I’ve always wanted to make a tree with strands of beautiful, crisp and vibrant cranberries. But I think I always put it off because I only saw it done in Christmas picture books, and figured it wouldn’t be as pretty in real life.

I was wrong.

Not only that but it’s quite simple.

Just as you would suspect, it takes a while to make. So you will need a mug of tea, hot chocolate, or coffee because you’ll be sitting for about an hour.

At first I figured I would use some sort of thick string or twine but the I realized that I didn’t have a needle with a big enough eye. Then I imagined my four-year-old helping me and knew that wouldn’t work out. But then I remembered that I had a roll of cheery green wreath/craft wire that i had bought from the Dollar Tree a while back. Perfect.

I used about 5-7 yards of 1/16” aluminum wire in mint green.

About 3/4 bag of fresh cranberries, I would have used more if I had more.

It was easy to push the wire through the hard, crisp cranberry. So easy that my little boy sat with me almost the entire time. A big plus because he hates sitting through crafts.

The coolest part of this project is that once you get it on the tree, you can shape the garland exactly how you want it so rather than hanging listlessly from limb to limb it’s shaped for a more dramatic, cartoon-y effect.

I don’t know why but it kind of reminds me of the Grinch’s Christmas tree. Does he even have cranberries on his tree??