The Ultimate Christmas DIY Decorating Bible

Christmas

Published: 25th Oct 2018

Written by: Bryony Hayburn

It’s time to get our Christmas on! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially for us here at Festive Lights – we finally get to go all out on the Christmas lights and decorations.

Getting your house looking as festive as you feel is a hard job though. Fortunately, there are plenty of guides and tutorials out there, from us as well as from others, that will give you a helping hand getting your Christmas decorating on. We’ve gathered these together into a huge Christmas DIY Decorating Bible – have fun!

It’s all well and good being ready to throw glitter and fake snow everywhere, but there’s no use in starting in the middle. Before you get going with the really fun stuff, we recommend first making sure you’ve ticked off all the important things on this list to get the basics down:

• What are the right lights for your Christmas tree?
• How many lights do you need for your Christmas tree?
• How much does it cost to run your Christmas lights?
• How to install Christmas lights on a house
• How to install Christmas lights on an outdoor tree
• How to install Christmas lights outside
• How to run Christmas lights around a window

If you’re short on time but want to make sure you’ve got still got that festive touch around your home, these are our favourite tutorials how to create some quick and easy traditional Christmas décor.

What’s Christmas without a few baubles on your tree? If you’re short on them Weekend Wanderlust has a tutorial on making felt baubles, Tahnee makes them out of candy canes and Captain Bobcat Blog uses a traditional German honey and ginger cookie recipe, Lebkuchen, to create tree decorations.
Soda or salt dough is always a winner for making Christmas decorations – this recipe by Growing Family will guide you through the simple process.

The star is the centrepiece for your tree, so making your own will have a special meaning that you’ll be reminded of for years to come as you unpack the decorations each festive season. Follow this tutorial at Rambling Through Parenthood for your own.

Aside from the tree, your Christmas table wants to be the focus of your décor for the big day. Concentrate your efforts here by following Fresh Design Blog’s guide to styling the table, and create your own centrepiece with an easy mason jar snow globe as recommended by The Inspired Room. 
If you’ve gathered a bit of a collection of Christmas décor over the years and want something new, it’s time to get crafty or a little bit modern. Your decorations won’t just be the traditional type – they’ll stand out from the crowd!

Our own top tip is to create your own DIY Light Up letters – spell out your favourite festive word.

Pom poms aren’t just a thing of the past – they’re showing a huge rise in popularity round the festive season. Spruce up your tree with a sparkly pom pom bauble thanks to From Evija with Love or create a compromise on the light up letters above with pom pom letters designed by Cassie Fairy.

If you’re not a fan of the traditional Christmas tree, no fear – we have options for you! Try out this crafty post-it note tree courtesy of Rock and Roll Pussycat, get an alternative wooden Christmas tree and decorate it in one of these ways, or even try a mini Christmas tree using only card and wool from Makes, Bakes and Décor.

If you’re happy to get your needle and thread out and spend a bit more time on your Christmas décor, this tutorial is what you need: for a more modern twist, try some faux leather stars for your Christmas tree from Anna International.

We’re big fans of a can of spray paint around Christmas time, particularly if it’s sparkly and metallic. These are 4 of our favourite tutorials using spray paint to give ordinary objects that little touch of Christmas magic:
Christmas Seashell Candles at From Evija with Love
DIY Thrifty Christmas Table décor with shells, pine cones and sticks at Rachael Jess
Christmas Burlap Bunting at From Evija with Love
A Christmas Landscape at Fun as a Gran

A Christmas wreath is the ultimate festive decoration aside from the tree – Rachel Emily gives some great tips on how to create the perfect one – but we’ve got some options if you’d prefer one that’s a little out of the ordinary:
Christmas Rag Wreath by Emma’s Savvy Savings
Christmas Crochet Wreath by Hello Deborah
Picture Frame Wreath by From Evija With Love
The best way to celebrate Christmas as a family? Get the kids involved with the decorating! Not only does it take the hard work off you, it’ll get them out of your hair and they’ll be learning something new.

Get them stuck in with both hand and foot decorations. We love these “Mistletoes” at Fun as a Gran and Santa Hands at Messy Little Monster made with salt dough. Another simple salt dough that the kids can get decorating is these scented gingerbread men at The Unnatural Mother.

If your kids are a bit older, give them some more fiddly crafts to complete for the tree such as these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle baubles from Rachel Jess or take a festive walk to collect pine cones then decorate them a la Growing Family.

And for those of you that are ready to go all out with your Christmas décor and level up, try one of these more complex and creative crafts:
Use our Thunder Cloud video craft to create a Snowstorm with a few extra bits of cotton wool.
Create a giant snowman for your garden even when the snow isn’t falling out of leftover pallets.
Put your fairy lights to a different use by creating a Christmas scene on a canvas with a roaring log fire or twinkling stars.

Do you have any Christmas DIY Décor tips we’re missing here? Let us know!