A Christmas wreath stays round while it hangs on the door. What happens to it over the next eleven months decides how it looks next year. Stored well, it goes back up looking the same. Stored badly, it comes back flat on one side.
Why wreaths lose their shape
A wreath is built on a round frame. That is usually a wire or foam ring. The greenery, ribbon or berries are wired or glued around it. The ring copes with normal handling. It was never meant to be folded, and most storage folds it.
The common route is a carrier bag, a bin liner or a spare box from something else. None of those are round. To fit a round wreath into a square box or a sagging bag, something has to give. The frame bends. The greenery flattens on one side. The bows and berries get pressed at an angle they never recover from.
Damp is the other slow damage. A loft or garage turns cold and humid over winter. Fabric, ribbon and artificial greenery can come out smelling musty. That can happen even when nothing looks wrong at first glance.
Three things that damage a stored wreath
- Folding or bending the frame to fit a bag or box of the wrong shape.
- Weight on top of it, from decoration boxes stacked above.
- Damp air getting into an open bag or box over several months.
Heat and light barely feature. Most storage spaces are dim and fairly cool compared with a heated room. So a wreath rarely fades in storage the way it can on a sunny door. Handling and shape cause almost all the damage.
Where to store a wreath
A loft, a garage, the top of a wardrobe or the back of a cupboard all work. Keep it off a cold floor. Keep it away from an outside wall, where condensation collects first.
- Keep it off a garage floor, where damp gathers first.
- Keep the space above it clear, even of light boxes.
- Pick a spot you can lift it down from in one go.
An awkward spot gets skipped. On the day, the wreath goes wherever is easiest. So being easy to reach counts as much as being dry.
How to store it properly
- Use something made to its own shape, round instead of square, so the frame never bends.
- Keep it clear of anything heavier that could land on it later.
- Store the garland beside it, never wound around it, so neither presses a mark into the other.
- Use a bag with a handle, so it is carried and never dragged.
Dragging is usually where a frame first starts to bend. A wreath stored this way looks the same in December as it did the December before. One folded into whatever is nearest often needs straightening within two or three years. It may need re-wiring or replacing. Most people never link that damage to how it spent the rest of the year.
Before it goes away
Give the wreath a few minutes of care before you pack it. Shake it gently outdoors to loosen dust and dropped needles. Check it is completely dry, especially if it hung on an outside door. Tuck loose ribbon tails back in. Note anything that came loose, so you can fix it in the new year instead of in a December rush.
What to do with the garland
Garland has the opposite problem. It is long and bendy, where a wreath is round and rigid. So it is tempting to coil it into any gap. Loosely coiled and kept flat is better than wound tight. Tight winding is what leaves it kinked in December. Stored beside the wreath instead of around it, neither one bends the other.
How long a wreath should last
A well-made artificial wreath should last for years, well beyond one winter. Four weeks on a door does little harm to the frame. Eleven months folded flat does the harm instead. Treated well between Christmases, the same wreath can go up five or six years running. It needs little more than a shake and some re-fluffing where the greenery has settled.
More than one wreath
A front door wreath and a smaller one for a gate or office door go into storage together. The temptation is to nest them to save space. Nesting only moves the squashing onto the smaller wreath. Each one is better off with room of its own. A bag made for one wreath should hold one wreath.
A few mistakes worth naming
Some people hang the wreath from a loft hook by its ribbon. That skips storage altogether. It works until something brushes against it or a box gets stacked in front. Then it is being crushed, not stored.
The artificial tree's box is another common stand-in. Those boxes are long and rectangular, made for something folded flat. A round wreath forced into one squashes just as it would in a bin bag.
Label the bag
A wreath bag looks like every other bag by next December. Add a tag saying what is inside and which door it goes on. Note the date it went in, and anything that needs fixing. If you keep more than one wreath, number the bags. That small habit saves a search in a cold loft at the busiest time of year.
A quick mid-year check
If the wreath lives in a loft or garage, look at it once in summer. Open the bag and check for damp, musty smells or signs of pests. Let it air for an afternoon if anything feels cool or clammy. Then close it up and put it back in the same spot. Ten minutes in July beats finding the damage in December.
Bin bag, spare box or a round bag
| Storage method | What tends to happen |
|---|---|
| Bin bag or carrier bag. | The wreath folds to fit and the frame bends. Damp gets in. |
| Spare cardboard box. | The square shape squashes one side. The box softens in a damp space. |
| A bag made to the wreath's round shape. | Nothing folds. The garland travels beside it. A handle means it is carried. |
Setting this up takes a few minutes. The difference shows a year later, on the day you unpack it.
Keeping the same wreath
Buying a new wreath every year is the quiet cost of poor storage. A wreath folded flat, squashed under boxes or left damp for months rarely looks worth hanging again. So it gets replaced instead of reused. Good storage turns a decoration into something you keep. You stop buying it again each November.
Frequently asked questions
Can I store a wreath in a normal bin bag?
You can, but the wreath usually has to fold to fit, and a bin bag lets damp in over months in a loft or garage. It will survive one season. It is less likely to look right after three or four.
Does temperature matter more than damp for wreath storage?
Less than most people expect. A loft or garage stays cool and dim over winter, so fading is rarely the issue. Damp and folding cause almost all the damage.
Should garland be stored wrapped around the wreath?
It is better stored beside it. Tight wrapping can press both the garland and the wreath's frame out of shape by the time you unpack them.
Do I need to store the wreath in its original packaging?
No. Most wreaths arrive in whatever box or bag they shipped in, which is rarely the right shape for long-term storage. A bag made to the wreath's round shape does more for it.
Round Christmas Wreath Storage Bag - Large
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