Pinecones are very much associated with Christmas time. We use them to decorate a tree, a nice Christmas centre piece or even a vase full of them will bring you some Christmas spirit. But do you know what is the pinecone in relation to Christmas?
Pinaceae, the pine family of conifers, consisting of 11 genera and about 220 species of trees native to northern temperate regions which include fir, douglas fir, spruce, cedar, and of course pine. Such trees are usually sources of timber, paper pulp, oils, and resins. Some are cultivated as ornamentals but plenty of forests in Europe consist of such wild trees that are there to be enjoyed.
In Malta we have a few trees belonging to the pine family but only one of them is indigenous which is the Aleppo pine or in Maltese iż-Żnuber or Prinjol. The other types of pine trees are located in various areas but not in the wild.
The pinecone is the reproductive structure seed-bearing part of a pine tree. A pine tree produces two kinds of cones: a female cone and a male cone. The female pinecone, which is larger than the male, consists of a central axis and a cluster of scales. The male cone produces the pollen grains in wing-like structures which make them easy to be transported by the wind into the female pinecone. The pollen fertilises the female egg called ovule. When it germinates, the seed will then grow into a new pine tree.
A fully open female pinecone is in the last stage of its reproductive cycle and seeds have most likely fallen off. Therefore, they would be great for us to use as decorations or make some eco-friendly Christmas gifts.
Here are some ideas of what you can do with pinecones for Christmas.
A colleague of mine once made me this lovely set of bookends as a gift for Christmas. They are completely eco-friendly, and I simply love them. All you need is two pieces of wood, sanded and finished to your liking and a bunch of pinecones glued to the side of each one. The pinecones at the bottom will help balance the wooden block and keep it stable.
Use a nice Christmas plate, it can even be a simple red or gold plate, and decorate it with some candles, pinecones, and other Christmas decorations such as baubles and hollies.
To be more eco-friendly, us at Esplora we chose to reuse different types of paper instead of wrapping paper this Christmas. Here is an example of a parcel packaging paper being reused to wrap a gift for this year’s Secret Santa. P.S do not tell Sarah that I’m her Secret Santa.
We did a DIY wreath this year. We used a piece of flexible metal wire and formed it into a circle. We wrapped the wire with some tinsel and decorated it with bows. Then we attached the pinecones using hot glue. Simple yet very beautiful.
You can also create original tree decorations using pinecones. We used pinecones to create a reindeer pinecone and an upsidedown Christmas tree. For the reindeer pinecone, we used pipe cleaner to make the antlers, foam bits for the nose and some playdough for the eyes. The other decoration is a Christmas tree. Yes, a tree on a tree 😉 if you notice, some pinecones look a bit like Christmas trees, so we just added some foam bits to represent baubles using glue. Very simple but nice 😊
Give it a shot and make your own ornaments or gifts using pinecones this Christmas!
Show us what you’ve made! Take a photo of at least 4 of your favourite activities from Esplora’s Science Advent Calendar. Trust us, you’ll need them 😉
Share your creation/experiment/project with us on social media
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