Christmas wreaths on windows how do you get them to stay?

14 years ago

I just bought wreaths for the front of my home and put ribbons on them and hung them from ribbon and dropped them from the top sash of my windows. We thought they would stay from the force of the window being closed, but it seems that they are going to move when the wind blose because when I pull on the ribbon they move! I thought the window would keep them in place? Is there a trick to this I am not getting? The home is newer and they windows seem to be air tight. The ribbon is that velvety outdoor ribbon and the wreaths are not super heavy? Do I need to place something up there with the ribbon to make it a tighter fit?

Thanks!

Featured Answer

lesmis

14 years ago

We used to use fishing line in our old house and it worked great. Since we've moved we now live in a "wind" zone because we have 30 acres of open fields on one side and water on two other sides so the winds here are ferocious.

We bought curtain tension rods, the inexpensive white ones used for cafe curtains. We ran them through the top (from side to side on the back) of the wreath where the wire frame is on each wreath. Then line up the white rod you would see on either side coming out from behind the wreath with the white of your window mullion. It's hard to describe but it works really well. We've had driving rain and wind gusts up to 40 or 50 mph and they have still held up just fine.

Here are two pictures to show you what we did. If you line the rod up with a mullion or a part of your window that is white, you don't see the rods at all, from either the inside or the outside.

This isn't perfectly lined up with the mullion and the pic is from an angle but you can get an idea of how the rod blends in with the window, assuming your windows are white. You could spray paint the rods if your trim is a different color.

Good luck!

Kat :)

Comments (13)

graywings123
14 years ago
That's how I did it for years in a house I used to live in. My windows faced east and the wreaths laid nicely. My ribbon was about 3 inches wide.

I had one wreath on a north facing window and it would sometimes get hit by wind shear and would flip around, but it was tight enough in the window that it didn't pull out.
pagram
14 years ago
Had the same problem the first year I hung wreaths - then DH tied fishing line around the bottom of the wreath and brought it back in through the bottom window. You'll need something to wrap the line around to keep if from slipping back out or attach something at the end of the line. There might be a better solution but that works for us.
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jan_in_wisconsin
14 years ago
How about suction cups? I've had good luck so far with the higher quality suction cups. Check the weight allowances on the package, and if your wreaths are light enough, they should work.
mcps
14 years ago
The last couple of years I used those 3M hooks. See the link - it's easier than trying to describe!

Here is a link that might be useful: 3M hooks
cattknap
14 years ago
We have our wreaths all up on our Cape Cod style house....my husband hangs them on a hook and wires everything....then runs a not-too-thick wire around the mid bottom of the wreath straight down to an eye hook screwed into the brick and secures the wire tightly into the eye hook. Those wreaths never move even in the worst of storms. You really can't see the wire from the street or sidewalk - it just blends in with the window.
dixiedo
14 years ago
I actually use packaging tape. I bring the ribbon up through the window and then tape it down against the sill. It is taut enough not to twist and turn.
rucnmom
14 years ago
I use green florist wire. I take a really long pice, fold it half, stick the folded portion through the wreath, and then send the free ends through. I open the top half of the window, throw the wreath out while holding the wire in place. Then I shut and lock the window. Some winters I bang a finish nail into the top of the inside window trim and wrap the wire around that but that is only if I am feeling ambitious.
summiebee
Original Author
14 years ago
Excellent ideas! You are all so quick! We ended up getting them to just the right h eight and then knotting the ribbon once it was pulled through on the inside at the suggestion of a neighbor and then taking the suggestion of some here we are buying suction cups for the bottom to keep them from flipping!

Do you guys spotlight them or flood light them? We have a decent sized home and it has a large front porch and we put floods on it and they did not reach the top so I am thinkign several spots to reach the top and bottom just back them up a ways so they are not so direct?
museblues
14 years ago
Neat, Kat !
firstcitizen1
8 years ago
Tie a big double knot in the ribbon inside the window. That will stop the gradual slide of the ribbon. Or wrap the inside ribbon around a small block of wood, secure with a knot or thumbtack. The wood will be a stop.
polly929
8 years ago
What firstcitizen1 said :)
dedtired
8 years ago
I use these magnetic wreath hangers.

They are powerful! The hard part is reaching on both sides of the window or storm door to get the two sides to meet each other.