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Homecoming Mums - A Southern Tradition
by Eileen Bergen

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Homecoming Mums: A Southwestern Tradition
By Eileen Bergen
www.theartfulcrafter.com

It’s homecoming season across the nation, but only in parts of
Texas and Oklahoma, is it also "homecoming mum season". Some
students take homecoming mums just as seriously as the
homecoming football game itself.

For the uninitiated, a homecoming mum is an oversize mum corsage
decorated with three-foot long streamers in the school colors,
bells, charms, banners, little plush animals done up in bows,
sparkly letters, even Christmas tree lights. It is usually worn
in the middle of the chest like a breastplate with the streamers
flowing down the front of the body almost touching the ankles.

It is, in short, a fashion statement.

But homecoming mums are so much more than that. They are a sign
that somebody loves you. They’re no longer given only by boyfriends.
Mums can come from friends, your mom, dad, aunt, or even a booster
boy (a boy-friend who is not your date). Anybody who's anybody wears
one, or two.

These days, a homecoming mum can cost up to $100 and weigh as much
as 12 pounds!

Homecoming mums have become a status symbol for many junior high and
high school students. Designs change every year. The more original,
the better. If you’re a crafter and live in Texas or Oklahoma, you
should be in seventh heaven. You can make homecoming mums for yourself
or your favorite high school student at a fraction of the retail price.
Even the boys are getting into this fad. They’ve started wearing
homecoming garters on their sleeves. If you craft for profit, the high
margins make homecoming mums a very attractive seasonal craft.

Homecoming Mums: The Tradition

Chrysanthemums have long been the quintessential Fall flower, so it’s
not surprising that they quickly became associated with the
quintessential Fall sport – football. In the earliest pictures of
college football games, you can pick out the mum corsages worn by the
young women in the stands.

Since everything grows big in Texas, it’s also not surprising that
the Lone Star State is credited with developing the more elaborate
corsages known as homecoming mums. In the 1960’s, these wonderful
concoctions could be had there for $10. Ahh, the good ‘ol days.

Over the years, mums were cultivated to grow bigger and bigger and the
corsages grew and grew. Today, the silk flower has replaced the live
chrysanthemum as the centerpiece for homecoming mums. With silk flowers,
the only size limit to homecoming mum corsages is the size of the wearer!
Now a homecoming mum can be saved as a keepsake or recycled into next
year’s new unique corsage.

For more information about Homecoming Mums, please visit
http://www.theartfulcrafter.com/homecoming_mums.html.

By: Eileen Bergen
The Artful Crafter
www.theartfulcrafter.com/craft-ideas.html