How to Make a Christmas Window Display at Home

How to Make a Christmas Window Display at Home

A Christmas window display is something to share with the outside world, spreading Christmas spirit. It’s an excuse and opportunity to dress up your house and get creative by introducing greenery, lights or drawings. Whether you favour elegant minimalist décor or all-out decoration, windows are the perfect blank canvas for festive expression.

Christmas traditions, whether public or private, are deep-rooted. The practice of decorating homes during the festive period goes back to the Middle Ages, when holly and ivy, symbols of eternal life, were used to embellish homes and churches. Traditionally, decorations are put up on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, known as the first day of Advent, and taken down twelve days after Christmas.

Everyone has their own Christmas traditions, though. You might have a Christmas tree that makes its annual appearance or prefer to select a fresh tree from a favourite local supplier as a family outing. You probably have a box of familiar festive ornaments, maybe vintage glass pendants, homemade gingerbread men or well-used gold baubles to hang on your tree. You might have a special arrangement of fairy lights on the outside of your house, and a reserved space on your front door for a wreath.

But this year, whatever your traditions, don’t forget about a Christmas display for your windows. Keep reading for ideas for your windows.

Christmas window display ideas

Modern or traditional? Natural or DIY? Flowers or foliage? Whatever your preference, there are plenty of ways to dress your windows for the festive season. From gorgeous garlands to cosy candles, here are some ideas to create the perfect window display.

Window lights

As the nights draw in and the temperatures drop, fairy lights are one easy way to brighten up your windows. Thankfully, they’re relatively low-cost and simple to get hold of, particularly at this time of year.

Warm, twinkling lights can adorn a wider window display bringing a Christmas tree to life, or they can take centre stage. Look out for novelty shaped lights, like trees, presents or stars, which can be hung to recreate the night sky, but standard fairy lights will work well too.

These can be strung around the edges of the window, bunched along the sill or hung vertically like icicles to create a warm, inviting glow. Alternatively, get creative with your designs and create a Christmas tree shape by starting with a wider base and getting progressively narrower into a tall triangular shape. If you have battery-powered lights, try putting these into empty jam jars or wine bottles to make easy, twinkling lanterns.

As for the colour of your bulbs, don’t be shy with festive reds and greens to grab the eye.

Garlands

Garlands are one of the most versatile Christmas decorations as they can be hung over an unused mantlepiece (take care not to put decorations near an open fire source), stair bannister or, in a window display. Run them around the top of your window by hanging them from your curtain poles, ribbon or floral wire can be useful to hold them in place, or drape them along the windowsill. If you’ve got smaller windows, garlands are a great alternative to a tree, bringing greenery and life to displays, or they can be used to tie a festive look together.

The appearance and smell of fresh pine is difficult to beat. Real garlands typically last between four and six weeks, but they can live longer in colder environments, which is why a window display is a great place to put them. Regularly misting the foliage will help to preserve the garland and give it a lush, healthy look.

There are lots of popular decorations for garlands, from woodland-themed pinecones, holly sprigs and berries to cinnamon sticks and dried fruit. Go festive too, adding baubles, ribbons, glitter or fairy lights. Floral wire can be used to attach your decorations discreetly, while ribbon adds an extra Christmas flair.

That said, a simple garland can work well too, letting that lovely festive foliage speak for itself. Minimalists can try draping the garland around a window, securing it from the middle and adding a bow or bauble for a clean, elegant look.

Flowers and foliage

“The best thing about using flowers and foliage for your Christmas displays is that you can forage it yourself,” says Everest ambassador, chartered horticulturalist and plant expert David Domoney. “Bringing nature into your home can help to improve your wellbeing and make you feel inspired’.

Mistletoe and holly, of course, are Christmas classics. Mistletoe’s long-held association with the festive period has its roots in Norse mythology: the god Baldur’s mother is said to have cast a spell to ensure that none of Earth’s plants could be used to kill her son. Unfortunately, this did not include mistletoe, which grows from trees, rather than out of the earth, and it was this white-berried plant that was eventually used to kill him. In many versions of the story, mistletoe is seen as a symbol of love following Baldur’s death: a sign of peace and reconciliation, where people should kiss and make up.

Holly, on the other hand, has pagan roots. Because it keeps its leaves through the cold winter months, the Druids, Celts and Romans are said to have brought it into their homes, believing it was magical. Holly was later adopted as a Christian metaphor too, with the evergreen considered a symbol of life after death.

Like mistletoe and holly, which bloom in even the coldest winters, look for evergreen foliage to place in your window display. This might be pinecones, red-berried hawthorn and rosehip, or sprigs of conifer, fir or pine. Herbs like rosemary, bay and sage work well too, or eucalyptus, with its round, blue-grey leaves. These can be artfully strewn along the bottom of a display for an easy, natural festive look.

Twigs, branches and stems, look for oak, birch, willow and hazel, can be placed in a vase in a window display and decorated with lights and baubles. Bunch them together by the stems and secure them with ribbon or twine to hang from the window, or weave them into a ring to create an alternative to a classic wreath.

Festive houseplants

Festive houseplants are a good alternative to flowers and have the benefit of a longer life. Poinsettia, with its striking scarlet leaf bracts, is a popular Christmas houseplant. These plants prefer warmer rooms and don't like draughts, so if you are planning to include this plant in your window display, ensure you place it next to a high performing window or consider moving it to a warmer place overnight to keep its bracts looking vibrant and healthy.

Christmas cacti are an excellent choice for windowsills. To keep them healthy, place their container on a pebble tray to maintain humidity. Around mid-April, repot the plant in a larger container. It can be stood outside in a cool, shady spot, but should be brought back indoors before temperatures drop in autumn.

“Amaryllis is one of my favourite festive plants,” says Domoney. “I love their dramatic red flowers, and that they are easy to cultivate at home”. It takes around 10 weeks for an amaryllis to flower, so plant the large bulbs in October or early November to have blooms by Christmas.

If you’re lacking space, simply placing your Christmas tree closer to the window can be an effective fix. It allows you to share your decorations with the world outside and spread festive cheer.

Wreaths

Wreaths, with their endless circular shapes and evergreen foliage, are symbols of eternity. They are believed to represent the irrevocable cycle of nature; the fact that spring, bringing new life, succeeds the darkness of winter.

Before they gained their association with Christmas, wreaths were hung by both the Romans and Greeks to represent victory, joy and honour. The practice of hanging them at Christmas was introduced by Lutherans in 16th-century Germany, who wove cuttings from their Christmas trees into wreaths and hung them as ornaments. This spread to homes and churches, and in the 19th century, wreaths were produced to be hung on the front door. They were known, and continue to be seen, as “welcome rings”, inviting Christmas spirit and good fortune inside.

Like garlands, wreaths are traditionally made from evergreens like pine or fir, and are decorated similarly. Dried fruit, with its everlasting appearance and rich, festive fragrance, is a popular addition to a wreath, and can be made at home by cutting oranges, limes and grapefruits into thin slices, laying them out on a rack and baking them in the oven at a low temperature for five to eight hours depending on how juicy the fruits are.

That said, there is plenty of scope for creativity with a wreath. If you don’t want to use fir or pine, you can forage bendy branches like hazel, willow and ivy and weave them together in a circular shape. Add decorations of your choice: ribbons, stars, fairy lights, baubles, berries, cinnamon – or even some of that dried fruit.

The wreath tradition may have started with the front door, but a window is a perfect place to hang them. They can even create the illusion of higher ceilings by drawing the eye upwards. If you want to avoid a nail, command or suction hooks will allow you to hang your wreath without damaging your window.

Candles and lanterns

The warm, cosy glow of a candle in a window at Christmas has long held deeper significance as a historic religious symbol of warmth and hope.

White, silver or gold candles will sparkle on your windowsill, whether you choose to use tea lights, candlesticks or a festive candelabra. With candlesticks, don’t be afraid to experiment with texture by choosing ribbed or twisted candles that can help a more traditional display feel modern and unique. Mix and match your candle holders for an eclectic, casually thrown together look.

If you do choose to use real candles, make sure that they are kept away from flammable materials and out of reach of children and pets. They should never be left unattended. Lanterns can help to mitigate the fire risk, but LED candles are a much safer choice.

Christmas banners

Making your own festive banner is easy, affordable, and something you can do as a family. For a low-effort option, hang tinsel across your curtain rail, or link loops of coloured paper together in a paper chain. Alternate red and white for a candy cane look, or choose a classic festive colour scheme of red, green and gold.

Recycle previous Christmas cards by cutting them into festive shapes such as tree, star, snowman, snowflake, bauble or letters, and stringing them together across your window. If you’ve got time, use coloured felt to cut Christmas trees and add yellow stars to the top, or fashion your own hanging Santa with a white beard, buttoned jacket and black belt. Attach them to a ribbon or length of string, and you’ll have decorations you can hang in your windows for years to come.

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How to create a Christmas window display outdoors

Outdoor window displays are a great way to decorate your house and celebrate Christmas with your neighbours. Exposed to colder temperatures and UK winter weather, there are fewer elements to play with, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative.

Here are some suitably hardy ideas for decorating your windows outdoors.

Festive windowsill planters

A windowsill planter is simple, low-cost and not difficult to make yourself with foraged foliage. Depending on the type of windows you have and the depth of your sill, you might opt for a window box that sits on the sill itself, or perhaps a planter that hangs from the sill or is secured below it.

The secret to a striking window box is said to be a combination of three ingredients: “thriller, filler and spiller”. The “thrillers” are tall plants that draw the eye with colour or detailing, while “fillers” provide more of a background, covering the soil. “Spillers” are plants that sweep over the edges of the box.

You can follow these principles with a festive window box too. Use evergreen foliage like pine, fir or conifer for your “filler”, using it to cover the soil and provide a green, festive backdrop to your box display. Add depth and texture with sprigs of ivy, holly, mistletoe or eucalyptus, and draw the eye with pinecones and red berries.

You’ve got some flexibility with your “thriller”: you can push tall, sturdy evergreen branches that contrast from your “filler” into the soil so that they stand upright and command the eye. You might place a larger sprig upright to create a mini-Christmas tree effect. Ambitious gardeners can also buy or make some of their own vertical elements, attaching pine cones or baubles to slender sticks (a reed diffuser or a wooden skewer would work well) to poke into the soil.

For your “spiller”, you’ll want to reach to your foraged evergreens again. Push longer branches into the soil, letting them hang over the sides of the box. Add a few twigs of your choice for texture. A large, ornamental bow placed at the centre of the box can also make a nice, festive flourish, as can sprigs of hanging mistletoe. Fill out any gaps in your box with pinecones or baubles and add pops of colour with red berries or ribbons.

Wreaths and garlands for outside

The beauty of wreaths and garlands is that, being made of natural materials, they can work both outside and in. Traditionally, they have been seen as outdoor decorations because they prefer cooler temperatures and don’t have to contend with central heating when hung outside. They will last longer when displayed outdoors too.

Wreaths and garlands designed for outdoor use will often be made of hardier materials with heavy-duty wire bases, or well-fastened decorations. These are factors you should consider too, if making your own wreath or garland. And if you’re buying one, make sure it is not marked as “indoor-only”.

Your safest bet is to choose a more sheltered window for your outdoor display, which will avoid damage from rain and wind. Stick to natural decorations such as twigs, pinecones and dried fruit, and secure them with floristry wire. You can take your pick of evergreens, which will have no issue with being outside.

If you’re planning to hang a garland from the top of your window, you can invest in a tension rod which you can drape the garland around. Hooks with sticky backings are another alternative, although they may not work as well on brick or stone. If your window is relatively sheltered, you might be able to arrange your garland on the sill. Command hooks or outdoor light clips are useful for securing your garland in place.

There are many ways to secure wreaths to your windows without using nails. Loop a length of ribbon through the top of your wreath, slip it through your window and close it. Tying a knot at the top of the ribbon on the inside or folding the ribbon in advance will help to lodge it securely. Ribbons don’t have to be discreet: a thick, bold choice can really add to the wreath’s overall effect.

Adhesive or suction hooks are also your friend and allow you to hang a wreath wherever you choose. Just remember to clean the window before you apply the hooks for better grip. If you’re worried about your wreath damaging your window, cut and glue a layer of felt to the back to cushion its rough or scratchy surfaces.

Christmas window painting and decoration

If you’re decorating your windows for Christmas, why ignore the window itself when the glass is the perfect canvas.

Spray snow

White, powdery and designed to look like the real thing, spray snow tends to come in an aerosol can and can be applied directly to your windows. Requiring less maintenance than other decorations, it can be used to create new designs every year. Most spray-on products are easy to remove, either with a glass cleaner or with a warm, damp cloth.

If you feel confident, you can draw Christmas scenes, but the easiest way to apply snow is by using a pre-cut template and paper stencil. Cut out snowflakes, Christmas trees, or baubles and spray your design onto your windows. You can even find printable templates online.

If you have mullioned windows, you might like to depict different festive vignettes on each pane of glass.

Before applying your snow, clean and dry your windows. Generally, you’ll need to hold the can upright and spray from about 30 centimetres away from your window – but follow the instructions on your can for the best results. Gentle pressure on the nozzle will create a light dusting of snow while a full press will give thicker effect.

Christmas window stickers and decals

While a sticker is applied directly, a decal is a printed image or design that is transferred onto your window. Both work on glass, but decals are more durable, which is why they’re often used for vehicles or shop windows.

There are a huge range of Christmas stickers and decals out there, from vivid festive tableaux to smaller decorations which complement a larger display. Some have lettering, spelling out ‘Merry Christmas’, while others are customisable.

Some printing websites allow you to design and produce your own custom window stickers. A more budget-friendly option is to buy printer-compatible sticker paper, so you can print your own Christmas designs or messages at home.

To remove a sticker, try soaking the glass in warm, soapy water, and then removing them with your fingernail. Hair drying the area for a minute or two can help to prise more stubborn stickers off glass. Failing that, try applying white vinegar to cotton pad or paper towel and rubbing it over the sticker you want to remove. It should peel off easily.

Chalks and paints that you can use on a window

Painting your windows is creative, fun, and wonderful for children using a water-based or tempera paint suitable for glass. You can also use liquid chalk, which is available in marker form. Some glass paints will also work on the exterior, giving you the option to paint outdoors, but either way, remember to clean your windows first.

As with spray snow, you might want to practise your designs on paper first. If you do make a mistake, react quickly and a dishcloth can dab away a heavy-handed brushstroke or misplaced bauble while the paint is still wet.

Many glass paints will simply peel off the surface once they have dried; others will need a bit more elbow grease. Apply soap water or window cleaner to the glass and allow it to soak for a few minutes, then scrub it with a microfibre cloth. Any stubborn patches can be removed with vinegar (mixed with warm water), or a few drops of nail polish remover. Once the latter has worked its magic, make sure it’s properly removed from the glass.

Which indoor plants are best for cold windowsills in winter?

Unfortunately, lots of plants including hardier winter varieties take objection to being stored on a windowsill. More prone to drafts, moisture and fluctuations in temperature, it takes a certain type of plant to thrive in these conditions, especially in winter. Also consider the direction the window faces, as some plants like succulents tend to like direct sun, while shade-lovers like streptocarpus prefer south-facing sills in winter.

Alongside Christmas favourites azalea and amaryllis, the Christmas cactus favours a cooler location – and needs lower temperatures to flower. They too can put on an impressive festive display, with their red, pink or white trumpet-shaped flowers and long, succulent stems. Unlike their desert-dwelling siblings, the Christmas cactus is not a fan of direct sunlight, so a north or east-facing windowsill will work best.

An indoor cyclamen will take to a sunny windowsill. “The wonderful thing about cyclamen are the colourful flowers and heart-shaped leaves,” says Domoney. “Thanks to their varying leaf patterns, no cyclamen plant is the same.”

The Norfolk Island pine can work well in a festive window display because it looks just like a miniature Christmas tree. This pretty coniferous tree has distinctive branches with symmetrical whorls. Grown indoors, they are hardy, low-maintenance, and can reach up to eight feet tall. If you have furry friends in the house, though, this might not be the plant for you: the Norfolk Island pine can be mildly toxic to cats and dogs.

If you don’t like the idea of buying plants just for Christmas, remember that any hardy houseplant can be given a festive glow-up for a window display. If you already have a snake plant, for example, which is well-suited to life on a windowsill, why not wrap some tinsel or tiny baubles around its pot? Your window paints can also come in handy to decorate glass pots.

“To keep your houseplants thriving, take care not to overwater them. With lower light and temperatures, they’ll need less water than in the summer months,” advises Domoney. “For certain plants, I like to fill a plant tray with pebbles or gravel, and then place the potted plant on top. This helps to create a humid micro-climate for them when the radiators come on in the evening, and ensures that they live long healthy lives.”