THE stresses and deadlines of the pre-Christmas week were lightened this week. I had a morning of fun, laughter, and practical activity with a large group of local children. They belonged to an out-of-school club and have visited the site at Clow Beck several times throughout the year.

As a group we have grazed hedgerows, climbed compost heaps, collected caterpillars, made tapestries and cooked up chutney. I like to feel as though we have grown, explored and made adventures into nature together.

This week we made Christmas wreaths. We didn't use oasis, or chicken wire, or sphagnum moss.

Everything was collected from the fields and woodlands around us and, unlike commercial festive regalia, it didn't cost us a penny.

The winds that had ripped through the site (and my polytunnel) the week before had brought down 1,000 twigs from the crack willow canopy.

The pathway through the woods was littered with them, which made collecting them an easy job. The added bonus was that the children also cleared the pathway for me.

Crack willow is not the easiest willow to work with on a sculptural basis, as it is not as supple as some others, but for our purposes it was fine.

The first step was to bend a long piece of willow into a circle. Thicker branches can be coaxed into not snapping by flexing every inch, until it bends to the shape which is required.

Ideally, the ends should be twisted and wound together, but we did cheat and use string. Once the main circle was formed we started twisting other twigs around it, poking the ends in between other branches. It was one of those things that took time to get started but once you got the hang of it, it was a fairly simple and very addictive procedure. A thick, natural looking base soon formed.

Then it was back out into the woods and hedgerows to collect holly, hawthorn, rosehips and acorns.

A small detour to the Christmas tree farm over the top field armed us with bags-full of evergreen off-cuts; the bottom brash and misshapen branches from the trees.

It was with these lengths of fir and pine that we started creating the wreath greenery.

They were poked in-between the woven willow twigs, until no more bark could be seen. Then the splashes of colour were added, tied in with the aid of small lengths of wire.

Fingers; small ones, old ones and those bandaged up after being sliced by pruning secateurs (35 years of gardening and it still happens) nimbly threaded hawthorn stalks through the pine needles and poked holly stems in between crack willow twigs. By the end of the morning there were 20 beautiful, home made Christmas wreaths held up by their proud creators.

I smiled to myself as I watched from the building as they neatly marched up the driveway, through the freezing fog and out on the road back to school. Their fluorescent bibs shimmered in the mist and they clung on to their hoops of willow like fancy wooden life-belts.

Over the holiday period, they will remember the fun that they had, and the skills that they learnt every time they come through their front doors and look upon their handiwork.

As I swept up the forest of pine needles, scraped the squashed holly and hawthorn berries and washed the secateur-induced spots of blood from the classroom floor I reminisced about the simplicity of the activity we had undertaken that morning.

It had engaged and entertained them for two hours, it gave them a product at the end of the day and it didn't need batteries. I wonder how many parents will be saying the same about some of the many Christmas presents that their children will be unwrapping this weekend.

JOBS THIS WEEK

CUT down stalks of Brussel sprouts and place them in a bucket of water.

This keeps them fresh right up until the day you need them, and means that on Christmas day you don't have to go traipsing down to the kitchen garden in the freezing cold to pick them for your festive meal.

IF you have a real Christmas tree then do remember to keep it topped up with water every day. They can easily use a litre of water a day if they are in a centrally heated sitting room.

HANG bird feeders among your shrubs and borders. This will not only keep them fed through the cold spell, but will also encourage them to pick off any pests that might be lurking among the greenery.

* Brigid presents Ask about Gardening every Sunday on BBC Radio Cleveland 95FM from 1-2pm.

Questions will be answered on the day by emailing cleveland.studios@bbc.co.uk, texting 07786200995 or phoning 01642-225511.

Alternatively, send questions to brigidpress@hotmail.com or The Clow Beck Eco Centre, Old Spa Farm, Crofton- Tees, Darlington, DL2 2TQ info@clowbeckecocentre.co.uk