Find a Christmas Lantern on Clearance and Decorate It for Winter!

by Jennifer Allwood

The next month or so are that awkward decorating time of year where Christmas and holiday decor is coming down and it's way too early for spring decor. But I have a great WINTER decorating idea for you!!!!

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I recently decorated this lantern for a fundraising auction. It was for Christmas, but take out the reindeer and the Christmas balls and it’s a gorgeous WINTER decoration. Imagine 2 of them on your fireplace mantel! And if you go to a craft store now, you can find Christmas lanterns on clearance!!!

This is what the lantern looked like before. You can find them at Hobby Lobby.

That battery operated candle does NOT come out, so I wrapped it in tin foil and spray painted the entire thing in the color “Heirloom White”. This is my go to color for a warm white spray paint. And listen, this step should take 1 minute. Let it dry. Come back and do another coat. This is quick and easy! If you follow me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/themagicbrushinc) you'll know I'm a spray paint addict, BUT ALSO..... I like FAST diy's!!!! Spray it quick!

After the paint dried, I used a sanding sponge and just ran it over the edges so it looked distressed. You’ll see a pic of that down in this post.

I found wintery sticks and a Christmas floral pick at Hobby Lobby that I literally rubber banded together to attach to the side of the lantern.

See how I wired that? Your lantern must have a hole of some kind in order to do this. And here you can see my sanding on the edges of the lantern.

Next, I used these Styrofoam gold balls from Hobby Lobby to literally fill the inside of the lantern about 1/2 way up. It just looked fun to me. If you go now, you’ll be able to find these clearanced out after Christmas! If you are looking for just a WINTER lantern, leave the Christmas balls out!

See how cute that is? Just another little detail that makes a project prettier.

I also hot glued a few of the styrofoam balls to the branches and floral pick.

I hot glued a sparkly reindeer to the sticks. And tied some jute around his neck.

And then I added a HUGE, pre-made bow to the top of the lantern. Listen, these are $2.99 at Hobby Lobby. With a 40% off coupon they are less than $2. You can’t make them that pretty for that cheap. Buy them pre-made. Seriously. You don’t have to DIY everything!