ELEGANT CHRISTMAS PORCH DECORATING

Welcome to my Christmas porch! I’ve been somewhat late with all things Christmas this year, and here on the blog I’m definitely a little behind! With that said, it’s never too late, Christmas is still one week away! Today I’m sharing elegant Christmas porch decorating ideas with you.

Not only am I a little bit late with everything this year, I’m a little disappointed I didn’t quite get the amount of snow out here I was hoping for.

Life has been so busy and although we had a ton of snow last month (which would have been perfect for my shots in today’s post), it all melted before I could capture this setting. I had to make do with the tiny dusting of snow that fell the night before I shot these images.

We do what we can, when we can – that’s my motto lately! Regardless of the snow, or lack thereof, I still managed to get the look I was hoping to create for some elegant Christmas porch decorating.

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ELEGANT CHRISTMAS PORCH DECORATING

I’m a traditionalist at heart and I like to keep the look of our porch somewhat similar from year to year, with an update here and there.

If you’ve never seen our porch in previous years, you’ll love to have a look here, here and here. I truly love them all! I think you will too.

The biggest change to this year’s porch is our gold magnolia wreath.

You may have seen it’s twin in my Christmas kitchen post that I shared a few weeks ago (click here) – I am so happy with these gorgeous wreaths!

They were a lucky score from HomeSense and the contrast of the gold against the black door is exquisite.

I love the fullness of this wreath, and the elegant look it brings to the exterior of our home. It has a slightly coppery undertone, so when I tackled my garland DIY – more on that in a minute – I was sure to sprinkle in some of those same coppery colors for a cohesive look.

DIY GARLAND WITH ORNAMENTS

I was set on finding new garland for our porch this year.

The one we have was getting a little old, and it’s actually made up of two garlands, intertwined for a fuller look.

I’ve never had the budget to spend on a lavish garland (those really full, lush ones adorned with ornaments), and well, this year, I still couldn’t find something in my price range that I was willing to spend.
So I decided to create my own gorgeous, lush garland with the ones I already owned, by adding a plethora of shatterproof ornaments…which is a fancier term for the plastic kind!

I set out for my local dollar store, and grabbed a ton of silver, gold and copper-toned ornaments in different sizes.

I had no design plan in mind, other than the look I was after. 

With ornament tree hooks, I fastened each one to the garland by twisting the hooks around the branches to secure them.

I don’t think it gets easier than that.

I had to wrestle with a few here and there to get them to sit the way I wanted, but overall, this super simple DIY quickly turned into a sophisticated and lush garland. It looks far more expensive than it cost and I love the dimension it adds to our porch.

From the street it looks gorgeous with our gold magnolia wreath, and makes such an elegant statement.

CHRISTMAS PORCH WITH TWINKLING LIGHTS

Dusk is my favorite time of day at this time of year, when the sun is just setting and the sky casts that magical early evening glow.

I don’t love that it happens at four o’clock!  But I just love the light at this time of day. Everything twinkles and sparkles and is so beautiful.

I love the silver and gold ornaments of the garland, and the gold wreath in the glow of twinkling lights.
The only thing I forgot to do was light my lanterns!

When I captured these evening shots, I had literally just driven up the driveway after getting the kids from school, and grabbed my camera as fast as I could before I lost the light.

I didn’t get the full effect I wanted, but I’m glad I was able to capture this beautiful evening glow.

Lanterns or no lanterns, this scene still makes me so happy!

I’ve decided next year that new brass lanterns will complete the look even more. I’m due for some new ones, because these ones have definitely seen better days!

I hope you enjoyed my elegant Christmas porch and that you’ve found some DIY and decorating ideas that you can use for your porch too.

Garlands are so simple to decorate, they’re like a blank canvas just waiting to be painted.

You can see the way I decorated our living room garland in my Christmas living room, here. and if you haven’t seen my Christmas entryway, you can read all about it here if you’d like.

I’m hoping to be back with my dining room decked out for the holidays soon too…wish me luck! xo