How To Turn Flower Pots & Hanging Baskets Into Beautiful Christmas Decorations - For Free!

Don't put away those hanging baskets and flower pots just yet - instead - turn them into some of the most beautiful outdoor Christmas decorations ever! And even better - for free!

The same baskets that held petunias all summer can be filled with evergreen branches, pine cones and a few red stems for Christmas. And the pots by the front door? They’re perfect for making a pair of outdoor arrangements without buying new containers.

One of the best parts of decorating this way is that the old potting soil can stay right where it is. It makes a handy base for holding the branches in place. And if you have a pine, spruce or arborvitae in the yard, you may already have much of what you need to fill a basket or two.

The Simple Steps To Turn Flower Pots & Hanging Baskets Into Christmas Decorations

Start With Your Summer Baskets & Pots

Clip the old flowers and stems at the soil line. You can leave the old roots in place as long as you can still push branches into the potting mix. If the roots have formed a thick mat, loosen the top few inches with a hand trowel or scoop out a little and replace it with loose potting mix.

The best time to do this is before the soil freezes solid. If it’s already frozen, bring the containers into a garage or other sheltered spot and let them thaw enough to work with. Slightly damp soil is easier to work with than bone-dry mix. Make sure the drainage holes are open so rain and melting snow can escape.

Use pots you know can handle winter weather. If you love the look of a decorative pot that you normally bring in before a freeze, you can get a similar effect with a winter-safe container tucked inside a porch basket or set behind a few evergreen branches that hide the rim.

Gather A Few Different Kinds Of Evergreens

Two or three kinds of greenery are plenty to turn hanging baskets and pots into great Christmas decorations. Long, soft pine branches are great for draping over the edges of baskets. Fir and spruce give a pot a fuller, more upright shape. And flat sprays of cedar or arborvitae are handy for filling the little gaps where you can still see the soil.

You can use small clippings from your own evergreens or ask at a Christmas tree lot if they have any branches left over from trimming trees. One branch can give you several useful pieces.

Save the longest tips for the center of a pot or the edge of a basket, then use the short side branches to fill in around them.

Before you start arranging, strip the needles or small side shoots from the bottom few inches of each stem. A bare stem goes into the soil more easily. Cut more short pieces than you think you’ll need. They’re what makes an arrangement look full when you walk up to it.

How To Make A Christmas Hanging Basket

Maybe the most fun of all is to turn hanging baskets into Christmas decorations to bring life to porches during the holiday season!

Set the basket on a workbench or table so you can turn it as you go. Start around the outside edge with your longest, softest branches. Push the cut ends into the soil at an angle so the tips spill over the rim. Work all the way around the basket, even on the side that will face the house. A hanging basket tends to turn a little in the wind, so bare spots can show up where you least expect them.

Next, add shorter sprigs toward the center. Stand a few more upright, then angle others outward to cover the soil between the branches. Give the basket a turn and look at it from below. That’s where you’ll spot the holes you missed when you were looking straight down at it.

For a simple Christmas finish, tuck in a few pine cones and tie a weather-resistant bow to the front or to one of the hanger chains. If you add lights, a short string of outdoor-rated battery lights is easy to weave through the greens.

Put a few bulbs near the tips so the light shows from below. Affiliate Link: 4 Pack Battery Operated Outdoor String Lights Timer Christmas Wreath Lights

How To Fill Flower Pots For Christmas

Start with the tallest branches. If the pot sits against a wall, place them toward the back. If you’ll see it from all sides, put them near the center. A few upright spruce tips or bare red twig dogwood stems can give the arrangement enough height to show up from the sidewalk.

Then work down and out. Add medium-length fir or pine branches around the tall stems, followed by shorter pieces at the rim. Let a few cedar or arborvitae tips hang over the side. That bit of greenery softens the edge of the pot and makes even an ordinary summer planter look like it belongs on the porch in December.

If you’re making two pots for the front steps, use the same main greens and keep the tallest branches at roughly the same height. The two pots will look like a pair even if the branches curve in different directions.

Add Color With Pine Cones, Berries & A Simple Bow

You can do a lot with what you find in the yard. Pine cones tucked where the branches meet add texture. A few red dogwood stems show up well against deep green fir. Even a handful of bare, crooked twigs can look right at home in a pot beside a wooden front door.

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For brighter color, try an outdoor ribbon or a few artificial berry stems. Group them where you’ll see them from the front. Three small touches of red together usually show up better than scattering them so far apart that each one gets lost in the greenery.

Secure anything the wind could carry off. Floral wire works well for tying pine cones onto branches, and a bow can be wired to a sturdy stem or the basket hanger. On a pot, tuck cones near the rim or partway up the front where they’ll be easy to see.

Keep The Greenery Looking Good Through Christmas

A cool, sheltered porch is a good spot for cut evergreens. Sun and wind can dry the tips faster, especially on a basket hanging out in the open. If one branch starts to brown, pull it out and slide a fresh clipping into its place. It’s much easier to replace a sprig or two than to redo the whole pot.

After Christmas, take out the bows and other holiday accents and leave the greens, cones and bare stems in place. It's also a great time to add all of that potting soil to your compost bin! See our article: How To Reuse Last Year’s Potting Soil - And Make It Even Better!

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This Is My Garden is a garden website created by gardeners, for gardeners. Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books and speaking for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. They publish three articles every week, 52 weeks a year. Sign up today to follow via email, or follow along!