Decorate your front porch with easy DIY hanger snowflakes. Add lights or leave them plain for fun outdoor winter decorations.
Make pretty lighted snowflakes using hangers and Christmas lights. This easy craft project simply requires creative tying together of white plastic hangers you can get at the dollar store. This tutorial will show you exactly how to lay the hangers down and attach them to create a pretty snowflake using adult or child-size hangers. The only difference is the size of the final snowflake. You can add Christmas lights to light up the snowflakes or simply leave them and use them as a wall decoration. The hanger snowflake lights can be hung inside or outside, even in winter.
Hanger Snowflakes with Lights
After taking down outdoor Christmas decorations, your front porch or yard may feel dull. No one says you can’t decorate for winter. These hanger snowflakes are quick and easy to make from inexpensive white plastic hangers. You can choose to add lights or just leave them plain. They look great both ways.
You can make the hanger snowflakes out of kid-size hangers or adult ones. The kid hanger snowflake on the right in the photo above is 25″ in diameter. The adult hanger snowflake on the left in the photo above is 35″ in diameter. The lights work best on the larger snowflake. You’ll probably need fewer lights on the smaller snowflakes.
You can add to your porch decorations with porch pillar snowmen (which can also be made using wood boards) and a snowman rag wreath.
Hanger Snowflake Materials:
- 16 white plastic hangers with accessory hooks – you can also use kid or adult-size hangers
- White, 4″ zip ties
- Diagonal cutters
- 100 white lights on a white cord – these are on the snowflake made with adult-size hangers
How to Make Hanger Snowflakes:
Begin by laying 2 hangers on a larger flat surface with the flat bottoms touching each other.
Repeat with the remaining 6 hangers around in a circle touching the hanger hooks with the hanger set next to them.
Create a 2nd layer of hangers on top of the bottom 8 hangers. This time, rotate the hangers by 45 degrees to fall in between the existing hangers.
Loosely secure the intersections of the 2 hanger bottoms and the 2 hanger hooks with zip ties.
It’s best to make the ties snug but not overly tight until you have everything together. Then tighten each zip tie by pulling on it.
Remove excess zip tie with diagonal cutters. You can also use scissors, but we are big fans of diagonal cutters for zip ties. They work great and are very inexpensive to buy.
The snowflakes are ready to hang as is! Or you can add lights.
If adding lights, work around the outside/bottom layer first. Keep the lights snug and secure with zip ties.
Once the outside is covered with lights, begin to go up and down every other hanger, securing with zip ties and keeping the light cord snug against the hanger.
The hanger snowflake is ready for hanging on your porch. If you don’t have an outlet on your front porch, you can use a lamp holder adaptor to turn your porch light into a plug. Then just hang the snowflake on or around the light and plugin there.
DIY Hanger Snowflake with Lights
Equipment
- Diagonal cutters
Materials
- 16 white plastic hangers with accessory hooks - kid or adult size
- White 4″ zip ties
- 100 white lights on a white cord optional
Instructions
- Lay 2 hangers on a large flat surface with the flat bottoms touching each other.
- Repeat with the remaining 6 hangers around in a circle touching the hanger hooks with the hanger set next to them.
- Create a 2nd layer of hangers on top of the bottom 8 hangers.
- This time, rotate the hangers by 45 degrees to fall in between the existing hangers.
- Loosely secure the intersections of the 2 hanger bottoms and the 2 hanger hooks with zip ties.
- It’s best to make the ties snug but not overly tight until you have everything together. Then tighten each zip tie by pulling on it.
- Remove excess zip tie with diagonal cutters.
- If adding lights, work around the outside/bottom layer first. Keep the lights snug and secure with zip ties.
- Once the outside is covered with lights, begin to go up and down every other hanger, securing with zip ties and keeping the light cord snug against the hanger.
- Hang your snowflake!