How to Make Homemade Christmas Light Balls

One of the best parts of Christmas is all the wonderful decoration; however, some of the more elaborate Christmas decorations can be quite costly. Homemade Christmas Light Balls are a nifty, cost effective way to deck the halls, and add your own sense of style to your homes' Christmas decorations.

For each Homemade Christmas Light Ball you plan to make you will need: fifty 9 oz clear plastic Solo cups, two strings of 50 indoor/outdoor mini Christmas lights, some 5/16" staples, a hand stapler (of course) and an electric drill with a 3/8" drill bit.

After gathering the supplies mentioned above, the first step to making your Homemade Christmas Light Balls is to drill a 3/8" hole in the bottom of all of your Solo cups. Note: you can drill through a stack of cups to save time, but drill slowly to avoid cracking the cups.

The second step to creating you your Homemade Christmas Light Balls is to create a ring of cups. First, lie twelve cup on their sides. By stapling each cup its neighbor at the rim, while keeping the bases together should create a perfect circle base for one half of a Homemade Christmas Light Ball.

The next layer of your Homemade Christmas Light Ball consists of nine cups arranged and stapled exactly as you did when creating your Homemade Christmas Ball base. Place the second layer on top of the base and stable each cup to the cup beneath.

The third layer of your Homemade Christmas Light Ball is a bit different. Stand one cup up straight and staple the remaining three cups approximately ½" down from the rim of your center cup. These four cups are then fitted into the central hole of your Homemade Christmas Light ball and stapled to the second layer.

Use one string of 50 indoor/outdoor mini Christmas lights, to insert two lights into every cup. If you made your holes too big or you cracked your cup, try using a bit of tape to secure the lights.

At this point you have half a Homemade Christmas Light Ball which is ideal for hanging on walls or off balconies. To create a full Homemade Christmas Light Ball, simply make another half and staple them together (make sure to leave your plug hanging out).

All that is left is to create a loop or hook with which to hang your Homemade Christmas Light Ball. For this you can use a ribbon (staple to the ball) or an S-hook (use a hole puncher on the top ball through which to weave your S-hook).

Finally, hang all of your Homemade Christmas Light Balls and halves of Homemade Christmas Light Balls, flip the switch and have a happy holidays.