Budget-Friendly Christmas Decorations You Can Make Quickly!
Get loads of ideas for decorating your home this Christmas while saving time and money!
Christmas Decorating on a Budget
You can save money by making your own Christmas decorations, and you can save time by picking projects that are easy to complete! I've chosen some of my favourite fast and budget-friendly projects to share in this article. Most of these projects use inexpensive supplies from Dollar Tree and other dollar stores.
Each DIY idea shown below includes a video tutorial you can follow to learn how to make the craft, plus photos of completed projects you can browse for inspiration. Happy crafting, and happy holidays!
DIY Holiday Decorations to Make Your Home Merry
- Christmas Snow Globe Lanterns
- Christmas Window Decorations
- Pallet Christmas Trees
- Holiday Table Decoration Ideas
- Christmas Characters Made From Gift Boxes
- Dollar Tree Holiday Centerpieces
- Wonder Mesh Wreaths
- Ladder Decorations With Dollar Tree Supplies
- Glam Christmas Hula Hoop Centerpieces
- "Floating" Boxes Filled With Ornaments
1. Christmas Snow Globe Lanterns
Plan a shopping trip to the dollar store if you want to make one of these pretty light-up lanterns! Most of the items shown in the video and photos come from Dollar Tree, including the lantern itself.
The basic idea here is to buy a lantern and set up a holiday scene inside it. You can make a snowy outdoor scene—like a snow globe!—or a cozy indoor scene. You can even forgo the scene entirely and just decorate the lantern with festive trappings like bows and evergreen boughs! Add some LED twinkle lights, an LED candle or maybe some battery-powered light-up ceramic houses, and you have an eye-catching decoration for a table or shelf.
This lantern features a snowy scene of a truck bringing home the freshly cut Christmas tree.
Here's a more abstract idea for a lantern: Dangle baubles from the top, and place greenery entwined with twinkle lights at the bottom.
This holiday lantern keeps it simple with an LED candle, some faux berries and branches, and a big red bow.
This snow-covered lantern features both indoor and outdoor Christmas scenes.
Here's a lantern with a cozy light-up indoor scene.
This lantern doubles as a touching memorial to a late relative.
This extra-wide lantern has room for nearly a whole living room scene inside!
This is another example of a memorial lantern. This one has the poem printed on the interior door.
Some wood paneling was added around this lantern, making it look like a peek into a little holiday window.
This memorial lantern was given an antique finish.
Pile some cotton fill at the bottom of the lantern to create fluffy snow!
2. Christmas Window Decorations
Christmas window decorations are simple, right? Just hang up some string lights! Well, with a little more effort, you can create a stunning window display that will capture the attention of your guests and passers-by.
Try adding elements like evergreen garlands (real or fake), baubles dangling from long strings, cut-out paper stars and LED candles on the windowsill. You can combine these easy window decorations with some of your store-bought holiday décor, like Christmas village buildings or nutcrackers. You'll have the best-dressed windows in the neighborhood!
This window features string lights wound around evergreen garlands, ornaments dangling from white ribbons and a big red bow on top.
Here's another way to dangle ornaments in your window. Make sure to vary the length of the ribbons!
An evergreen swag is the key feature of this cheerful window. Baubles and snowflakes hang from the swag.
If you use a long-needled tree type for your evergreen swag, you can create a dramatic effect. Here, the swag frames a light-up Christmas village.
This display uses an evergreen swag at the top and mini faux Christmas trees below—not to mention tons of white lights!
Here's a simple window decoration with a small swag, a plaid bow and ornaments dangling from red ribbons.
Cut-out paper stars and pine trees look so elegant in this display!
I love the simplicity of this window: Wrap a long branch with white lights, hang it in the window, and place white candles below.
This window uses both the paper cut-out idea and the branch idea!
Okay, this one is NOT a DIY window, but you could recreate this store's ornament-bedecked swag at home on a smaller scale!
This one is also NOT an at-home DIY, but use this store's amazing stacked bauble display for inspiration! Maybe you could hot-glue some baubles to dowels and hang them up on either side of the window?
3. Pallet Christmas Trees
I love crafting with pallets. You can turn them into so many things, including these cute wooden Christmas trees! The video above shows how you can cut a pallet into a tree shape using a circular saw. You may also be able to find premade wooden tree shapes at the dollar store or craft store.
These wooden trees are super versatile. You can leave the wood bare if you want a rustic look for your tree, or you can paint it if you want a more elegant or modern look. If you're painting, you can choose any colour scheme to match your other holiday décor. After you've built the tree, dress it with ornaments, lights and garlands!
This pallet tree has a light, rustic paint job and some simple ornaments.
This pallet tree was stained, and some small pieces of wood were added to form shelves. I love the all-white colour scheme against the darker brown background!
The crafter left this pallet tree unpainted and used a white and teal colour scheme for the decorations.
This pallet Christmas tree is decorated with white paint and baubles in red and white.
Here's another version of a red and white tree!
This unpainted tree features a striking red garland winding up its trunk.
This cute pallet tree displays miniature straw trees and pretty candles.
This pallet tree (and the matching triangle tree) have silvery grey paint and red and white decorations. I love the poinsettias!
This is a great idea: Combine a pallet Christmas tree with an advent calendar! Every day, the child gets to open up a new ornament and hang it on the tree.
Ooh, this grey ombre colour scheme is amazing, especially with the silver and white decorations.
This is another unpainted, rustic tree with shelves and simple decorations.
This tree has a colourful paint job and paper poinsettias!
4. Holiday Table Decoration Ideas
For Christmas, it's worth going all out with your table décor. That means laying out a table runner, crafting an eye-catching centerpiece and placing candles and greenery near the place settings. Don't forget the napkin rings!
Nature-inspired table settings look extra festive, in my opinion. Whether you bring in real evergreen boughs and pinecones from your yard or purchase fake ones, these table decorations will make your dining room feel fresh, cozy and full of cheer.
The silvery evergreen boughs in this centerpiece pair beautifully with the candles and white baubles.
This bright table setting makes use of tree-shaped candles, faux berry sprays and a plaid tablecloth.
I love how simple this table runner is: beige cloth paired with evergreen boughs and pinecones. The napkin holders are tied with sprigs of herbs!
You don't have to stick with evergreens for the greenery. Here's a different version of a leafy green centerpiece.
This table looks immaculate in silver, white and crystal.
What could be more cheerful than this red and gold table setting? I love the fun favors on each plate!
Make your pinecones look more elegant by adding some white "snow" flocking (or buy pre-flocked pinecones).
The stately candlesticks take center stage on this table, backed by a simple display of greenery and pinecones.
You don't need to own fancy dinnerware to set a gorgeous table. This setting goes all out with the greenery and candles!
I love this modern black and gold table setting with the unusual napkin displays.
This intimate table features an evergreen centerpiece with cozy candles and a rose-gold colour scheme.
For a clean and simple look, pair grey linens with an evergreen centerpiece, LED candles and tea lights.
5. Christmas Characters Made From Gift Boxes
If you want to do something creative with all those presents under the tree, consider dressing them up like snowmen, reindeers and Santa! Kids love this craft (well, so do adults), and it's unbelievably simple.
- To make a snowman, wrap three presents in white paper.
- Then, stack them up with the largest box on the bottom and the smallest on top to create the snowman shape.
- Add a cute face to the top box with markers or cut-out paper shapes. Remember the carrot nose!
- Add black dots of "coal" to the other two boxes, again with markers or paper cut-outs.
- Consider some optional decorations, like a ribbon scarf or a top hat made from two boxes wrapped in black paper (use a long, shallow box for the brim and a square-shaped box for the top of the hat). For a faster option, you can put real hats and scarves on the snowmen instead.
- Add a gift tag, and wait for the recipient to squeal with delight at their snowman!
You can easily make other characters the same way by using other colours of wrapping paper, like brown for the reindeer and red and white for Santa. Wait until Christmas Eve to set up these characters around the tree for maximum surprise!