This easy Christ­mas cen­ter­piece is quick, sim­ple and most importantly…FREE! Yep, you heard me, free. Put on your hik­ing shoes and go on a nature walk to look for these two nat­u­ral­ly beau­ti­ful ele­ments to bring togeth­er to make your own Christ­mas centerpiece. 

Before you begin gath­er­ing, grab a dough bowl to bring your dis­play items togeth­er. Mine was a gift but you can get a sim­i­lar one here.

This Christ­mas cen­ter­piece idea began one evening a cou­ple week ago when Josh and I were strolling down the dri­ve­way with the kid­dos. We round­ed the last cor­ner of our suu­u­u­per long dri­ve and this plant caught my atten­tion. It had the most beau­ti­ful red clus­ters of vibrant red berries that could be seen at a distance.

Josh, being the med­i­c­i­nal plant guru that he is, trecked off across the field to har­vest a piece for me! Look at how beau­ti­ful these are up close! He imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­nized the plant based on it’s beau­ti­ful defin­ing fea­tures, iden­ti­fy­ing it as sumac. 

There are many uses for sumac of this vari­ety which you can read about here. BUT…not once did I find it used in decor. So nat­u­ral­ly, I had to give it a try!

Josh gath­ered a hand­ful of the vibrant plant and brought them inside. He laid them on top of a dough bowl of pinecones, I already had dis­played and when I saw them there it just clicked! They paired beau­ti­ful­ly with the tex­ture of the pinecones.

All it took was a lit­tle bit of effort­less styling ands tuck­ing of the stems to achieve this beau­ti­ful, nat­ur­al Christ­mas Cen­ter­piece. The col­ors are per­fect and the tex­ture is com­plete­ly unique to oth­er bowl fillers and cen­ter­pieces I have in my home.

As far as keep­ing these stems for next year, I have not total­ly fig­ured out the preserv­abil­i­ty but as of right now, about 1 week after har­vest­ing, they seem to be hold­ing their shape and col­or very well. There is some minor shed­ding, which is to be expect­ed with any nat­ur­al plant but I think this is a win in my book!

I would love to know what you think about this easy Christ­mas cen­ter­piece in the comments!