How To Make Burlap Christmas Garland – Easy DIY

Love farmhouse style decor? Create a rustic Christmas tree quickly and easily this holiday season using wide burlap ribbon as garland.

When it comes to farmhouse-style decor, nothing is more trendy AND budget-friendly than burlap. This material looks fantastic as a burlap Christmas wreath. Today we’ll show you how to use burlap ribbon to create a beautiful rustic Christmas tree for your living room.  

Rustic Christmas Tree Tips

With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s almost time to put up your Christmas tree. But what should you do if you want to change up the look of your entire tree without spending a fortune on new ornaments, garland and other decor? 

I have some no-fail tips that will help you transform your Christmas tree without spending a fortune!

Use Ornaments To Celebrate Memories

Growing up one of our big family traditions was to receive a new ornament each year at Christmas time. When I travel, I also like to get an ornament as a souvenir or memento to remind me about our trip. So one of my favorite things about trimming the tree at Christmas time is how each ornament I unwrap from its storage box brings to mind a special memory.

Over the years I’ve collected so many unique and cherished ornaments. Christmas time at our house is also affectionately referred to as “penguin season”. So as you can imagine, I have an abundance of penguin holiday ornaments too. I even have an angel penguin tree topper that my mom made for me out of felt.

Add Burlap Accents To Enhance The tree

So here’s my dilemma: I love to hang all of my penguins and sentimental ornaments on our Christmas tree yet I also love the current farmhouse decor trend. I didn’t want to go through the expense or hassle of replacing all of my precious ornaments just to get the farmhouse look. Instead, I chose to use wide burlap ribbon as garland on our tree.

Problem solved. One simple change and BAM! Instant rustic Christmas tree for our family room. Let me show you how easy it is to get the same look this holiday season.

How To Make Burlap Christmas Garland

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Burlap ribbon is an inexpensive and super-easy way to add rustic charm to your holiday decorations and makes a big visual impact – especially for a rustic Christmas tree. 

What you need: 

• 5″ wide burlap ribbon
• Real or artificial Christmas tree
• Your favorite ornaments
• Holiday lights

1. Set up your Christmas tree

First set up your real or artificial Christmas tree wherever you want it to go in your living room. Make sure it’s securely tightened in the tree stand. There’s nothing worse than a tree tipping over after you’ve got it beautifully decorated. 

PRO TIP: After you assemble or set up your Christmas tree, wrap the tree with holiday lights. Do this BEFORE you drape burlap garland around your tree. This way the holiday lights can shine through the weave of the jute strands in the burlap ribbon.   

2. Start at the top of the Christmas tree

Now take one end of your burlap ribbon and tie it around the top of your Christmas tree to hold it in place. My penguin tree topper hides the knot so it’s not visible. If your tree topper won’t hide the knot, you may want to use a twist tie, twine or yarn to more discreetly attach the burlap ribbon to the tip of your tree. 

3. Wrap the burlap ribbon around your Christmas tree

Now unwind your roll of burlap ribbon a little at a time and wrap it around your Christmas tree. Try not to get it caught on the tree needles. 

As you work your way around the tree, you’ll want to turn, fold or twist the burlap ribbon at times to give it more of an easy layered or draped appearance. You can also weave in and out of branches. Make sure you leave plenty of room on the tips of the branches to hang your ornaments. 

4. Adjust the burlap garland, if necessary

Once you’ve wrapped burlap garland around your rustic Christmas tree, stand back and take a good look at it. You may need to adjust the twists, turns, and folds in the ribbon so the burlap displays or drapes nicely. Likewise you may also want to adjust the spacing between each time it was wrapped around the tree so the burlap is more evenly dispersed. 

5. Add your favorite Christmas ornaments

Now it’s time for the best part. Get out your ornaments and start decorating your tree. If you don’t have a collection of favorite ornaments already, you can make your own like these Cinnamon Stick Crosses, these Mini Embroidery Hoop Ornaments or one of these 35 homemade ornament ideas.

If you prefer to get new ones, these are some of the best rustic Christmas tree ornaments I found online —

Let the kids help you decorate the tree if you dare. You may need to rearrange after they go to bed at night unless you like only having ornaments on the lower half of your tree. If your children are very young these tips for decorating a tree with toddlers may help. 

6. Finish With A Tree Skirt

Don’t forget to add a pretty Christmas tree skirt! Mine is red velvet with white fur trim like this one. But you could also wrap a burlap table runner around the base to hide the stand. I also love these tree skirts —  

Light up your rustic Christmas tree and enjoy!

Now that the tree is beautifully decorated, make yourself some homemade hot cocoa, start up the holiday tunes and turn down the overhead lights. It’s time to let that gorgeous Christmas tree TWINKLE AND SHINE!

I especially love how the lights sparkle right through the weave of the burlap fabric. The rustic Christmas tree really makes the whole living room feel more magical at the holidays, don’t you think?

After December 25th, when you take the tree down you can carefully roll the burlap ribbon up and save it to use again next year. 

Two New Burlap Garland Ideas

After I wrote this post back in 2018, I decided to update it with two new ideas – how to make a lighted garland and how to make a gathered burlap garland.

Lighted Burlap Garland Idea

Grab some fairy lights and hot glue them to the burlap ribbon. This will make the burlap ribbon lighted so that it glows.

Or, you can just cut the burlap into 6-inch strips and tie the strips to your Christmas lights. This will give your tree even more texture and flair!

Gathered Burlap Garland

Making gathered garland is really simple. You’ll need strong yarn or thread for this. Just loosely thread it through the length of burlap for your garland. Weave it through the center of the burlap until you reach the other end.

As you go through large sections, gather the burlap on the yarn/cord. It will look frilly and gathered and so pretty!

Keep in mind that gathering your burlap will mean you have to use more to wrap around your tree.

Enjoy and have a wonderful happy holiday season! We would love to see photos of your pretty Christmas tree wrapped in burlap ribbon. You can e-mail them to us at [email protected] or tag us @kenarryideas on Instagram or Facebook. 

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What’s Next? 

You may also enjoy these Christmas ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –

• Christmas Printables: 21 Festive Holiday Wall Art Ideas
• Christmas Mantel Decor Ideas: Red and Green Accents
• Holiday Gift Tag Banner
• How to Make a Christmas Garland with Felt
• How to Make DIY Christmas Garland with Vintage Ornaments

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Originally published November 2018. Updated November 2020.