Beautiful Homemade Christmas Decorations

This year do something different and save yourself the cost of decorations. Store bought decorations are cute and elaborate, but they look just like everyone else's house when you put them up. Why not have some fun making your own and use your savings to buy holiday gifts instead?

You can make some great outdoor lighted giant candle decorations out of empty veggie, metal coffee, or metal juice cans. A can or two of red, white or green spray paint. A roll of duct tape and some dollar store plug in candles.

Take top and bottoms off of all of the cans. Stack three cans of the same size and tape them together to make the candle pillar. Tape one end closed with duct tape. Spray paint the 'candle' to the color of your liking. These would look great almost any color. Try gold or even use masking tape and make them candy cane swirled red and white.

Once your candle is dry, feed the plug in candle through the candle leaving the 'flame' at the top through the duct tape closed end and the cord coming out of the bottom. Make several of these giant candles and plug in for a lighted holiday outdoor arrangement that your neighbors will be jealous of.

Another light holiday decoration you can make very easily uses empty glass jars. Used up candle jars are perfect for this project. You will want to use the candle jars that come with a lid. Soak the jar in hot water to loosen any left over wax and be sure to clean off any blackened residue.

Next take a very small strand of string lights and just wind into a bundle and place into the jar. Leave the plug trailing out of the top of the jar. Place the lid loosely on the jar over the cord, so as not to crimp the cord. This will be the back side of your decoration. Tie a wide ribbon around the top (while the lid is off) to hold down the cord and add to the decoration. These decorations look great on a mantle or table surrounded by a garland or outside on a porch lit in the evening. These look great in bunches too. Several are better than one.

Old wooden sleds, small table top artificial pine trees, and old plain pine branch wreaths are all great decorations when entwined with strands of holiday lights.

Another project you can easily make is a holiday topiary. You will need a strand of holiday lights, a staple gun, several old artificial tree branches, a tree branch about two inches thick and a planting pot filled with a layer of styrofoam, and topped with sand. Push the tree branch through the sand and down into the styrofoam to secure. Form a big loose ball out of the artificial pine branch and secure it to the tree limb using several staples in various places. shape it into a nice round sphere and string the lights even throughout. Wind the plug cord down the "trunk' of your topiary. You can decorate with wide ribbon and plug in your tree.

Use what you have around the house as often as possible, add a little creativity and holiday color or lights, and you can create an affordable holiday atmosphere you can be proud of.