DIY Sustainable Christmas Decorations

posted in holidays & events, home

Last Updated on November 17, 2021

This holiday season keep it green by using natural and re-purposed materials in your decorations. Here’s 5 easy DIY projects that are festive, minimalist, and sustainable.

DIY decorated pom-pom branches

Wintery Branches

You will need:

  • branches
  • jar
  • salt
  • string/yarn
  • a fork
  • scissors

Find some nice looking branches and put them in a jar with salt to hold them and make sure they’re stable.

To make the pom-poms wind the yarn around the fork and then tie together in the middle. Cut the loops on either side and fluff up and pom-pom (here’s some step by step photos). Add a string to hang.

You can also add any other lightweight decorations to the branches. Paper decorations work really well!

dried orange slices hanging on branches

Dried Orange Slices

These are lovely to hang in a tree, make a garland, or hang in windows and have the light shine through. You will need:

  • a few oranges (depending how many slices you want to make)
  • kitchen towel
  • oven

Slice the oranges trying to keep them even. Lay the slices out and use a towel to soak up excess moisture. Put them either on an over rack or a baking pan with baking paper. Bake at 100°C, they can take a while to dry out so to save some energy I like to keep them in the oven for around 45 mins (turning the oven off after 30 mins but leaving them in) and then put them on the top of our heater for the rest of the day to totally dry out.

Once the slices are dried you can use as is or take a needle and thread and string them together in a garland or create loops for hanging.

Origami star

Origami Stars

These are a nice DIY that you can use scrap paper for. You just need paper and instead of trying to explain the steps probably not very well, here’s a good tutorial on how to fold them.

Minimalist Triangle Tree

I love the minimalist/Scandinavian style of this simple tree. It’s perfect for small apartments!

You will need:

  • 6 sticks/dowels (3 shorter and 3 longer depending on how high you want your tree to be)
  • string
  • paper/decorations

Take the 3 shorter sticks and make a triangle with the ends overlapping. Tie each corner together and wind the string around a few times. Take the 3 longer sticks and tie together a few cm from the top making a triangle. Put the open ends into each corner of the bottom triangle and tie together.

You can then either create your own ornaments and hang them from the top, or use a few ornaments you already have. Top the tree off with a star. ⭐

Candle Jars

This is probably the easiest project and they look really lovely. You will need:

  • jars
  • salt
  • tealights and/or floating candles
  • string
  • cinnamon sticks/pine branch
  • oranges/cranberries/rosemary

For the regular candle jars, add a couple cm salt to the bottom of a jar and put a tealight in the middle. Take a few cinnamon stick or a little piece of a pine branch and tie to the outside of the jar.

For the floating candles, add cranberries, orange slices, or rosemary springs to a jar with water and put a floating candle on top. Cranberries work best, other things like orange slices will discolour the water over time, these also wont keep a long time so they’re best as a “day of” decoration.

What are your favourite green holiday decorations?

Also check out my eco gift wrapping ideas and plant based holiday recipes!

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