DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

The bottle brush and sisal trees are one of the cutest (and trendiest) ways to decorate for Christmas this year, and they have a ton of decorating possibilities! So, I came up with a quick and super easy tutorial using these mini trees in lanterns with fairy lights & LED candles. It’s a perfect idea for decorating dining room table centerpieces, entryway console tables, bookshelves, staircases, bedroom dressers, coffee tables, and more. Plus it’s budget-friendly, and you can use things you already own – yes, please! And we could all use a little extra light this year! Here is DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights.

Christmas Home Tour 2020 Coming Soon! To see last year’s tour click here or dining room here.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

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DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

I found all of my supplies at Hobby Lobby, Target, Home Goods, and Michaels. Feel free to switch up colors and styles to fit with your Christmas-themed decoration.

Supplies:

2 Lanterns – similar here
10 Small Trees (mine are 7″H -10″H)- similar here
2 White LED Candle Pillars – similar here
Faux Snow – here and here
2 Strands Fairy Lights
1 Roll Faux Wood Fir Ribbon

***NOTE: Do NOT use a regular candle – LED ONLY. ***

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

My 2 lantern sizes (excluding handles) are:

small (7″W x 9.5″H)
large (7″W x 12″H)

TIPS:

#1: Just make sure your lanterns are wide enough to fit the candles and trees inside. If they are smaller, just eliminate the candles.

#2: Also, you’ll want the tree sizes (and candles) to fit the proportions of your lanterns. You don’t want to have 20″H lanterns with 4″H trees – or it might look skimpy! 😉

#3: I used the same size candles on mine (to save money buying the 2-pk), but you can use 2 different sizes if you prefer.

#4: I highly recommend using the battery-operated LED candles as well – or you will have to remove the candles from the lantern every time you want to turn them on. 😉

Ok, let’s get to Easy 3-step tutorial: DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

Step #1: Practice Run with Supplies

Now that you have all of your supplies, it’s time to do a quick practice run to see how they all will fit.

I know this probably seems unnecessary, but trust me – it will save you a ton of time in the long run.

Take your 10 trees and divide them into 2 groups with varying tree sizes.
If you are using 2 different lantern sizes like mine, just make a shorter group of trees and a taller group of trees.

Now go ahead and put the candle and 5 trees into each of your lanterns.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

Once you like the position of the trees, take everything out and put them to the side – in the same position as they were in the lantern.

Then you can just easily grab the trees one by one and know that they are: Back Right, Back Left, Middle Left, Middle Right, and Front.

Step #2: Add Fake Snow

Now it’s time to add in your fake snow which will be 2 parts of poly-fil batting + snowflakes.

Here is a picture so you can see what I used.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

Take some quilt batting out of the bag, and just pull it apart so that you have 5 – 10 pieces.

Then begin putting you “back” trees in first, and cover them with the quilt batting.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

Once you have all of your trees in, go ahead and add some extra quilt batting pieces on top to fill in the open gaps.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

And here is how they looked at this part.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

Now, you can add the fake “snowflakes” onto the poly-fil batting “snow.”

The brand of snowflakes that I used is made up of shredded plastic. It just gives the quilt batting a little shimmer to mimic real snow.

TIP: I recommend using a measuring cup and just sprinkling it around the inside of your lantern. You might also want to remove your candle for this part (even though it’s LED).

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

You can tell from the picture below that the “snowflakes” give it a more authentic look and feel – right? They add a little icy look, and give it some needed texture also.

Plus, it looks like it is snowing on the trees too – love this!

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

Step #3: Add Fairy Lights

Now it’s time to add in some fairy lights. I used a strand for each lantern so that it had more lights in them.

Note: This is a little frustrating – sorry! You will probably knock down some trees while adding your lights, but don’t worry about it.

Try to bend some of the lights in front of the trees so that you can see them from the outside of the lantern.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

TIP: Turn the lights on so that you can where you need additional lights. It will just make this process easier.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

So fun and whimsical right ? And super easy!!

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

You Are Done!

Place them onto your dining room table for an instant Christmas centerpiece.

Or add them to an entryway console table, coffee table, bedroom dresser, bookshelves, staircase and more.

Just have fun with them!

I added the wood and fur ribbon, pine cones, and snowflakes to bring in a little “winter wonderland” feel to the tablescape, but use whatever you have on hand.

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights

You can easily turn the lights on from the back side, and this strand actually has a blinking option also!! That way you can change up the look – even better.

I have been turning mine on every night when I’m cooking dinner so that it makes cooking – well – more enjoyable!

DIY Lantern Snow Village with Fairy Lights