Turn Wood Pallets Into Affordable Rustic Christmas Decor

Making your home festive may be the best part of the holiday season. Choosing and decorating a Christmas tree, hanging mistletoe, and hanging stockings are all time-honored classics, but a part of the fun is thinking outside the box and finding new ways to deck the halls without breaking the bank. When crafting Christmas decor on a budget, recycling/repurposing is the name of the game, and wood pallets are the perfect starting point for projects that call for basic, cheap lumber.

For the uninitiated crafter, wood pallets can seem a bit daunting because of their size and less-than-beautiful appearance. But once you've learned how to safely dismantle a pallet, there is so much that you can create. With a basic set of tools, some paint, and maybe a jigsaw for cutting rounded shapes, you can transform that old weathered wood into custom pieces for inside and outside of your home that will last for many Christmases to come.

Before you start cutting and sanding, consider what you can do with full pallets as backdrops or bases. If you're building a snowy outdoor scene with snowmen, Santa, or a manger with some wise men, paint pallets white to match the snow and use them as supports. TikTok user casscass_rhea used paint, a staple gun, and some ribbon to make lawn decorations that resemble giant presents. Others have strung lights on painted pallets in a zigzag pattern to form Christmas trees.

Need to hang a wreath somewhere other than your front door? Pallet wood can be sanded, stapled together, and stained (like with this DIY basketball backboard) to act as a movable plaque or frame for wall hanging. If you want to get even more crafty, a jigsaw is the perfect tool for carving full pallets into fun shapes like giant ornaments, trees, or snow people. Dismantled pallets can also become all of those things and more with some staples, glue, paint, and creativity. If you have little ones that want to get in on the action, have them follow your lead with upcycled cereal boxes or some other recycled material that is lightweight and splinter-free.