Wreaths and garlands have been used in festivals and in celebrations for many thousands of years. Its believed that with the wreath forming a circle that it symbolizes eternity, it has no beginning or end. One of the ancient celebrations where wreaths were given as a prize was at the Pythian Games, a precursor to the Olympic Games which are held today. Wreaths were also made larger and placed on doors or the sides of buildings, probably equal to something like the 72 inch Princess Pine Giant Christmas Wreath which is used today. The festivals and celebrations during the winter months often used wreaths and garland to decorate towns and villages. At these times more than the summer festivals evergreen was used, it held several symbolic meanings, such as the vitality of life, or the never ending love of God, as evergreen survived the harsh winters. During the summer celebrations flowers were most often used in combination with other plants to create wreaths and garland or something like the Burgundy Grapevine Christmas Floral Arrangements. Another popular celebration was a wedding. In small villages usually the entire population would be involved in decorating and baking for the wedding. Here anything that nature could provide was used to make decorations for this most festive of celebrations. After all, this was a time when two families would be united through the marriage of their children. And it seems that ancient people were much like today's people in that everyone looks for any reason to through a party!

Modern Uses of Wreaths and Garland:

Today, just as anciently, garland is made of many types of things, like the Decorated Country Holiday Garland and is used in a variety of celebrations. But wreaths seem to be primarily used in the fall and winter festivals, especially at Christmas time such as the Decorative Christmas Wreaths. While anciently people were limited to the items found around their village to make decorations, today we can have anything from all over the world as well as synthetic materials to make our decorations. In the old days using living things meant that they would die and could not be reused, but today with synthetic materials we can use an item for many years before it needs to be replaced. Items made from wood typically last a long time like the Wooden Gingerbread Man Garland, but we can make Artificial Garland and Lighted Christmas Garland, which last for several years. I remember as a child stringing real popcorn and cranberries to make a garland for the Christmas tree. Today we can use artificial materials to make a replica of that Popcorn and Cranberry Tree Garland or even a 14 x 9 Norway Pine Artificial Garlands. A popular item today is using tinsel for garland, like the Gold Tinsel Garland. Tinsel is made of thin plastic with a metallic look, although at one time it was actually made of thin metal shavings.