This month, look to your yard for festive, all-natural decor, consider a non-traditional Christmas tree and tend to your poinsettias
by Helen Yoest

Everything I need to make my holiday home festive is outside! Some of my favorite greenery cuttings include blue atlas cedar, boxwood, Leyland cypress and winterberry holly. I’ll fill a vase with mixed cuttings and add a poinsettia stem for flair. Some years, I buy a wreath at the nursery and add my cuttings to it —I love its natural beauty. Here are some other garden-inspired tips for the holiday season.

Care for Your Poinsettias

Poinsettias hail from Mexico and have been coloring our holiday homes since they were first introduced here in the 1820s. It’s the bracts (leaves, not petals!) that give us color, with their tiny flowers tucked in the center. To keep them fresh, provide bright, indirect light and water when the top of the soil is dry, allowing excess water to drain. I give you permission to put them in the compost pile once they start to look ratty!

Plant Holly Shrubs

Winterberry, Ilex verticillata, is one of my favorite native deciduous plants with its bright red berries on deep brown stems. To ensure the lovely bright red berries each winter, look for male pollinating varieties such as Southern Gentleman or Jim Dandy.

Reconsider the Christmas Tree

Looking for a fun tradition that also helps your yard and environment? Forgo the classic cut Christmas tree and instead decorate a large potted or balled-and-burlapped shrub that can be planted in your yard afterward. Good choices include a pyramidal-shaped boxwood, such as Green Mountain, Pyramidalis or Highlander. If you choose to use a boxwood for your holiday decor, try to minimize its indoor time (plan to take it outside within two weeks) and water it well.  

This article originally appeared in the December 2025 issue of WALTER magazine.