45 DIY Christmas Garlands to Drape Your Home in Holiday Cheer

Silver Evergreen Garland

Loop and drape a pre-lit Christmas garland ($67, Overstock) around the banister and for dramatic effect, let it puddle on the ground. To add more punch to a basic style, add sprigs of silvery juniper berries, silver ornaments, and a rope of pretty felted balls.

Editor's Tip: Always buy more garland than you think you'll need, since you'll want to excess for draping. We've found that one-and-a-half times the length of your space is enough.

Lush Door Garland

Create a farmhouse Christmas porch with a faux magnolia wreath, star decorations, and a classic garland. When assembling your holiday greenery, boost depth and contrast by mixing a wide range of green hues and a variety of textures. To add visual weight and texture to a simple faux evergreen garland, embellish it with large pinecones. Simply attach them using florists wire.

Embellished Garland

Elevate an artificial garland by embellishing it with fresh greenery and items from nature. Sprigs of silver dollar eucalyptus lend texture and fragrance to this store-bought swag, while pinecones and red berries help blur the line between faux and real even further. Clusters of crepe-paper ball ornaments make a strong finishing statement. Secure them using hot glue.

Big Bow Christmas Garland

Graceful Christmas bows with long tails dramatically enhance a simple evergreen garland ($67, Target). Cut extra-long strips of wide ribbon or fabric, tie them into bows, and attach them to the bannister about three feet apart. For a pop of traditional Christmas, try red ribbons.

Continuous Garland

Why limit your garland to just one window? With one long expanse of green, keep Christmas decor moving across an entire wall. On a wall with multiple windows, hang your garland at the corners of the bank of windows (letting the greenery trail toward the floor) and swag it in the middle.

Flocked Garland

Go lush with a layer of flocked garland along your mantel. Intertwine this Christmas garland with eucalyptus, dusty miller, or bay leaves. The icy greens look positively stunning against the silver-brushed Christmas evergreen. Use flocking spray to bring the beauty of freshly fallen snow indoors without any of the mess.

Geometric Wood Bead Garland

This Christmas garland features wooden beads and geometric brass pieces. Weave the bead garland through pine tree branches, and drape them across the mantel for a stunning but playful touch. Customizing this idea by varying the pattern of beads and brass triangles makes it almost as fun to create as it is to hang.

Crepe and Copper Garland

Create a modern copper-accented Christmas garland with timeless white crepe paper leaves. For a pop of texture, wind copper wire together to create orbs. Use a color scheme to match your decor, and vary the metallic wire.

Corner Swag

Make a corner swag by wiring pine boughs, magnolia leaves, and grapevine to 1x2-inch boards attached at a right angle. Hang using an exterior removable hook.

Editor's Tip: Faux fir greenery is ideal for a doorway application, since the needles won't fall off as the door opens and closes.

Christmas Centerpiece Greenery Garland

Turn simple greenery into a gorgeous winter tabletop garland with our easy step-by-step instructions. Your guests won't believe you made this luxurious centerpiece yourself. Drape it down the center of the table to create a stunning tablescape, or add it to a mantel for rustic charm. For a pop of color, tuck in a few fresh floral blooms to tie to the rest of your decor.

Kitchen Nook Garland

Turn a nook in your home into a festively decorated hangout. Use the built-in ledges provided by windows or walls to hang your garland, and add ornaments. Tie the display together with a traditional holiday wreath and classic red bow.

Metallic Christmas Garland

Add a little sparkle to a basic magnolia garland. Metallic silver and gold spray paints transform a once-green magnolia swag into a sparkling holiday showpiece. Small votives and vases pick up the pretty metallic tones, which in turn accent this mosaic fireplace front. You know what they say: everyone needs silver and gold.

Pillar Garland

If you're lucky enough to have pillars (or painted branches like these), accent them for the season by wrapping them in berry-filled Christmas garlands. An elegant evergreen garland with berry and pinecone accents adds a rustic theme to this vignette.

Petite Christmas Garland

Who says Christmas garlands need to be lush affairs? Maintain a minimal look with a short swag of Christmas greenery and a few lengths of pom-pom garland in a simple neutral. Drape them across a mirror or window.

Yarn Tassel Garland

Craft a simple Christmas garland with a mix of yarns. Make handmade tassels from chunky twisted yarns or paper. Choose colors that match your decor, and attach them to a length of yarn. Drape your garland along a wall, a banister, or even your tree.

Ribbon and Evergreen Garland

For a pretty jolt of color, weave wide ribbons into an evergreen garland. Mix different ribbons, using one color along the length, then switching to another color to accent. For a classic Christmas garland, try using red with silver. Add reindeer bells ($53, Vermont Country Store), so Santa can hear everyone run down the stairs on Christmas morning.

Perfectly Outlined Garland

Accent the curved shape of a mirror with a garland. Try boxwood as an alternative to evergreen varieties. If you decorate your home with red, look for berries to pick up the red accents elsewhere in your decor.

Stairway Stocking Garland

If you've got no chimney for hanging stockings with care, no problem. Hang stockings along the banister, and complete the holiday display with a mixture of live green garland and metallic accents. There's nothing more exciting than seeing an overflowing stocking as you come down the stairs.

Christmas Card Garland Idea

Turn your Christmas greeting cards into a cheery garland for your mantel. Swag yarn or ribbon between the corners of your mantel and attach cards with decorative clothespins (available at craft and paper stores). For an extra touch, cut out ornament shapes and have your kids decorate them.

Fresh Flower Garland

Bold blooms pop in this fragrant garland centerpiece. Perfect for Christmas, this living flower garland is the perfect way to add color to your holiday table.

Doubled-Up Christmas Garlands

Dress up a plain evergreen garland with knit accessories, like stockings and a yarn garland. Make your own by braiding thick strands of bulky yarn. Finish the look with simple metallic ball ornaments and dried orange slices.

Silvery Star Christmas Garland

Add some star power to your Christmas decor. Cut star shapes from old sweater fabric using our free pattern. Iron heavy fusible interfacing to the backs of stars and trim. Hot-glue a large silver sequin to the center of each star. Glue the stars to yarn and hang.

Christmas Advent Calendar Garland

Deck your holiday mantel with a swag of sweet surprises. Fill 24 small envelopes with tiny toys or pieces of candy and seal them with numbered stickers. Hang the envelopes across the mantel with miniature clothespins. Kids will love waking up to a new treat each day during the countdown to Christmas.

Winter Blooms and Magnolia Christmas Garland

A magnolia-leaf Christmas garland provides a large, lush base for mantel decor. Metallic accents, paperwhite blooms, and beautiful candlelight combine to create a Christmas look that is both simple and commanding.

Sparkling Christmas Garland

Instead of your tree being the only light display, illuminate your mantel with a simple, lighted Christmas garland. You can make the display by wrapping lights around a classic evergreen garland, or you can skip a step and just buy one pre-lit (and we're all for simplifying the holiday season). Choose LED lights to avoid heating up your garland.

Editor's Tip: Garlands aren't just for your holiday mantel. Try displaying your Christmas garland in an unexpected location, like your headboard.

DIY Holly Christmas Garland

Adorn the backs of chairs with cute and creative holly Christmas garlands. Cut out leaves from shades of green felt. Punch two holes in the tops and string with matching paper straws (cut to six inches) to make a swag. For berries, hot-glue wool felt balls to the leaves. Pin or tie the garlands to the backs of chairs.

Christmas Ornament Garland

Add a jewel box appearance with a shiny ornament Christmas garland on your fireplace. Red ornaments pop against a classic white fireplace, picking up on accents elsewhere in the display, like the lighted tree.

Dried Orange Slice Garland

Create your own dried orange slice garland to dress up a simple swag of evergreen. To make it, use a heavy-duty sewing needle to thread dried orange slices and wood beads on jute twine. Once done, drape the Christmas craft over a fresh evergreen garland.

Colorful Doves Christmas Garland

White faux doves are a beautiful way to spread a peaceful message during the holidays. Create a colorful backdrop with a green garland and a jewel-tone ornament scheme finished in beautiful ribbon bows.

Vintage Christmas Fabric Swag

Utilizing greenery at Christmastime will always be classic, but trying out other materials can be refreshing, too. Here, French-inspired fabric drapes beautifully over a basket bursting with fresh green cuttings and berries that could have been scooped right from the tree.

Simple, Colorful Christmas Garland

Add a splash of color that won't overpower your mantel decor. String colorful felt balls across a holiday mantel or shelf for a subtle touch of fun. These easy decorations are also simple for the office Christmas party.

Lighted Christmas Garland Accent

Set up eye-catching decor in your entryway or living room by draping a mirror with a battery-powered, lighted Christmas garland. The twinkling lights will reflect off the mirror and other metallic accents to create a luminous effect.

Natural Layers Christmas Garland

Layer wild, unmanicured greenery with garlands made of natural fibers. This unexpected combination of textures creates an interesting mantel display. Lay branches cut to various lengths along your mantel, then string cream felt balls to create the first garland. For the second one, use thick cream yarn and make a braid long enough to span your mantel. Make pom-poms to hang, equally spaced, from the braid.

Layered Christmas Garland

A layered Christmas garland for the bannister offers incredible allure. Here, magnolia leaves serve as the base, while cedar, and lavender thistle are woven in for depth and texture, and lights add sparkle.

Editor's Tip: Take a walk around your yard or a nearby park and gather the last remnants of the growing season—interesting leaves and dried flowers, for example—to embellish your Christmas garland.

Pinecones and Greens Garland

Garlands can be assembled in a variety of ways. They may be single long pieces of evergreens, or they may be small pieces of various greens that are wired or glued together. This daintier version is the latter; tiny groupings of glued-on pinecones add complementary color and texture.

Tried-and-True Evergreen Garland

Evergreens generally complement any style of holiday decorating, and a Christmas garland is a great chance to accent your decor. Here, multiple needle types are intertwined along a long, curving banister. Ribbon-hung pinecones, dusted with a bit of white paint, offer a pretty end-point.

Christmas Garland for a Backdrop

Garlands can be used as a unifying element for multiple colors in a Christmas color scheme. Here, unadorned greens weave around the glass jars on the family mantel, which can display colorful holiday candy or leftover ornaments.

Multiple Sizes and Styles of Garland

Garlands used to be pretty basic holiday decor—evergreens draped on mantels and stairwells. Now you can go bigger, as this room does. Pretty evergreens add texture on top of the mantel, but a ribbon garland draped through miniature wreaths accents the large corner bank of windows for a festive pop of color.

Ever-Changing Photo Garland

Here's a great idea to capture and display yearly memories: a photo garland. Take snapshots during the season and print out your favorites. Mount them onto cardstock using photo corners, then add scrapbooking label holders as IDs. Hang the photos from plain or colored twine using clothespins. The garland might adorn a doorway, window, or mantel. The following year, tuck those photos into an album, and display new pictures.

Silver Accents for a Garland

A Christmas garland doesn't have to drape in order to be a garland. Here, a variety of greens come together in mounds and clumps, supplying movement to the mantel. Antique, vintage, and new mercury-glass balls and Christmas trees add sparkling contrast.

Christmas Pinecone Garland

To welcome your guests in traditional style, customize a ready-made pinecone garland with ornaments that coordinate with the color of your front door. Position the Christmas garland outside the door frame, and secure it at the top and along the sides with easy-to-remove self-adhesive hooks or brick clips.

Oversize Bow Garland

Dress up a simple prelit Christmas garland with oversize red velvet ribbon bows. Look for ribbon that has a wire-edge to create clean, smooth bows. Tie a classic bow and use florists wire to attach it to the draped holiday garland.

Felt Flower Christmas Garland

A parade of felt flowers is a sweet alternative to the usual ribbons and pinecones adorning evergreen boughs. To make the flowers, cut six 2-inch and six 1 ½-inch felt circles. Layer a small and a large circle, aligning the bottoms. Pinch the set of circles together at the bottom, run a threaded needle through the four layers, and knot the ends. Repeat for the remaining five petals. Stitch the six petals together at the pinched ends to form a flower. Using a needle and thread, string the finished flowers together on the backside through the pinched centers to form a garland.

Editor's Tip: If you don't have enough felt flowers to line your banister, use them to decorate small spaces, such as bookshelves, windows, and mirrors.

Modern Snowflake Christmas Garland

Garlands go beyond classic Christmas greenery. Add modern flair to your stair railing with a snowflake garland handcrafted from wooden crafts sticks. Use two or three pieces of double-stick mounting tape per snowflake to hold the lacy patterns flat against the railings and create a winter wonderland.

Christmas Evergreen Doorway Garland

You'll forget you're entering the kitchen when you walk through this Christmas garland. Hanging a garland around the doorway is as decorative as it is useful—just hang Christmas cards with simple clips.

Editor's Tip: Secure the Christmas cards to the garland by tucking them neatly into the boughs or hanging them on the branches with small pieces of twine.