Wreaths add instant holiday cheer, conjuring up images of Yuletide as depicted on Christmas cards and in old movies. Tables and fireplace mantels, doors and staircases come alive with color, and rooms are filled with the scents of pine and cedar.

Small wreaths designed to encircle a pillar candle make warm-looking centerpieces: Its greens reflect the candle's glow, and a glass plate hidden beneath them prevents drips of wax from ruining your table.

Enhance your wreath centerpiece with kumquats, hazelnuts, walnuts, and tiny hemlock pinecones to add a seasonal touch. Placing one or more of these centerpieces on your dining room table will announce that Christmas is near.

Tools and Materials
Boxwood or cedar boughs cut to 4- to 5-inch lengths
8-inch wire wreath form
24-gauge floral wire
Wire cutters
Floral shears
3-inch double-faced satin ribbon
Scissors
Kumquats, hazelnuts, walnuts, hemlock pinecones

Boxwood Wreath Centerpiece How-To 
1. Gather 6 or 8 boxwood branches into a bunch, and secure them at the base with floral wire. Clip the wire, and continue making wired bunches until you have enough to cover your wreath.

2. Secure the end of a piece of floral wire onto the wreath frame at one of the crossbars. Pull it as tight as you can; it won't break.

3. Begin to wire bunches onto the wreath frame, alternating between the inside and the outside wires of the frame. Overlap each bunch, making certain not to leave any of the wire frame exposed.

4. When the wreath is completely covered with boxwood, use floral shears to trim the boxwood. Try to make the wreath look as round as possible.

5. Place the wreath on a glass plate around a pillar candle. Drop kumquats, walnuts, hazelnuts and hemlock pinecones in the narrow canyon between the wreath and the base of the candle.