DIY Christmas decorations are the ones people ask about, and most of these cost less than a coffee to make. Here are 34 DIY Christmas decorations for the whole house: a ribbon star on barn wood, a tin can snowman, book page stars, a giant paper chain for the garage, mini trees made from pipe cleaners and yarn, a felt advent calendar, ice lanterns for the porch and a village under a cloche. Eight of them are our own projects with a video on every one. Plenty use what's already in the recycling bin, the yard or the dollar store, and the rest take a trip to the craft aisle and an afternoon. Perfect for your mantel, your front door, the tree and the table.
1. Barn Wood Ribbon Star
Becky calls this a fifteen minute project, and she isn't exaggerating. Two pieces of old barn wood get joined into a rough square, a star gets sketched on with chalk, and a rusty painted screw goes into each of the five points. Then she wraps red ribbon from screw to screw, starting at the top, and finishes with a bow. The weathered gray wood does the heavy lifting, so it looks like a finished piece of Christmas decor the minute the bow is tied.
2. Book Page Star Ornaments
Old books nobody will read again turn into 3D stars for the tree, the window or a garland. Each star is five folded book pages: fold a page into a square, fold the sides to the center, crease the top into a point and glue the folds down, then flatten and join the five pieces into a star. Twine through one point hangs it. The printed text gives it a soft vintage look, and as DIY Christmas decorations go, this one costs nothing but glue.
3. Reclaimed Wood Christmas Tree
Donna builds this porch tree from reclaimed boards in graduated lengths, screwed to a center post so the chippy white paint shows on every layer. An old wheel rim and a wooden star sit at the top, and a few metal gears and a bucket of greenery finish the base. It leans against the brick beside the front door and holds up to a whole winter outside. If you have a pile of salvaged wood, this is the project that uses it.
4. Frozen Ice Lanterns
Stephanie Rose freezes greenery, berries and twigs from the garden into ice lanterns that glow on the porch steps at night. A small container sits inside a larger one, weighed down so it stays centered, then the gap gets packed with clippings and topped up with water. Once frozen solid, the inner container pulls out and a tea light drops in. They last as long as the cold does, and the fire and frost together look better than anything from a store.
5. Pipe Cleaner Christmas Tree
Everyone assumes this little tree came from a store. It's a cardboard cone covered in green pipe cleaners folded into loops and glued on in overlapping rows from the bottom up, so the fuzzy loops catch the light and give it a full, soft shape flat paper never gets. Mini pom poms in red, yellow and white are the ornaments, and a string of fairy lights tucked inside makes it glow. It costs a couple of dollars and takes an afternoon.
6. Pine Cone Owl Ornaments
Lia Griffith turns pine cones from the yard into a family of owls with felt wings, round felt eyes and a tiny beak. The felt pieces come from her template, the pine cone is the body and a loop of thread through the top hangs it on the tree. She wrote it as a kid's craft, and it is, but the owls are sweet enough to line up along a mantel or perch on a stack of books. A bag of pine cones makes a whole flock.
7. Stenciled Holiday Doormat
Carrie stenciled a plain coir doormat with Happy Holidays in white, red and turquoise, then sealed it so the paint survives boots and weather. She explains why a reusable plastic stencil beats vinyl on the rough fibers, which paint holds up and how to seal it, and reports that two years on it still looks new. A video at the end walks through it. The vintage color combo makes it read as Christmas without a single Santa.
8. Light Up Yarn Christmas Tree
Ten minutes and a piece of cardboard is all this mini tree needs. Cut a triangle from cardboard, glue a skewer on as a trunk, then wrap chunky red yarn around and around until the cardboard disappears. Tuck a string of battery fairy lights into the wraps, glue on small pom poms and a few embellishments pulled off old ornaments, and it lights up on the desk or the dinner table. Switch to green yarn for a traditional look or make a set in three sizes.
9. Giant Snowflake Light Up Marquee
Laura Gummerman made a forty inch snowflake marquee that glows from a row of battery lights pushed through the back. She gives two routes: foam core with a craft knife for a one season version, or half inch wood with a jigsaw if you want to keep it for years. Either way you print the snowflake template large, trace it, cut it, drill or punch holes on the marked dots and push a bulb through each one. It hangs over the mantel like a store display.
10. Air Dry Clay Christmas Village
Melissa rolls white air dry clay to a quarter inch, cuts house shapes from a free printable template with a craft knife, then traces windows and doors with a pencil and cuts them out. A wet fingertip softens the edges before the pieces dry flat under a cookie sheet. Small wood blocks glued to the backs make them stand, and a candle or a string of lights behind the windows makes the whole village glow. Scandinavian and calm, and it fits on a windowsill.
11. Tin Can Snowman
Three empty cans in three sizes, a coat of white acrylic paint and you have a snowman who doesn't melt. The cans stack largest to smallest, a skewer with toothpick twigs makes the arms, a ribbon bow is the scarf and a hat comes from two circles of glitter foam. Buttons and a carrot button do the face. It's trash to treasure in the most literal way, kids can paint the cans, and it stands on a porch or a shelf all winter.
12. Mini Christmas Tree Gnomes
Autumn's twelve year old came up with these and they take fifteen minutes. A small clay pot gets painted red, white fingerprints stamped down the front make the beard, a wood ball knob glued to the rim is the nose and an eight inch bottle brush tree pushed into the pot is the hat. That's the whole gnome. Line up three on a wood slice with a red ornament and it looks like a set from a boutique. Pots and trees come from the dollar store.
13. Felt Christmas Tree Advent Calendar
Alexis Middleton grew up with a felt advent calendar her mom made, so she designed her own to hang year after year. A big aqua felt panel holds a white felt tree, twenty four numbered felt pockets across the bottom and a set of little felt ornaments that move from pocket to tree one day at a time. She shares the templates, cut files and a step by step video, and the whole thing hangs from a dowel and a length of twine.
14. Origami Paper Christmas Trees
Colored paper and a few folds are the whole supply list here. Each tree starts as a square folded into layered tiers, then the tiers get snipped into fringe and fanned out so it stands on its own. Make a few in different greens and a red one for a forest along the mantel or a place setting at each plate. Ours took minutes each and cost nothing beyond the paper, and the video shows every fold so nobody gets lost.
15. Fa-La-La Outdoor Sign
Melanie's front of house spells out FA LA LA in big red letters against a lattice of lights. The letters are plywood cut outs from the craft store, painted red and sealed for weather, then mounted on the wall with the light strands running in a diamond pattern behind them. It reads from the street and costs a fraction of a lit sign. She walks through the paint, the sealer and how she hung it without wrecking the siding.
16. Giant Outdoor Paper Chain
Jennifer wanted the paper chain trend outside in a cold, snowy climate, so she made it waterproof. The links are 2mm craft foam sheets in pink, red, green and white cut into wide strips and looped together, and the finished chain swags across the garage door and the gate like the world's biggest kindergarten craft. It shrugs off snow, costs a few dollars in foam and takes an afternoon. Whimsy at a scale nobody on the block will match.
17. Honeycomb Paper Trees
Twenty tree shapes cut from folded cardstock become one honeycomb tree that opens like a paper lantern. A printable template makes the cutting foolproof, and the glue goes on in two alternating patterns so the layers fan out into a full 3D shape when you open it. Hang them on the tree, string a row into a garland or stand them along a shelf. Each one takes minutes once the pieces are cut, and mixing greens with a printed cardstock looks great.
18. No Sew Plaid Tree Skirt
Melissa saw a ninety nine dollar plaid tree skirt and went to the fabric store instead. Two yards of red plaid, four yards of black pom pom trim and a hot glue gun made this one for a fraction of the price. She trims the circle edge with pinking shears so it won't fray, glues the pom pom trim on a few inches at a time, folds the trim over at the slit for a clean finish and glues ribbon ties underneath. No sewing machine needed.
19. Mini Christmas Village Under a Cloche
Keri Houchin loves a Christmas village but not the price or the space, so she built a tiny one on a twelve inch cake plate under a glass cloche. A circle of white felt is the snow, a second smaller circle stacked on top makes a hill, and miniature glittered houses and sisal trees sit on it. White seed beads on thread hang from inside the cloche as falling snow. The cake plate and cloche stay out all year and only the scene changes with the season.
20. Tuna Can Ornament Scenes
Washed tuna cans make perfect little round frames for a Christmas scene. Ours has a felt snow floor, a printed gingerbread house glued to a cardboard riser so it stands up, a tuft of faux pine, fiberfill snow and a row of mini pom poms along the bottom, with red and white twine wrapped around the rim and a loop to hang it. The three printable designs are free, or draw your own. File the can edges first and use the easy open lids so there's no cutting.
21. Sheet Music Trees on Receipt Spikes
Sarah Ramberg noticed that the ornate cast iron base of a vintage receipt spike looks exactly like an old Christmas tree stand, so she turned three of them into trees. Old sheet music gets torn into squares, large ones first and smaller ones toward the top, and each square is pushed onto the spike and turned slightly so the tree comes out full and bushy. Tearing paper is the only skill required. An old book or Christmas cards work just as well.
22. Dried Persimmon Garland
Amy Weir swaps the usual dried orange slices for persimmons, which dry to a deeper amber and look richer against greenery. Whole small persimmons and thick slices go on a rack in a low oven until leathery, then get threaded or glued onto red ribbon with the slices spaced between the whole fruit. She drapes the garland around an advent calendar, along a mantel and down a banister. It's zero waste, smells like the holidays and costs about what a bag of fruit costs.
23. Paper Rosette Christmas Wreath
Colored paper folded into rosettes covers a wreath form in red, green and peppermint stripes, with a button glued at the center of each one. Strips of paper get scored and accordion folded, joined into a ring and pressed flat into a rosette, then the rosettes overlap around the form in three sizes. The stripes are white paper with red acrylic paint. Swap in pink for a candy theme or glitter paper for sparkle, and hang it with a loop of gold cord.
24. Scrap Wood Church
Donna Dodson cuts a church silhouette from a single one by eight board with a circular saw, then stains it a warm tobacco brown, tapes off the roofline and door and paints over the rest for a two tone country look. The snow on the roof is chalk paint mixed with a texture additive into a paste and dabbed on with a craft stick. It leans in a windowsill or stands on the mantel with a pine cone or two, and one board makes it in an afternoon.
25. Denim Scrap Tree Ornaments
Claire Armstrong saves the seams and hems from worn out jeans and turns them into little Christmas trees. Each one is a single denim seam about fourteen inches long, marked at shrinking intervals, then threaded onto baker's twine with an upholstery needle so it zigzags into tiers. Felt balls in festive colors sit between the folds, a felt star tops it and the twine becomes the hanging loop. Three different jeans give three shades of blue.
26. Glitter Frame Holiday Makeover
Kim Pepper collects junk picture frames all year for exactly this. An ornate thrift store frame gets a coat of red glitter spray paint outside, and she shares what she learned: shake it constantly, consider a base coat and expect a few light passes. The chalkboard center gets a glittered holly and berry cluster. It hangs with a ribbon, leans on the mantel or frames a Christmas card display, and a broken or ugly frame is all you need to start.
27. Mini Faux Saplings in Burlap
Amy fell for the tiny live saplings at a garden center and made faux ones from a thrifted pine decor piece instead. She snips branches off the old piece, bundles a few together and wraps the base in a scrap of burlap tied off with twine, then trims the burlap so the sapling looks in proportion. No watering, no planting and they come back out next year. A row of them on the mantel or one at each place setting looks like a little forest.
28. Pallet Wood Christmas Trees
Angie Holden wanted a pallet tree on each side of the mantel and wrote instructions anyone can follow. Pallet boards cut in graduated lengths get attached to a center piece, then a white color wash lets the wood grain show through. A red and black plaid pennant banner on twine wraps around the tree like garland and gets stapled in place, and a burlap star tops it off. They stand in the yard, on the porch or by the fireplace all season.
29. Big Eyed Christmas Angels
Michelle's angels have enormous teddy bear eyes and false eyelashes, and they take about half an hour each. A styrofoam cone gets wrapped in gauzy fabric pinned at the base, a styrofoam ball becomes the head with the eyes pushed in and lashes glued on, and a skewer joins the two. A wrap of the same fabric makes her headscarf, secured with wire and beads, and a pair of fairy wings pinned to her back finishes her. Make one, then make a choir.
30. Dried Orange Slices for Decorating
Rita S dries orange rounds at home for a fraction of the craft store price and shows the simple method: slice oranges thin with a sharp knife, lay them on a cookie rack over a baking sheet and dry them low and slow until they're leathery and translucent. They start pale and deepen to amber as they age. String them into garland, tuck them into wreaths, tie them onto gifts or pile them in a bowl with rosemary, and the house smells like Christmas the whole time.
31. Faux Indoor Snowballs
Renee Hanlon makes snowballs that never melt from three supplies: styrofoam balls, a jar of snow texture paste and a shake of iridescent glitter dust. The paste goes on thick with a craft stick, the glitter goes on while it's wet and they dry into sparkly, durable snowballs that last for years. Pile them in a bowl, a wood tray or a vintage dish on the windowsill. They're for adults and decor, not snowball fights, and they carry the house from Christmas into January.
32. 3D Buffalo Plaid Trees
Joan draws a tree on folded paper, cuts it out like a Valentine heart and traces it twice onto half inch plywood. A scroll saw cuts the shapes, a slot goes halfway down one tree and halfway up the other, and they slide together into a tree that stands on its own. Red and black buffalo plaid gets painted on with tape and sanded edges for a worn look. They decorate the mantel, move to the table as a centerpiece and slide apart flat for storage.
33. Glitter Merry Christmas Banner
Bren loved a twenty two dollar catalog banner made of glitter cardstock and twine, so she made her own from three sheets of corrugated glitter cardstock. Print her free letter pattern, trace it onto the back of the red and silver sheets, cut the letters out and tape them to a run of baker's twine. It hangs on the mantel, over a doorway or across a party table, and the corrugated texture catches the light the way the expensive one does.
34. Red Car Christmas Jar
Alexandra put this together in minutes for a Pinterest challenge and it's become a favorite on her entry table. A round glass jar gets a layer of fake snow, a little red pickup truck from the Christmas village aisle with a tree in its bed and working headlights, and the jar sits on an upturned galvanized bucket as a stand. Set it beside a basket of ornaments or under the tree. It's one of those pieces people assume you bought.
