How to Hang a Wreath on a Mirror

I received a large, festive, green, and pre-lit wreath this week.  All the  decorative parts are already done for you. Isn’t that nice especially right around now when you are probably feeling like you can’t do another thing to prepare for the holidays?  The only thing I needed to do was figure out how to hang a wreath on a mirror. It is much bigger than your standard front door size holiday wreath.

Tree Classics has been selling quality artificial Christmas trees, wreaths, and garland since 1976 and sent me this 34” San Marco Wreath to review.

It arrived on my doorstep earlier this week. I took it out of the box to take a look and was pleasantly surprised at how real it looks and feels.  I have decorated a lot of artificial wreaths in my career and this by far is one of the best.  It is the perfect green – not too dark like most fake greenery. I put it back in the box for safe keeping until I could hang it as I was headed for a trip into NYC for the day and had to get going.

After my meeting, I took some time to window shop before heading home. I passed the Plaza Hotel and my eyes went straight to the huge wreaths that were hanging in front of the windows  – classic holiday wreaths that never go out of style. What struck me even more was that they were identical to the Tree Classics wreath that was delivered to my house earlier in the day.

 There was scaffolding all around the hotel and this is the beat shot I could get, but you can see the wreath is festively decorated with an abundance of red berries, pine cones and foliage with an array of classic white lights to make the greenery sparkle.  It is a classic just like the San Marco Wreath from Tree Classics, except for the gold balls.

 

 I have newly dubbed this Tree Classics wreath – “the Plaza” wreath.  I know that most of you have already decorated your homes for Christmas, but this wreath comes out of the box ready to go. Just hang and plug in.  No light strings to mess with or floral picks needed.

It is big – 34”.  I had to look around my house for a place to put it that had an electrical socket nearby.  Too big for my doors.  It would be perfect above a mantel, but mine has a flat screen TV.  I liked how it looked in my dining room above my fake mantel and over the mirror to reflect the light.  I also like the way the light-green leaves that are in the wreath look with my snowflake table setting.

It is very well constructed and heavier than the wreaths you get at the craft store.  I had to figure out a way to hang it from the mirror.  I ended up placing a metal wreath hanger over the top of the mirror.  I removed the smaller mirror I had in front.

 I cut the hanger down to the length I needed, so that the wreath would be centered on the mirror when hooked on the hanger. I measured the length needed and bent the hanger in the middle.

Curled the end up to make a new hook.  I needed hubby’s brawny strength to cut the excess off with tin snips :)

Then I hung the wreath on it.  Since the wreath is pre-lit there is a cord that needs to be hidden. I placed a few gift boxes in front of to hide it.  You could also use  matching garland to hide the cord.

Here is my failed attempt at creating holiday bokeh.  Not really, just an unfocused photo, but it does provide an image to show that the wreath passes what I call the “squint test”.  I learned this as a child – when you squint it brings what you are looking at into focus. It is the best test to make sure you are putting strings of lights on greenery evenly.  You can see this wreath’s lights are placed perfectly evenly.  From a retail display point of view this is hard to do without any wires showing.

Here is a close-up photo I took to show you the detail.  It truly looks real.

Here is the professional close-up with better lighting.  Lots of texture and detail.

The wreath is made from flame-retardant PVC and fade-resistant materials to ensure that you will have many years to enjoy and decorate your home for the holidays with it.    It came with a zippered clear plastic cover that will  keep the wreath dust free when not in use.  I also plan to store it in the sturdy box that it came in…

but only if I can get someone out- who thinks it is his new snuggly place to hang-out.