Easy Winter Porch Decorating Tips & Tricks

I’m sharing a few of my easy winter porch decorating tips to quickly turn your entranceway into a festive welcome for the entire winter season.

1. Start with an empty slate

The first thing I did was clear off all of my Fall porch stuff…or what was left of it after the squirrel army totaled my pumpkins!! I didn’t have a pumpkin left that they hadn’t attacked…pumpkin guts and seeds everywhere!!

If it’s warm enough where you live I would suggest giving your porch a quick squirt with your hose to get rid of any debris.

Best Tip For A Full Garland

I’m going to let you in on my #1 best tip for making your garlands look big and beautiful…and it’s pretty darn easy to do!!

First, grab some real garlands…they don’t have to be the expensive kind just the basic ones.

I grabbed these garlands at Trader Joe’s for around $10 each.

Next, stretch out a real garland and an artificial garland next to each other on the ground.

I’ve had this garland for years. There are pine cones and berries on it but you can always embellish a plain garland with a few pine cones (just twist floral wire around the base of the pine cone and tie the ends to the garland and a few berry picks…only takes a couple of minutes)

And here’s the part that will make your garland look like you spent a fortune…twist the two together! From a distance, you can’t even tell that there’s a fake in there.

Once the garlands were twisted together I added a long string of warm white Christmas lights. I like to weave them back and forth instead of wrapping them around the garlands.

Easy Winter Planter Idea

Here’s the easiest way to make a beautiful winter planter for zero dollars…if it’s free it’s for me!!

First I pulled out the dead geraniums and petunias from my summer planters…I have to say with the warm Fall we had in New England I still had blossoms in November…it was sooo strange!!

After I dragged the planters onto my front porch I grabbed my clippers and a basket and took a walk into the woods to cut some fresh greens.

If you don’t have all kinds of evergreens in your backyard you can find bunches of greens or even a swag at your local nursery or market that you can use to make planters.

I make my winter planter using the same design method as my summer planters: thriller, filler, & spiller. Meaning I pick something that will be the star of the planter, something to fill up most of the space, and something to spill over the edges.

Since this pot is already filled with soil it will hold the pine boughs in place…actually it gets so cold here that they freeze in place and stay fresh all winter.

As my spiller, I stuck in the wispy pine branches around the perimeter of the planter.

Then I added a variety of spruce boughs and juniper branches to fill in the rest of the planter.

Now to add the thrillers of this planter. I grabbed a few big pine cones that I had and a few branches from my yard and made my own picks to stick in the planter

All I did was hot glue the pine cone onto the edge of the stick.

After I added the pine cones to the planters I made a super simple bow to add for a bit of holiday color. Super simple…all I did was make 5 loops and twist some floral wire to secure it.

Making bows is definitely not one of my strong suits…I am jealous of my blogging girlfriends that make amazing bows!!

After the DIY pine cone picks and bow were added to the planter I added a few branches for some visual interest (spray-painted copper) and red winterberries.

Do you have winterberries where you live? We have them all along the roadsides near wet areas…I keep a pair of clippers in the car just for this occasion.

I spotted a bunch of them in a marshy area next to the gas station my husband has stopped at…I did the “I’ll be right back” and took off with my clippers..I may have almost slipped down the muddy hill but darn it…I got my winterberries!!

Oh yeah, and a string of lights that attaches to the ones hanging around the door.

Putting All My Easy Winter Porch Tips Together

• Reuse Your Summer Planter Pots
• Collect Greens To Fill Them
• Make Your Own Picks With Pinecones & Sticks
• Add Spray Painted Branches For Visual Interest
• Red Berries For A Pop Of Color

Here’s one of the finished planters. I think it took about 10 minutes from start to finish to put it together!

I made a matching planter for the other side of my front door. To finish up my super easy winter porch I hung a set of jingle bells with greens on the wall ( I think I got these at least 10 years ago and use them every winter somewhere)

You can see the copper sticks a little better in this planter picture.

And here’s the porch all lit up at night…side note: when I just went out to snap this picture, I startled a bird and it came flying out of the top of the garland and almost hit me in the head…this is a dangerous job people!!!

• For A Full Garland Twist One Basic Real Garland With An Artificial Garland
• Weave Lights Instead Of Wrapping Them Around The Entire Garland (more lights facing front for more glow at night)

I love my simple porch this year…last year I was in the “go big or go home” mood! You can check out my fun front porch from last year using blues and reds.

Want to see what’s on the other side of that door?? Come check how I decorated my living room for Christmas

More Christmas inspiration!

• Day 1 – Christmas DIY Ideas
• Day 2 – Front Porch Decorating Ideas
• Day 3 – Christmas Tree Ideas
• Day 4 – Christmas Table Decor Ideas
• Day 5 – Christmas Cookies and Sweet Treats
• Day 6 – Christmas Decorating Ideas
• Day 7 – Christmas Hacks You Should Know
• Day 8 – Christmas Gift Wrapping Guide
• Day 9 – Wreaths & Front Door Decor
• Day 10 – Winter Greenery