DIY Christmas Hanging Baskets

These simple DIY Christmas hanging baskets and planters add a pretty and festive touch to your front porch or outdoor entry.  Add some flocking for an extra wintery feel.

I hope you’ve been enjoying our Christmas home tours this week!  So far I’ve shared our kitchen and dining room, and I’ll have our family room and front entry up on the blog in the next couple of days.  Be sure to pop in if you haven’t had a chance!

Quick and Easy Christmas Decorating Ideas

Today, I’m going to take a little break from the home tour to share some quick and easy 10 minute Christmas decorating ideas with you.  Even if you’re short on time, you can still add some Christmas cheer to your home with these fun and simple projects.  You can see all of the projects at the end of the post, but I’m going to start with these pretty DIY Christmas hanging baskets. {If you’d like to see more of our winter wonderland Christmas front porch, you can find it HERE.}

DIY Christmas Planters

Although we no longer get a real tree, I do like to add some fresh greenery somewhere in our home.  These DIY Christmas planters are quick and easy to put together and add a welcoming, festive touch to your home.  These smaller ones went together in about 10 minutes.  Grab some of your summer planters and create a pretty display that can be used well into the winter months.

DIY CHRISTMAS HANGING BASKETS AND PLANTERS

MATERIALS

• fresh greenery {I used a mixture of pine, fir, and cedar}.  You can purchase pre-cut bundles at most garden centres or you can be more adventurous and co out and pick your own.  Christmas tree farms also usually have bundles available for sale and will often have some scraps to give you as well.
• branches
• pine cones, berries, ribbon, ornaments, or other fillers
• battery powered outdoor lights {optional}
• flocking {optional}
• pruning sheers
• hanging basket or planter filled with soil {mine are just from our back patio}

INSTRUCTIONS

• Fill your planter with soil.  For larger planters, you can fill the bottom with packing peanuts or other large styrofoam pieces {you likely have something around with Christmas packages!} to make it lighter.  If you’re doing a hanging basket, I prefer to have mine hanging as I put things together.
• Start with tall branches or birch logs to add height to your planter.  Try to keep the weight of the branches in proportion to your planter.  I used flocked thinner branches in my hanging baskets since they are fairly small, but the thicker birch branches, look nice in larger standing planters.

• Start with your sturdiest greenery {which was the fir for mine}, and place taller branches evenly around the planter. Fit them firmly into the soil.  Since mine is not seen from the back, I added a taller one to the back side and then two slightly shorter pieces on each side to from a triangle.  If yours will be seen from all angles, you may want to add a taller one in the middle and then place the additional branches around the entire planter.

• Next I added a few larger branches of the pine, filling in any of the larger gaps around the planter.  For mine, I kept most of the height towards the back and then tapered it towards the front. There’s no right or wrong placement and you can always come back and re-arrange or add more.  I find that I get a much better feel for where pieces need to go if I step back a bit.  You also want to make sure that you’re viewing it from all angles that it will be seen from.

• Repeat the same procedure with the cedar, using larger branches.  Be sure to go with the flow of the greenery so it drapes in a natural position.

• Now that you have the basic form of the greenery, continue to cut off smaller branches to fill out your basket and cover any gaps.  I used mostly the pine and cedar for this part and used the fir for areas that I wanted more structure.
• Once you are happy with the greenery, you can add any fillers that you would like.  This could be ribbon, pinecones, ornaments, berry stems, or anything else that you love.  I just used a large pine cone, a few white berry sprigs, and a large ball Christmas ornament.  I also added in some outdoor battery powered twinkle lights {after I took the photos so I’ll try to update}.  They go on automatically every night at 5:00 and turn off a 11:00.
• Since I wanted a winter wonderland feel to the porch, I added some flocking to the planters for that pretty snow-covered look.  You can always skip this step if you would like. It really only takes a couple of minutes though, and I love the look.  Find the easy tutorial for How to Flock a Christmas Tree and Other Greenery HERE.

The flocking does say that it is fog and rain resistant but I doubt that it would hold up if it was going to be out constantly in the rain.  These ones are under cover so they’ll just get a light spray at most if it’s rainy and windy.  The flocking also helps to extend the life of any fresh greenery, although these baskets should last well into the winter months even without it.  When Christmas is over, take off any holiday related fillers, and it will brighten up your porch in those dreary January and February months.

More Christmas Outdoor Planters

To give you a few other ideas, here are a couple of my Christmas outdoor planters that I have done in the past…

Recycled Tire Christmas Outdoor Planter

Rustic Christmas Porch Hanging Baskets

I hope you try them!  They’re lots of fun to put together and you really don’t need to get a lot of supplies.  I think it would be a great ladies’ night out idea!

More 10 Minute Christmas Decorating Ideas

Before you go, be sure to check out these other 10 MINUTE Christmas decorating ideas.  They are all SO pretty!!

COTTON BALL POM POM GARLAND / CHRISMAS WREATH REFRESH
DIY CHRISTMAS PLANTERS / CHRISTMAS CANDLE ARRANGEMENT

You won’t believe how quick and easy they all are!