diy-christmas-village-terrarium

If you’ve hung out around here at all during the holidays you know I can’t deal with packing and unpacking a bunch of red and green plastic bins full of Christmas decor every year. I’m part minimalist, part lazy and part if I’m gonna spend my hard-earned money, I want to enjoy it all year around, not just in December.

I pride myself in having one bin of tree decor and one bin of extra Christmas stuff. Two bins. That’s all I can handle.

And then I saw this image from Terrain

family_awinterwoodlandlantern_a

..isn’t it just stunning?

Suddenly I wanted to have my own teeny tiny Christmas village complete with trees and tiny lights to secretly play with after the boys went to bed.

So I decided to see what I could make with what I already had.

tiny house

I already had a bag of pretend snow from last year and a few white trees.

I found a little white ceramic house at Target and a white church at Hobby Lobby I spent about $10 total for those.

copper lights

And after shopping around I finally found the perfect copper string lights sold in sets of four WITH batteries on Amazon for $8.99.

glass box

I didn’t want to have to purchase a big lantern, I had a few small ones but they were too small to hold the house and church. So, of course, I shopped my house and found this glass display box that I’ve been using in the barn.  I stacked some white mugs and white paper at the bottom, covered it with pretend snow and then tucked in the church, house, trees and string lights.

Three things I love about this tiny village

  1. the biggest most expensive piece–the box, is something I use year around (plus I already had it!) shop your house and see what you already have that you can use–a lantern, an aquarium or fish bowl, a glass drink dispenser, a punch bowl? a large tray? a glass bowl?  (a few things we had that I considered using)
  2. it’s contained, so I’m not at risk for buying 37 white ceramic houses when they go on sale in January, two is enough and more won’t fit. praise hands.
  3. I can change it up next year if I get bored or over it

christmas village for cozy minimalist diy

I also popped in a tiny gold deer–I bought a pack of them years ago and use them on gifts, and sneak them in little places this time of year.

It’s  a sweet little addition to our decor  and one where I didn’t have to make any big commitments, go into debt or buy an extra plastic bin to store it in. The perfect Christmas decor for a lazy/cozy minimalist like me.

sources:

pretend snow // bottle brush trees // tiny ceramic houses  also here // lights// tiny gold deer

 

simple christmas village

 

Need more simple Christmas ideas for your holiday + hosting?

Here’s how I decorate for Christmas like a normal person who loves beauty but not clutter.

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