How to Make Outdoor Holiday Planters

Before you put away those pots and planters for winter, consider adding a dash of garden cheer to your holiday decor by turning them into beautiful holiday planters. These eye-catching festive planters are super easy to make and a great way to celebrate the holiday season and the stillness of winter.

Most summer planters such as window boxes, flowers pots, whiskey barrels, and raised-beds can be transformed into a holiday winter planter. I used these two large urns purchased from Home Depot. They are my front porch go-to planters for summer annuals, mums, and now winter decor.

Ideas for Winter Planter Materials

What you choose to put in your holiday planter can vary widely but most will contain a variety of fresh evergreen branches. Here is a list of some of the most common materials used....

Fresh Greens (eucalyptus, pine, junipers, cedar, fir, and spruce branches)

​Red Berries (holly, winterberry)

Seed Pods (milkweed, baptisia, silver dollar plant)

Large pine cones

​Dried hydrangeas

Twigs, sticks, and logs (Red twig dogwood, birch log, curly willow branches)

Shiny ornaments

Supply List

Planter, window box, flower pot, whisky barrel

Soil

Garden shears

Planter filler materials

Time Needed

Creating a beautiful holiday planter is a quick way to make your home look naturally inviting for the winter season. Your biggest time investment will be searching for the materials. Once found, most planters can be done in less than 20 minutes.

Where to Find Materials

A holiday tradition in our family is picking out and cutting down our Christmas tree. One of the advantages of having a live Christmas tree is the lower branches that are often discarded to fit the trunk into a tree stand. These lower branches make an excellent foundation for holiday planters. Even if you don't want a live Christmas tree in your house but feel the need to get out and enjoy the outdoors, many local Christmas tree farms will let you wander around and pick up unwanted lower branches left behind in the field. It's a fun way to enjoy the outdoors with the family and the dog and it makes hot chocolate taste magical at the end of the day.

Foraging for holiday planter materials is a great way to enjoy nature and get outside in the fresh air. The forest is full of all kinds of treasures that can make a winter planter look spectacular. Be sure you have permission before you wander onto a property, and wear bright colored clothes so you're not mistaken for a deer during hunting season.

If you are a gardener, many of materials can be cut from your own back yard. Hydrangeas, when dried make an excellent addition to a holiday planter. For best results, cut the flowers about 18 inches in length in the fall before the color fades. Store them out of direct sunlight, in a vase, with no water. The flowers will naturally dry on their own and retain most of their color.

Seed pods from milkweed, baptisia, silver dollars, or anything else you find interesting can be added to your planter. Different textures and eye-popping colors will be the focal point of your arrangement.

If you desire height, add birch branches, curly willow branches, or red twig dogwood to the middle of the planter.

Winterberry is one of the best plants for adding a splash of red color to outdoor planters. This native shrub grows in wetlands throughout the eastern United States. It's bountiful branches of red berries are often seen starting in November, dotting wetlands along the highway. It is also grown as an ornamental shrub, adding a pop of red to a winter landscape while providing a valuable food source for backyard birds.

Winterberry

For those not looking to venture into nature, many garden centers, and winter farmers' markets will offer a nice selection of fresh evergreens, red berries, seed pods, white birch logs, and holiday decorations to fill your planter. Artificial greens can also be used and have the advantage of being reused year after year.

5 Simple Steps to Create Your Holiday Planter

1. Once you've gathered all your materials, fill your planter with soil and compact it as much as possible. Older soil left in pots from the previous season's flowers work best because roots left behind provide stability in loose soil. You can always use green floral foam too, but I prefer natural elements that can be dumped in my compost pile at the end of the season.

2. If you're using a birch pole or other log, stick these in the middle of the planter at different heights. Some logs are heavy and will need to be pressed into the soil as far as possible to prevent tipping over.

3. Give the evergreens a clean cut with your garden shears and stick them into the soil. Keep adding them until the planter is full.

Press the stems into the soil

4. Arrange the other materials such as seed pods, berries, and hydrangeas in-between the evergreen boughs, being sure to press the stems firmly into the soil so they don't blow out.

5. Water your winter arrangement thoroughly. If you live in a colder climate where the soil in the pot freezes, you won't need to water it again unless the temperatures turn unseasonably warm. In warmer climates, in order to keep your outdoor planters looking fresh, you'll need to water regularly.