This was one of the first jobs that I had as a teenager. Every holiday season I worked for a florist shop in my hometown of Greenfield Center, NY called Van Arnum's Flower Shop.
I loved the smell of Christmas trees in there as we worked, but by the 50th kissing ball and having blackish sap stuck to your fingers because your rubber gloves tore, again, you pretty much never want to see as much as another pine needle for another 364 days.
But I learned a neat skill and it's one of my favorite things to make around the holiday season.
They look beautiful indoors or out, and you can really let your creativity go wild by adding extra elements like pine cones, ribbons, and even lights. Plus you can substitute other materials for the evergreen branches, like fabric, paper, Christmas ball ornaments, and more!
Materials Needed
- Styrofoam Ball(s)- Comes in assorted sizes; keep in mind that the bigger the diameter of the Styrofoam ball, the larger the evergreen branches you will need, and the more of them too.
- Clippers/Pruning Shears- a nice pair of sharp shears to trim your evergreen branches.
- Wire Hangers- An easy way to hang up your kissing balls when you are done.
- Garden Gloves- Try to get a flexible leather pair to handle the prickly branches and pine sap.
- Ribbon/Extras- Whatever creative elements you want to add to jazz it up a little. I recommend using wired ribbon as it holds its shape better for bows and ribbon streamers.
🌿 Get Your Supplies for This Project
A few helpful supplies to have on hand before you get started.
Affiliate disclosure: This section contains Amazon affiliate links. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
🌲 6" Styrofoam Balls
A good base size for making a full evergreen kissing ball.
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A good base size for making a full evergreen kissing ball.
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🧥 Wire Hangers — Bulk Pack
Used to create the wire pieces that secure the evergreen branches into the foam ball.
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Used to create the wire pieces that secure the evergreen branches into the foam ball.
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✂️ Fiskars Pruning Shears
Sharp pruning shears make trimming evergreen branches much easier. This Fiskars pair also comes with a lifetime warranty.
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Sharp pruning shears make trimming evergreen branches much easier. This Fiskars pair also comes with a lifetime warranty.
Shop on Amazon → (paid link)
🧤 Gardening Gloves
A flexible pair of gloves helps protect your hands from prickly branches and that incredibly sticky evergreen sap.
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A flexible pair of gloves helps protect your hands from prickly branches and that incredibly sticky evergreen sap.
Shop on Amazon → (paid link)
🎀 2.5" Wired Red Velvet Ribbon — 30 Yards
Wired ribbon holds its shape beautifully for bows and hanging streamers.
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Wired ribbon holds its shape beautifully for bows and hanging streamers.
Shop on Amazon → (paid link)
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Getting Started
1.) Find Evergreen Branches
You can purchase some from a florist shop, or if you have property where you can go out back and trim some off of a tree, you can also trim off the lower branches of your Christmas tree to use those, or as a last resort you can take a ride out along the highway or a low trafficked back road at night and "borrow" some.
Some places that sell Christmas trees are also only too happy to give away FOR FREE the cut bottom branches from trees they have sold. Typically, the large commercial Christmas Tree retailers are your best bet for free tree trimmings.
2.) Trim Branches
Looking at your Styrofoam ball, estimate the length of branch cutting you will need to make the diameter Kissing Ball you desire. Figure into this estimation, that each branch you sink into the ball will have to go in at least 2-3" deep to be firmly in place.Tip: Subtract that from your brand length and you will have a better idea of total diameter before you start cutting!
Cut smaller branches off of the main bough to the size that you desire for your kissing ball. If some pieces are too long, cut the branch again where you need it, and cut closest to the next branch joint that protrudes out of the piece so that you don't have any bare wooden ends poking out of your kissing ball.
You want it to look like either a solid natural branch end, or trim that middle branch piece down to the "V" shape of the other branch growths coming off the main stem, so that you essentially have a branch segment that looks like the letter "Y", with all soft natural growth ends, no cut branch endings on your ball.
Once you stick that piece into the ball, that Y shape closes up to fill in the gaps on your ball. It will look nice and fluffy and full.
Tip: Make sure you cut your branches at a sharp angle. This will make the next step easier on you.
3.) Insert Hanger
Take a plain wire clothes hanger, cut it to your personal length specs, and poke through the top of your Styrofoam ball and push it all the way through.Trim with wire cutters if necessary at the bottom, and bend the end upwards against the base of the ball so it stays firmly inserted to hold the weight of your project.
Don't worry, your branches will cover this up nicely so no one sees it. You can leave the curved hanger part at the top; it works perfectly to hang it up while you work, and for you or your customers to use to decorate their home more easily.
4.) Start Filling It In
Begin with taking your 4 best evergreen pieces, and put them in the 4 directions N,S,E & W as if you were poking them into a globe.After that, you start at the top of your globe and, in circular spirals going down, start filling the rest of your branches into your Styrofoam ball, evenly all the way to the base.
Tip: Make sure that you don't push in the branches too far or too little; you want them to be stable and for them to make an even diameter around the ball.
5.) Ribbons or Other Decorations
Here is where there are NO RULES; just go with what you like.
I would recommend that if you use ribbon, make sure that it has the wire in it so that your bows will stay lively-looking and not droop when you hang it.
You can also hang ribbon streamers from the bottom of the ball too (see image below). Again, whatever looks good to you!
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