Light Up Your Porch For The Holidays With This Dollar Tree Gift Box DIY

Nothing makes a home's exterior feel homier than a plethora of warm, inviting holiday lights and decorations. If you've ever been in charge of acquiring these decorations, however, you know just how costly they can be. Luckily, one TikTok account has come up with a brilliant holiday decor hack and shared it on the platform for everyone else's benefit. DIY community @hometalk posted a video showing the assembly of two decorative outdoor faux gift boxes, lit from within and created out of Dollar Tree items, that will perfectly match your festive Christmas door. 

If you enjoy crafting and you've been looking for a potentially more affordable alternative to the outdoor holiday decorations that are available at your local big box stores this year, making your own easy faux gift boxes from Dollar Tree components could be the ideal solution. You'd maybe get to save a little more money for holiday shopping and have the perfect excuse for a holiday craft day. But, is it really a money-saver? 

In order to create your own light-up outdoor gift box decoration, you'll need six square wreath forms, some wide ribbon, a strand of lights, and bubble wrap or other type of plastic wrap. This should come to a total of about $11 per finished gift box. To assemble it, you'll also need hot glue or another heavy-duty adhesive and zip ties or floral wire. Simply glue the forms together in the shape of a box and secure them with wire or zip ties. Weave a strand of lights throughout the inside of the wire box, and wrap the "gift" using plastic wrap. Be sure to leave a slit in the back for the cord to plug in the lights. Then, just add the ribbon and tie a bow.

Whether or not you'll actually save a significant amount of money may come down to the sales available at the time and how many boxes you ultimately want. Depending on your timing, it could actually be a better deal to just buy premade decor if you want more than one or two. You can purchase a three-pack of outdoor lighted gift boxes for $28.99 at Amazon — that's just $9.67 per box, actually saving you a few dollars along with your time and effort.