Have extra Christmas lights just lying around?
Or do you feel like doing something different with your festive decor this year? We scrubbed the web for our top 5 different ways to change up your twinkle situation this year. Check it out – get illuminated!
…And that’s enough of that.
String Up Lights On Some Dried Out Branches
Bring the sparkle of your decorated downtown into your living room! There is little more magical than taking a stroll through a park or street covered with lighted-trees, so bring a little more of that inside (beyond your Christmas tree!). If you don’t want to drop some serious green on pre-decorated branches from your nursery or department store, you can make your own. Birch and maple tree branches make the best indoor forests (and they dry quickly). Make sure you use indoor lights for this decorating project.
Use whatever coloured lights you wish, and get creative. Make your little mini forest a focal point for your entrance way, decorate (or hide) a bare corner, or place on a landing at the top of your stairs if you have the room. You can also use this set-up outside as well. The benefit to doing it this way is that if you have any left-over trimmings from your fall clean up, you don’t have to wait for them to dry to bring them inside!
Photo via Old City Hall Shoppes
Lights In An Ornament Case/Jar/Vase
Christina Perri has her jar of hearts, and you can have your jar of ornaments. The idea here is essentially putting a string of lights (or separated battery operated tea lights) in a big vase of your ornaments. This is a perfect Christmas center-piece idea for tables or window ledges. As with the previous suggestion, this can also be used outside, though proceed with caution. If you’re using delicate glass, winter storms, running children or pets could knock it over.
Photo via Curry Strumpet
The Light of Love
During the holiday’s, we celebrate friends and family and what a better way than to relive your favourite memories around the tree than with a visual aid! There are variations of this design that you can do, and it’s meant to be a focal point on a main wall in whichever room you decide to put it in. To get an accurate heart shape, use a soft pencil to draw on the wall (don’t worry, you can use a slightly damp sponge to gently wipe it off after without damaging paint). If you’d rather not go the heart route, other variations are simple straight lines of lights from one corner of a room to the other, or within whatever parameters you set.
To secure the photos to your love lights, use either ornament hooks or clothes pins.
Photo via MyDIYPlace
Cedar Light Bucket
This project combines a bit of #1 and #2 on this list, and it’s quite a bit more sturdy than using glass or delicate pottery. Depending on what look you’re going for, you can use wicker baskets, steel buckets or wooden boxes as the container part. Cedar or birch would look beautiful in any, but truly, any dried wood logs would look lovely. Once you’re done placing your logs, wrap your lights of choice around them loosely. Fill gaps with fake “snow” (cotton or that sticky white cotton-stuff left over from Halloween), burlap fabric or leave bare. If you want to add a bit more colour, place some sturdy ornaments within the gaps, or, as with the picture below, some pine cones or coniferous branches.
Photo via DecorAdvisor
DIY Christmas Message Sign
This is for those super-serious DIY-er’s who want a big project for the holidays. Do you have a custom saying for the holiday’s that you want to display proudly? Something of a cultural reference or a family tradition perhaps? We’d break down the steps for you, but It’s A Beautiful Mess has done all of that for us already (after all, it’s her project!). Definitely check it out!
Photo via It’s a Beautiful Mess
Bonus Tips:
-Mason jars + tea lights = instant magic anywhere you place them
-Dollar stores will blow you away with the variety of tea lights/battery operated single light options they have now. Don’t pass them up.
-Want way more Christmas light ideas? We did the search for you.
