The Eras Tour ended last weekend in Vancouver. During her final Canadian leg of the tour, Canadian stadiums and fans went all out in Toronto and Vancouver. During the Toronto stop, even the police horses went all out, wearing giant friendship bracelets with the names of Taylor Swift albums on them.
As we move into winter decoration, AKA garland season—popcorn garlands, greenery, and tinsel—there has been an explosion of oversized friendship bracelets. Turns out the horses were right! Decorating your shelves, mantels, trees, and windows with giant beads is easier than ever. Like real friendship bracelets, these garlands are easy to customize, arranging “beads” (often multi-colored ball pit balls in various colors and shapes) and letters to create patterns, match color palettes, and your favorite phrases (or lyrics!).
Friendship Bracelet Trees
For Christmas decorations, phrases like “Tis The Season,” “Merry and Bright,” and “Merry Christmas” are great choices for decking the halls and your tree. Then your “beads” can bring out your favorite colors from classic reds and greens to your own custom color palettes, or you could match them to your favorite Taylor Swift album.
Taylor Swift Lyrics About Christmas
“Season’s greetings, hope you’re well” – “Christmases When You Were Mine,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection
“Christmas must be something more” – “Christmas Must Be Something More,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection
“I go back to December all the time” – “Back to December,” Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
“I still remember the first fall of snow and how it glistened as it fell” – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” Red (Taylor’s Version)
“You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round” – “You Are in Love,” 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
“We could leave the Christmas lights up til January,” – “Lover,” Lover
“In my heart is a Christmas tree farm”/“Sweet dreams of holly and ribbon,” – “Christmas Tree Farm”
More Decor Ideas
Friendship bracelet garlands aren’t just for Christmas trees. You can deck the halls, mantles, and yourself with super-sized beads. Use your favorite colors (festive or otherwise) and write names or joyful words with your letter beads. These garlands are completely DIY and customized to you, so if you want to leave your decorations up until January or even year-round, you can!
Make Your Own
Creating your own garlands is a simple DIY that you can fill an afternoon with as a solo-craft or a crafternoon activity for your family or a group of friends. Etsy Stores and Target carry a variety of 3D-printed and plastic-enlarged bead shapes, but many crafty people have taken their DIY just a bit further for extra customization.
Using ball pit balls in various shapes like spheres, stars, and hearts, leaves you open to a wide variety of color options (who knew ball pits were so customizable?), and foam rounds with vinyl letter stickers make creating as many letter beads as you need a piece of cake! Round out your supply list with fishing line and a large upholstery needle for stringing your garland together.
Like any friendship bracelet, the order of the beads is up to you, but if this task still seems intimidating, creatives like Perla Martinez (DIYholic) have made videos to show us just how easy it is. (You can watch her tutorial below.) Be creative, be safe (needles are sharp!), and create something you love!
