DIY outdoor Christmas ornaments are an easy and festive way to decorate the landscape around your home during the holidays.
Over Thanksgiving, my sister showed me how to make these awesome DIY outdoor Christmas ornaments. They are quick to make, and we hang these outdoor lighted balls on a tree outside my Mom’s house.
They really brighten up the tree and front of her house and are an easy craft. You can make different sizes and use them in a tree or on the grass. Use any color of lights you want or multi-colored if that’s your preference. Mom and I are strictly white light girls! You can find everything your need at your local hardware store or you can click the affiliate links below to have it all delivered right to your door. These links do earn me a little money at no extra cost to you.
Here is what you will need to make these easy DIY outdoor Christmas ornaments:
- 1 roll of 2 ft wide chicken wire
- 1 pair of wire cutters
- Protective gloves
- measuring tape
- zip ties, twist ties, or floral wire
- String Lights – 100 ct for small balls and 150-200 for large balls
- Wire dry cleaning hangers, 1 per ball you want to hang in a tree
Put on your protective gloves and unroll your chicken wire. You may want someone to help hold it down while you measure and cut, because it rolls back on you. If you are by yourself, put something heavy on the end, or turn it over. Then, press to flatten so it stays in place. For the small balls that you can hang in trees, measure 13-14 inches, from the end of the roll, and cut across. The large balls require that you cut 2 feet of chicken wire.
To make a DIY outdoor Christmas ornament you will first make a cylinder.
For the small ball, attach the edges horizontally or side to side with your zip ties. My sister likes wire or twist ties, but that is not tight enough for me; I think the zip ties are much easier. Just snip the ends off your fastener after you are done. For the larger balls, attach the edges vertically or top to bottom and attach together. When doing these, you can actually just wrap the edges of the clipped chicken wire together like this:
Now you should have something that looks like this:
Stand on one end and start moving the ends toward the center. Word of warning for all you OCD and anal people out there: this does not have to be perfect, nor will it be (I say this because I am one, too). Keep working it until you get the semblance of a rounded end, then turn it over and do the other side. You can take more zip ties or twist ties to hold the ends together.
When you are finished you will have something that looks like this:
Please note that this ball is not perfect! Don’t worry, because when you wrap the Christmas lights around it, you will hide any imperfections.
Wrap your lights all around the ball in different directions. There is no specific pattern here just go around every way, straight, cross ways and diagonally to cover the ball. Leave the plug end hanging out.
To hang the lighted ornaments, cut wire dry cleaning hangers about 1 ” before the curve, then squeeze the ends together to put them down into the ball.
These made great hooks for hanging your DIY outdoor Christmas ornament balls.
Here are the 2 finished sizes, so you can see the difference between them:
This is my brother in law putting up the balls in my Mom’s tree. Thanks, Fred!
To hang the DIY outdoor Christmas ornaments in a tree you will need:
- 1 regular outdoor extension cord
- 1 25 foot multi-outlet extension cord
- 2 3 outlet covered adapters
- Zip Ties
We hang our outdoor ornaments on the tree first, then string the extension cords and adapters where we need them. You can see above how he used zip ties to hold them to the tree without damaging the tree.
This really was a fun and easy project, and they look great at night. The chicken wire and cords just disappear in the dark.
You can make different sizes of these DIY outdoor Christmas ornaments by changing the length of chicken wire you cut or by buying a wider roll of chicken wire. Then group them together. I hope you make some this season!
If you are looking for some other DIY Christmas ornaments you may want to take a look at my Decoupage Christmas Ornaments and Easy Ornaments Using Glass Etching Cream
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