60 DIY Christmas Decorations for an Elegant Holiday Display

We're nuts (and bolts) about this wrap star wreath! Attach assorted gift bows and 10-11 mini wrapped gift boxes to a foam wreath form with hot glue. Pile on the gifts by gluing a few small boxes on top of larger ones. Finish off by gluing on robot figurines in the middle.

For a simple and sophisticated display, wrap tree branches from your backyard with white twinkle lights and prop them up in your living room.

Decorate your Christmas tree one day at a time and count down to Christmas with this DIY ornament Advent calendar.

Get the Christmas Ornament Advent Calendar tutorial.

Arrange your prettiest cards into the iconic shape of a Christmas tree, and place a galvanized tin bucket at the base, filled with presents.

Create a welcoming front porch arrangement by placing evergreen boughs inside a woven basket — a few sparkly DIY cardboard stars glued to sticks and arranged among the branches makes it look extra festive.

Turn an old wooden ladder into a festive piece of Christmas decor! Tie red-and-white ribbon across each rung, and tie on muslin bags filled with treats for each day until Christmas.

This tree looks so cute, but is so simple to make. Just fan out strings of yarn secured with glue dots at the top (hide them with a sparkly star) into a Christmas tree shape. Patterned paper cut-outs and pom poms stand in for ornaments.

Mini grapevine wreaths adorned with DIY ornaments and evergreen boughs make sweet decorations for the back of your dining room chairs.

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Take mismatched red and white plates and mugs, then adorn them with your favorite holiday motifs using stamps and ceramic paint. Bake the dishes to make your art permanent, and display on your wall.

Get the Decorative Ceramic Plates tutorial.

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Looking for the perfect homemade gift for the person who has everything? Look no further than this adorable cookie jar that doubles as a cute Christmas decoration. (Use cotton balls instead of cookies, if you want this to be a permanent display on your mantel!)

Get the Snow Globe Cookie Jar tutorial.

Handcrafted from artificial greenery and bright berries, this garland will last season after season.

1. Use needle-nose pliers to bend ⅛-inch armature wire into the 8-inch letters that spell out your chosen word or phrase. Cover the letters with green floral tape.
2. For each letter, cut a 3-inch piece of wire and wrap it with floral tape. Then, bend one end into a small loop (1-inch or less in diameter) and secure it with floral tape to the back of the letter toward the top. (For letters like J, T and Y, you'll need a loop on each end at the top.)
3. Pull the small sprigs off of an Artificial Juniper Pine Garland and, working bottom to top, use floral tape to secure them at the stem to the front of each letter form to create a base. Then, use hot glue to fill in the front and sides of each letter with more greenery. (The sprigs should overlap slightly.)
4. Hot-glue faux or dried berries (available at craft stores) to each letter. Once completely dry, thread a length of 2-inch to 3-inch red ribbon through the loops to hang.

All you need to make this peppermint-esque chandelier is red washi tape and some cheap dollar store ornaments. Wrap the bottom of each chandelier shade with a strip of washi tape. Tape the ends together to secure the strips.

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Though technically an ornament, this simple craft could go anywhere in the house as a Christmas decoration. All you need is a box of matches and some cardboard.

RELATED: 68 DIY Christmas Ornaments That Are So Fun to Make

Grab some baker's twine and clothespins to make this adorable, easy holiday decoration. And the best part? You can take the holiday cards down and use the twine-and-clothespin display all year long to hang up anything you want!

RELATED: 33 Festive DIY Christmas Card Holders

This treat cone is perfect if you happen to have a lot of little ones in the family. (Heck, even adults would love this.) It's easy to make and sure to delight your guests!

Get the Treat Cone template.

This is a cute, festive, and easy way to dress up your mantel or entryway. Fill Mason jars with inexpensive Christmas ornaments, then stack in an evergreen tree shape.

This is a great way to display all of the Christmas cards you get. Cut three pieces of evergreen garland to desired length (we used a longer one in the center). Wrap the top of each garland around a wooden hanger, securing with hot glue and let it dry. Hang it up on the wall and use clothespins to secure the cards.

Upcycle an old frame into a pretty display for some ornaments. Remove the glass and backing from the frame and clean thoroughly. Spray paint the frame green with even coats and let dry. Then cut three pieces of ribbon or cord, double the length you want your ornaments to hang. Thread ornaments onto the ribbon and then attach the ends to the top back of the frame with hot glue, trimming any excess. To finish it off, attach a bow to the front of the frame with hot glue.

This fun, little DIY display combines a few different Christmas decorations to create one, stunning mantelpiece: garland, fake snow, and adorable paper Christmas village houses.

RELATED: 14 Christmas Village Sets That Will Make Your Home Extra Cozy for the Holidays

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Whether or not you're a fan of drinking with paper straws, you'll certainly love decorating with them once you make this cute red-and-white wreath.

1. Trace the floral ring on the paper and cut out the ring shape. Glue the paper to the front of the floral ring.
2. Trim 49 straws down to 6 1/2" (long), 49 straws down to 5 1/2" (medium), and cut 25 straws in half to get 50 3 7/8" (short) pieces. Discard extra pieces.
3. Apply a dime-size dot of glue near center of ring. Adhere a long straw so one end is flush with the inner ring. Continue to add long straws one by one, flush with the inner ring and evenly spaced at the outer edge, until the ring is covered.
4. Apply a dime-size dot of glue near center of ring, in the crevice between 2 of the long straws. Adhere a medium straw so one end is flush with the inner ring. Continue to add medium straws flush with the inner ring, evenly spaced between the longest straws.
5. Repeat with short straws, spacing them between the medium straws. Let dry completely.
6. Secure a small loop of ribbon to the back of the wreath with glue for hanging.

These salt dough ornaments are a kid-friendly DIY project to work on with the whole family. It feels similar to baking cookies, but instead of edible treats you'll end up with these fun accessories for your tree.

1. Mix 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of flour, and 3/4 cups of water (and optional food coloring). Knead until mixed.
2. Roll out dough and cut with star-shaped cookie cutters.
3. Use a skewer to poke a hole in the top.
4. Bake at 350º for 10 minutes. Hot glue decorative sequins.

RELATED: The 85 Best Christmas Cookies That'll Have You Baking All Season Long

Attach mixed-sized styrofoam balls onto a wreath form using hot glue, overlapping any gaps. Once the glue is dry, attach a bow using hot glue. You can hang it up using a ribbon or wire.

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Jazz up a rectangular shaped box wrapped in kraft paper with green and red yarn. You can make other Christmas designs with the yarn also, like a candy cane weaved with red and white yarn, or get really creative and make a Santa Claus!

1. Take a strand of green yarn and put a dot of hot glue on the top center of the box and stick the start of the yarn down.
2. Make another dot of hot glue on the bottom right corner and continue the string of yarn down and stick the yarn down and cut.
3. Repeat until the yarn makes a tree shape and is as full as you would like.
4. Cut out a length of red yarn and feed it through the green strands to look like a garland.

RELATED: 18 Best Christmas Tree Toppers That Will Steal the Show This Year

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To turn last year's store-bought bows into a jolly wreath, attach a loop of floral wire (for hanging) around a 16" Styrofoam wreath form. Then, hot glue gift bows to the front and sides of the form. Keep it festive with a classic red-and white combo or mix in powder blue for a wintry look.

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RELATED: 24 DIY 4th of July Wreaths That Will Dress Up Your Front Door

If you live someplace cold, you've probably got a box in a closet filled with mittens. Put them to good use with a fun DIY mitten garland. It's a nice cozy addition to a room that's not overtly Christmas-y.

Draw half a bell or oval onto folded paper balls (we used ones with a diameter of 8 inches) in mixed colors and carefully cut out the shape. Then unfold the paper ball and use double-sided tape to attach both ends.

Gather up some Christmas-themed ornaments to make a few DIY ornaments. Trace the cookie cutters onto patterned paper and cut them out. Place a small line of glue around the edge of the cookie cutter and place festive paper on top, lining up all the edges, and let it dry. Attach a small loop of cord to the back of the ornament, let dry, and hang.

If you've got 15 mason jar lids, this craft will be pretty easy to make.

1. Take two jar lids and attach them together by wrapping wire around the middle where they touch.
2. Cut the wire and tuck it under itself so it doesn’t snag on anything. Attach one lid on top of the two that are already connected with two pieces of wire wrapping around the bottom two edges of the single lid.
3. Repeat steps above with a row of three below the row of two and then a row of four below the row of three, and lastly a row of five below the row of four.
4. Wrap wire between each lid in the rows and, where needed, on the tops and bottoms of the lids. String a decorative ribbon around the ornament top and tie it around the lid so it hangs in the middle.
5. Repeat on all the lids. Tie a bow with the ribbon on the top of the lid "tree."

Make extra-special decorations a focal point by adorning them on a staircase banister, draping your favorites on doorknobs, or hanging them on the backs of your dinner table chairs.

• Spread Joy: Paint wooden letters J and Y with red acrylic paint. Wrap a wooden letter O with green yarn; use hot glue to secure ends and attach a small bow and gems. To attach letters, arrange them facedown, then hot-glue small card stock strips from one letter to the next. To hang, hot-glue a loop of baker's twine to the back of the O.
• Old St. Nick: Use our free template to cut a hat from felt; hot-glue to a 4" wood circle and add a pompom on top. Hot-glue two black-bead eyes, a 1/2" wooden circle nose, and wooden teardrop ears. From white faux craft fur, cut and hot-glue semicircle beard and two teardrops as a mustache. To hang, hot-glue a loop of ribbon to the back.
• Festive Llama: Use our templates to make a green saddle, brown eyes, white hair, and a white nose from felt. Cut the body, back legs, and snout from white felt, then again from card stock. Mount each felt piece on top of a card stock piece for structure. Hot-glue the back legs behind the body, then glue the snout, hair, and eyes in place. Add white felt dots as eye highlights. Hot-glue on saddle and red pompom trim, followed by more pompom trim around the neck and ankles. To hang, hot-glue a loop of ribbon to the back.