December is just around the corner and you want to put your house and garden in the Christmas spirit? A beautiful decoration for indoors and outdoors doesn't necessarily have to cost a fortune. You can use inexpensive materials or things that you have on handconjure up beautiful decorations. Today we'll show you how you can make a pretty Christmas decoration yourself cheaply and quickly from pool noodles. Get inspired!
Use pool noodles for an inexpensive Christmas decoration
Do you have some pool noodles that are just collecting dust in the garden shed? The flexible PE foam tubes, which are usually used as a swimming aid, can be used to create various elements for your Christmas decorations. From a beautiful table decoration to playful Christmas decorations for the garden – the ideas are quite diverse. Even if you don't have pool noodles on hand, they can be found quite cheaply. You can buy inexpensive pool noodles for as little as 3 euroslots of creative craft projectsinsert. Here are the best DIY pool noodle ideas for your 2021 Christmas decorations.
The first few ideas are ideal for decorating your home for Christmas. Which of these would you try?
Make Christmas table decorations
Who doesn't like an opulently decorated festive table at Christmas? A magnificent table decoration simply cannot be missing at Christmas, and we will now show you how you can make a richly decorated table garland yourself. Here's everything needed for this DIY project:
- a pool noodle
- Christmas balls and decorations in different sizes and colors
- Hot glue gun with matching glue sticks*
* If you want to use the hot glue gun for temperature-sensitive materials such as PE foam or Styrofoam, we recommend using special glue sticks with a low processing temperature (low-melt glue).
And this is how easy it is to decorate the table:
First, cut the pool noodle in half lengthwise or run a stick through the middle to prevent it from bending. Then begin attaching the Christmas balls to the pool noodle using the hot glue gun, working from the sides up. Once all the balls are in place, fill the gaps with smaller Christmas decorations, flowers, pine branches, etc. Once the table garland is finished, you can spray it with fake snow.
Such a festive table garland is perfect for the banquet table, as a decoration for the sideboard or for the console table
You can decorate a similar pool noodle table garland in a color, theme, or look that matches the rest of your holiday decor. You can also make the table decorations glow by attaching battery-operated fairy lights. Cut a hole for the battery compartment at the bottom to hide it under the table garland.
Large indoor Christmas wreath
Would you like to decorate the area above the mantel or an empty wall for Christmas and are currently looking for ideas? With inexpensive pool noodles and matching Christmas decorations, you can easily make a huge Christmas wreath yourself. For this project, you first make a wreath blank out of the pool noodles, which you then decorate with garlands and Christmas balls.
This is how the large Christmas wreath is made:
If you want to pull the wreath apart again after Christmas, we recommend using floral wire instead of hot glue.
Make cheap candles from pool noodles as a Christmas decoration
Christmas and Advent arrangements with candlesare a classic for decorating your home during the Christmas season. However, if you would like to make a flower arrangement yourself that stays fresh forever and whose candles burn continuously, then take a look at this idea. This is all you need to make a table decoration with candles made from pool noodles:
- white pool noodles
- Hot glue gun with glue sticks for PE foam
- Scissors
- Cuttermesser
- thin craft wire
- Glitter
- white color (optional)
- battery operated LED tea lights
- Bowl or tray
- artificial green
First, cut out as many candles as you want from the white pool noodles. For a beautiful effect, the candles should be of different sizes. You also decide the number yourself, although in the example a total of 7 candles were made. To recreate an Advent arrangement, use 4 candles.
Since you want to attach the LED tea light to one end of the pool noodle, you will want to cut the hole a little larger so that the candle fits into it. Cut the hole deep enough so that the tea light is flush with the pool noodle.
Then apply some hot glue around the edges of the candles to recreate melted wax. You can then paint the hot glue white or sprinkle it with a little glitter as desired.
Once the candles are ready, arrange them on the tray and tie them together with some thin wire. Then add artificial greenery around the candles and turn on the lights.
To make and arrange a single pool noodle candle yourself, you can use a paper towel holder as a base
Make your own decoration with birch logs from pool noodles
In winter and at Christmas, home decorations made from natural materials are very popular. Some birch logs, for example, look very decorative and convey coziness to the room. But where can you find a few birch trunks to decorate your apartment with? Instead of looking for real logs, you can make these faux birch logs yourself from pool noodles.
To turn the pool noodles into birch logs, wrap them with kraft paper and use the decoupage technique to recreate the texture of the tree bark. Then paint the pool noodles with white and gray paint and you're done.
Cheap Christmas decorations for the garden
DIY pool noodle door wreath
You can also make a festive door wreath for the front door yourself using a pool noodle and several Christmas balls. Let your imagination run wild and play with different colors and shapes. There are simply no limits.
Tip: If you want to attach the Christmas balls to the pool noodle wreath with regular hot glue, wrap it with fabric tape first so that the hot glue doesn't burn the foam.
Make Christmas decorations yourself cheaply: huge lollipops as garden decorations
Large format decorations are perfect for Christmas decorations in the garden. Whetherlarge Christmas ballsor Christmas bells, the XXL decoration sets wonderful accents outside. For example, you can make such huge lollipops yourself for Christmas decorations cheaply from pool noodles. We'll show you how it's done!
What you need:
- colorful pool noodles
- wide fabric tape in different colors
- Hot glue
- PVC-Rohr
- Zellophan
- Decorative ribbon or large bows
Once you've gathered all the materials, wrap the tape diagonally around the pool noodle. You can choose classic color combinations of Christmas colors such as red-white, green-white or red-green or choose any other combination.
Roll up the striped pool noodles tightly to make the lollipop. This requires some skill. You'll need to hold the pool noodle in place once you've finished rolling it, then use some packing tape to hold everything in place. Alternatively, you can use hot glue or shish kebab skewers to hold the spiral together.
Then use the cutter to cut a hole in the spiral and glue the PVC pipe into the hole. Wrap the decorative lollipop in cellophane, tie and add a bow. All you have to do is stick the huge lollipop into the ground anywhere in the garden and you're done!
These decorative lollipops are not just suitable for Christmas. You can bring them out of the basement again at Easter or Halloween to beautify the garden.
Candy canes made from pool noodles for outdoor Christmas decorations
For a sweet Christmas decoration for outside, in addition to the giant lollipops, you can also make some candy canes yourself from pool noodles. The American candy canes look very decorative and are becoming increasingly popular as a Christmas motif in Europe. This is how these Christmas decorations can be made cheaply and quickly.
First collect the following materials:
- Pool noodles (red or white)
- colored fabric tape (white or red)
- Cutter
- fishing line
- wire
If your pool noodle doesn't have a hole, first cut it lengthwise and press a piece of wire into the slot halfway down the pool noodle. Then wrap the pool noodle diagonally with the tape (use white tape for a red pool noodle and red for a white one), making sure there is even space between the strips. Then bend the end of the swimming noodle with the wire into the appropriate shape and tie it together with the fishing line. This will allow the pool noodle to get used to the new shape. The next day you can remove the fishing line. If you don't want to use wire, just leave the fishing line on the noodle. It will keep the candy cane in shape.
If you want to place the candy canes free-standing in the garden, place them on garden stakes. Another option would be to arrange the candy canes in a bucket with other decorations or hang them on the wall of the house.
Make reindeer for the garden out of pool noodles
You can also use the pool noodles to make some cute reindeer as outdoor Christmas decorations. To do this, paint the pool noodles brown and let them dry. Then bend the top end and tie it with some fishing line. Buy some wooden reindeer heads from the decoration shop, paint them with exterior paint and decorate them however you like. Glue the faces to the pool noodles and place the decorations on garden stakes. Complete!
