What You’ll Need
Cardboard tube (from wrapping paper or paper towel)
Small cardboard box or spare pieces of cardboard
Flowers of assorted colors/sizes
3 colors of ribbon
Green felt marker
Tape or glue
Scissors
Flower wreath (optional)
How To Make It
First you need to cut your cardboard tube down to size. 10 inches is ideal, but you can make it longer or shorter as you see fit. For the base, it doesn’t matter how silly it looks because it’s going to be covered up.
Ideally you want an inch-high square box. If your box is too tall, just cut it in half. Place the tube on top of the box and trace a circle onto the cardboard. Cut out the circle and insert the tube.
If you don’t have a box, you can use a ribbon roll (insert the tube into the center of the ribbon roll) or make a base out of spare cardboard. Cut a strip of cardboard 1 inch thick and 10 inches long. Wrap the cardboard into a ring and tape or glue it into place. Set the ring on a fresh piece of cardboard and trace a circle. Cut it out. Now place to tube on top of that circle of cardboard and trace another circle; cut it out. Glue the cardboard doughnut to the top of the ring you made, and insert the tube in the hole.
Voila, you have a basic maypole. My base ended up looking like a mess of cardboard and tape, so don’t worry if it looks laughable. Now that you know the tube fits in the base, you can remove it. It’s easier to work without the base right now.
Now you’re going to need a variety of flowers and 3 colors of ribbon. I reused some flowers from my Ostara altar.
If you choose to, use the green felt marker to draw vines and leaves on the maypole. Traditionally the pole is plain, but I made mine into a centerpiece. Next you may choose to decorate the bottom half of the pole with small wire flowers and leaves. If you have difficulty punching the wire through the cardboard, make a small hole with a pin or the scissors first. The flower/leaf will cover the hole.
Now for the ribbons! Cut 2 ribbons of each color (6 total) of 13 inch length. If you chose a cardboard tube that wasn’t 10 inches, just measure the tube and add 3 inches: that’s the length of your ribbon. One at a time, tape or glue the end of each ribbon on the inside of the top half of the maypole. I suggest using tape so you don’t have to hold it, and it’s inside the tube so it doesn’t matter what it looks like. Make sure all 6 are an equal distance apart from each other. To hide the open end of the tube, you can place a flower in the top.
Now put the tube back into the base and tape/glue it into place so it stays steady. If you have a flower wreath, place it around the base now and any exposed cardboard with flowers. If you don’t have a wreath, start poking holes in the cardboard base and slip large flowers in to decorate the base. Add small flowers in spaces that need covering.
You now have an altar maypole!
If you wish to make the maypole out of wood, use a 10 inch dowel nailed to a wooden base. Cut ribbons of 24 inch length and tie the center of each ribbon around the top of the pole. You’ll need a flower wreath for the base and wrap extra flowers around the bottom of the maypole to hide the base. Personally I found the dowel maypole to be too thin and not very customizable. Not to mention cardboard is cheaper than wood, and I made it look better!
I had a lot of fun making my cardboard maypole…you might notice I went overboard with the flowers but I have a reason for it. While I was making the maypole, I was thinking about my boyfriend, Jason. When we hold each other, we both get the feeling that we can’t get close enough. We end up squeezing each other so tight that we giggle. I love that closeness…and so I demonstrated it with the maypole. The flowers of course represent the Goddess, and the pole is the God. I imagined the flowers almost threatening (lovingly) to consume the maypole, because the love is so strong. So that’s my personal reason for the flowers climbing their way to the top.
