A couple of years ago, our youngest daughter gave me the basic components I needed to make a home-made Christmas wreath. There was a wire wreath frame and floral wire - basically everything you need except the greenery. I think it was probably less than a $10 investment.

That year we walked around the yard gathering green cuttings and then we apparently still had some dried flower heads. Within an hour we put together a wonderful, hand-crafted Christmas wreath which hung on our front door for the season.

Last year I never got around to putting together another one. I want to blame the new grand baby, but it was probably just me, never putting in the effort. I decided this year would be different and just came in from crafting a new Christmas wreath.

We didn’t have any dried flower heads this year for whatever reason, but I was still able to put together something. For the majority of the greenery, I used branches cut from our Japanese yew plants. They are an evergreen plant, so they’ll hold their color for our purposes. For a little splash of color, I used some reddish-brown Japanese maple leaves and then added some holly branches with red berries. I like it. The first year we did this, we were able to use some leaves and branches from our laurel shrub but this year it’s not doing too well so I left if out of the project. The whole process from start to finish took maybe 30 to 45 minutes. If you are up for doing this yourself, you should be able to find the wreath frames and florist wire at your favorite craft store.

Oftentimes it’s easy to just accept a holiday tradition without wondering how that tradition got started, but I tend to wonder as I wander, so here’s what I learned about the origin story for Christmas wreaths.

We can trace the use of wreaths back to Greek mythology and a story about Apollo (the son of Zeus) and his love for a nymph by the name of Daphne. Apparently, Daphne was not inclined to reciprocate Apollo’s affection and asked the river god Peneus to help her. For better or worse, Peneus’ solution to the problem was to turn Daphne into a laurel tree. In my view, the moral of the story here should be that we shouldn’t ask Peneus for relationship advice, but that’s just me.

This apparently left Apollo lovesick to the point that he began to wear a wreath made from laurel leaves on his head. I guess he must have figured that if he couldn’t have Daphne, at least he had her near his heart… or head in this case. In doing this, laurel wreaths came to be associate in mythology with Apollo’s victories and achievements. Later wreaths made from laurel leaves were used to crown the winners in the early Olympic games.

In Italy, the wearing of a laurel wreath by new university graduates is one of the oldest traditions in Italian academic history. The Italian word Laurea means degree and is traced back to the Latin work Laurus which means laurel. Generals and emperors in ancient Rome were crowned with laurel as were great poets in the Middle Ages. Therefore, the tradition of new university graduates in Italy wearing a laurel wreath came to symbolize virtue, wisdom, knowledge, and a great honor. We have friends from Italy, so I felt compelled to confirm this tradition and it was verified. Yes, this is a legit tradition.

Flash forward to the United States today and the tradition of the President placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. No doubt, this tradition traces back to the original mythology centered on Apollo’s wreath and the signification of victory, honor, and achievement.

As far as Christmas wreaths go, we can trace them back to 16^th century Germany when people first started to bring evergreen trees into their homes as part of their Christmas celebration. After the tree was cut, it was trimmed so that it would easily fit in the house but it was also trimmed to make the tree more triangular in shape. The tree being triangular was used as a teaching tool to help explain the Trinitarian understanding of God in Christianity. The trimmings were often shaped into wreaths and hung on the door or wall.

The credit for integrating wreaths into part of the Advent tradition is given to a German Lutheran pastor by the name of Johann Hinrich Wichern who used the wreath as an Advent symbol. During Advent, candles were placed in a table wreath with one lit each week leading up to Christmas. Many churches continue this tradition today. For those of you who attend a Christian church, you’ll now have a story to tell about how that Advent wreath came to be.

So as we enter this holiday season full of traditions, maybe you’ll want to start a tradition yourself by creating your very own Christmas wreath made with cuttings from your own yard. It doesn’t get more local than that. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Tom Ingram