Easy DIY Christmas Planter.

This year, I decided I wasn’t going to buy any outdoor Christmas decorations.  That was a bit of a challenge because I think I threw most of what I had away.  So, I have been trying to make do with what I have.  And, I’m actually pleased with the results.

I made a Christmas planter, using mainly stuff I already had.

Materials I used:
My big planter pot.
A decorate trellis (that my morning glories climbed this past summer)
Cut branches from my spruce tree (ones on the ground that I was going to trim anyway)
Cut branches from my arborvitae (again, ones on the ground that needed to be trimmed)
1 string of 100 lights (green cord)
2 large picks of red berries (I did buy – $10 in total)

This is what it looked like to start:

Not very exciting at this point!

Then I took some of the smaller of the arborvitae and spruce trees and put them inside the trellis.  Then I took a string of white lights and wrapped it.

And, started poking some of the branches into the dirt.

At this point, I called my neighbor over because I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. Amy told me to keep sticking branches in until it looked nice and full.  Oh, and Amy also told me you have to cut the extra lights and the tags off (They are still there in the picture above.  Sorry Amy, guess I still have to do that!).  Pretty much the only trick to making your Christmas planter look good is to use lots of branches.  And, if you can, use different types so there are different textures in your finished display.

So that’s what I did. I kept adding branches. My Christmas planter looked like it needed a splash of color. Since I was accenting my Christmas decor in the house with red, it was obvious to me what I needed to do. Fortunately, I had some big red berry picks so I just bent those to spread them out and added them to the planter.

They are actually my favorite part of my Christmas planter. It’s what makes it look pretty during the daytime. That’s something that I try to consider. Everything looks great in the dark with sparkly lights on it. But, does it look good in the daytime?

So, here is the finished product.

And here it is at night.

Overall, I was quite pleased! And, my investment was nominal. That was the best part.  How have you reused items to make Christmas displays in your yard?  Do you get as much pleasure out of being thrifty for this kind of stuff as I do?

If you want to see some more Christmas planters and other outdoor decorations, please take a look at the following posts from the last couple of years.

Christmas planters and window boxes

Christmas Outdoors – daytime

Christmas Outdoors – night-time.