How to Make a Christmas Garland

Set out two to three bags of fresh cranberries, a needle with an eye big enough to thread without squinting, and whatever you plan to string them on. The Merrythought puts four options on the counter side by side: jute twine, paper-wrapped floral binding wire, 20-gauge floral wire and red and white bakers twine.

All four work. They hang differently, so choose based on where the garland is going. Twine and binding wire drape. Bare floral wire holds a line.

Tip the bags out into a bowl and keep a second bowl beside it. Any berry that feels soft, or has gone dark and wrinkled, goes in the discard bowl. Mushy ones split when the needle goes through and they leak onto the twine.

Two bags give you a strand long enough for a mantel. Three gets you around a tree. Buy an extra bag if you are stringing with kids, because the reject pile grows faster than you expect.

Thread the twine through the needle, then push the point into one end of a cranberry and out the other, going the long way through the berry. It takes very little pressure. Slide the berry down the thread and pick up the next one.

You can go through the short way for a chunkier look. The long way uses fewer berries per foot and gives you the classic strung-cranberry line.

Leave the spool connected instead of cutting a working length first. Every few inches, push the strung berries down toward the far end so the needle always has bare twine ahead of it. The strand grows without tangling and you never run out mid-berry.

Once it reaches the length you want, cut it off the spool and leave a few extra inches for the knot.

Swap the twine for 20-gauge floral wire and put the needle away. The wire is stiff enough to push through a cranberry on its own, which makes this the version to hand a child. The berries slide along it easily, so you can space them out however you like.

Anything thinner bends before it pierces the skin. The trade-off is that this garland keeps whatever shape you bend into it and will not drape.

Bakers twine strings the same way and gives the softest drape of the four. The red and white stripe mostly disappears between the berries, so you get the color without a cord showing.

The catch is threading it. The twist separates as soon as you push the end at the needle eye, and you end up trimming it back every few feet. Worth knowing before you commit a whole evening to it.

Tie a knot in each end once the strand is the length you want. Cranberries slide freely on twine and on wire, and one open end empties the whole garland onto the floor.

An overhand knot pulled tight against the last berry is enough. Trim the tail to about an inch so it tucks out of sight in the greenery.

The Merrythought weaves hers in and out of a fresh cedar garland on the mantel, so the red sits on top of the green instead of sinking into it. On a tree, lay it along the branch tips rather than pressing it back into the depth of the branches.

A stair rail, a window frame and a doorway all take it. Fresh cranberries weigh almost nothing, so a few small hooks or a loop of twine at each end will hold the whole strand.