ornament for the tree is made of a cluster of six pods
all on one stem. Fitting each of the pods in this cluster took several
hours of skill and patience.
Marguerite told me that when she gathered the milkweed pods this fall, she
left them on the stems, expecting that each pod would be cut off when used.
But when dried, the stems split and curled, making an attractive means of
hanging them on the Christmas Tree.
(Try making some of these ornaments for your own tree.)
By Nellie Pearce
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