it's hard to imagine celebrating  Christmas without them

Today I'm collecting some greenery  from the grounds at Audley End  

so that I can make Christmas decorations  to put up around the house and gardens

Traditionally when the Braybrookes lived here,  evergreens would have been used for Christmas  

decorations and we still use evergreens to  create decorations for the house and gardens

There's a range of foliage to choose  from including things like holly,  

box, ivy and several types of conifer

but within the house we need to be mindful  of the conservation of the collection  

so consider things like the moisture and then  the insects that could be taken into the house

people have been using foliage as  festive decorations since the middle ages  

evergreens for Christians symbolise eternal life  

and so bringing greenery into the house  promises that return to life in the spring

so a wreath is a circular arrangement of foliage  

obviously for Christmas wreaths  it tends to be evergreens.

Wreaths were used in roman times to  mark military success or excellence  

they're also recorded as being used  to crown winners at Olympic games

wreaths were first hung on front doors in the  19th century and they were also known as welcome  

rings they tended to be made up of holly,  ivy, and also cones and homemade decorations

and so kissing boughs they  date from the Tudor period  

and at that time they were made of  evergreens by the Georgian period they become  

more elaborate so they included things like  fruit and ribbons and homemade decorations

kissing boughs tended to include  berries in the Georgian period  

and so a gentleman could pluck a berry from the  kissing bough and ask a lady for a kiss on the cheek  

and once all the berries were gone then  there were no more kisses to be had  

and this might be where the tradition of  kissing under the mistletoe comes from

mistletoe is an evergreen plant  it tends to be on apple trees,  

poplars or limes and if you look up into  trees what you'll see is a very big ball  

of green it's parasitic so it's feeding off  its host tree the berries are spread by birds

although it's feeding off the tree it  won't kill the tree but it will weaken it

every year we have a real tree here  at Audley End in the great hall  

the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1800  by Queen Charlotte the German wife of George III  

but they're most commonly associated with  Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort

so in the Victorian period Christmas trees  would have been decorated with candles,  

fruit, homemade decorations and small gifts

the Christmas tree that we use here  is likely to be a spruce or a fir

it's very large because the great hall has very  high ceilings so probably between 20 and 30 feet

when I'm making my wreaths I get  together all the materials that I need 

we have the foliage that we  cut from the grounds earlier

there's box, and the holly,  and the redwood foliage,  

also off-cuts from the Christmas  tree which are really useful

there's a metal wreath base, moss for mossing  the base and also wire that I'm going to use

I've started to add moss to the base and  I've got a long way around the base already

what I do is take handfuls of the  moss and place it on the top and then  

wire it onto the base by going  through the centre and pulling tightly

so the moss just provides more depth to the wreath  

but it also provides a bit of  moisture behind the foliage

so I'll now tie off the wire and  then we get onto the next stage

now the base is ready I'm going to make bunches of  foliage – layered foliage – to place onto the base  

and use the wire to fix it in place

continue to use the foliage to build the layers,  

overlapping each other until  you get back to the beginning

and then our wreath is complete

so it should last the whole of the festive  season because we've been careful with the  

foliage that we've chosen it's all got waxy  leaves and so it will hang onto its moisture

evergreens have been cut and used for  centuries to dress houses for Christmas  

and this is a tradition that we carry on at  Audley End to dress our house this Christmas