I thought peer pressure ended in high school, but it doesn’t.

If you move into a neighborhood where your neighbors throw up elaborate outdoor Christmas decor – giant inflatable snowmen, large flocks of waist-high candy canes standing at attention, trees painstakingly covered in strands of Christmas lights up until six feet off the ground – you don’t wanna be that family who didn’t make the smallest effort.

Well, I just made the smallest effort.

Now maybe the popular kids on the block will be our friends, invite us to their parties and sit with us in the cafeteria?

This is all you need for a monogrammed wreath:

• Plywood letter
• Floral wire
• Greenery (I used cypress and holly)
• Embellishments

Last year I had Andy cut this giant M out of plywood for a wreath I used inside, but I wanted to repurpose it for the front door this year. You can use any kind of scrap lumber to cut out your letter, or I guess if your last initial is “O,” you can just use a wreath form. (Cheater.)

It is not necessary to place your plywood letter over the only giant crack in your whole patio.
Then grab a pile of greenery and start placing it on your letter, securing it by wrapping floral wire around the whole thing.

When you have most of it covered, you might end up with some bare corners, like the tops here:

Add more greenery there, going in the other direction. It’ll be cool, promise.

Here’s my hairy guy after the first layer of greenery.
Then I went back in and added giant piles of holly. I think it would’ve been nice to add it in little bunches instead of the covering the whole thing, but I had piles of holly and minimal self-restraint.

Then I was like “Eh? It needs something?” so I added more stuff, like faux magnolias and some pinecones I found nearby.

At this point you can give it a little haircut, or not, or whatever.

We hung it from some fishing line on the front door (“monofilament,” if you’re classy like me, but still unclassy enough to use monofilament on your front door). We stuck some flat-topped thumb tacks in the side of the front door (because the top of the door is metal), screwed picture hangers on the back of the wreath and looped fishing line from the picture hangers to the thumb tacks, if that makes any sense.

I meant to add some little red ornaments to our fir trees, but I didn’t, so let’s pretend:

Classy.

But it’s a much cheaper way to succumb to peer pressure than spending all my allowance on pagers and Abercrombie.

P.S.: Check out these other holiday craft ideas!

• DIY kissing ball with fresh greenery (Costs almost nothing!)
• Easy glittery snowballs
• Make your own Christmas art (one of my most popular posts!)(…and here’s take 2!