Christmas porch decorating ideas have a harder job than anything indoors. A porch display stays out for four to six weeks in wind, frost and rain, and it still has to leave room for the door and the steps.
These sixteen porches were decorated and photographed by the people who live behind them, from a single-door stoop with three pieces to a long covered porch with rocking chairs. Each one shows what was bought, foraged, thrifted or made, and many show how it was held in place.
1. A 15-Minute Fresh Evergreen Door Swag With Bells, Pinecones And Dried Oranges
Best for: A front door, gate, wall or mailbox
Greens: 2 large fir, 2 large pine and 4 large cedar branches
Materials: Floral wire, tin snips, wide plaid ribbon, a red metal bell, pinecones and dried orange slices
Hung with: A removable adhesive hook or an over-door wreath hanger
Time: About 15 minutes
A swag is a wreath without the circle, and Jo-Anna builds hers flat on the kitchen table. The branches are staggered and fanned out, wired together at the top after each layer, with a wire loop left at the top for hanging.
The plaid ribbon ties at the top, and the bell, pinecones and orange slices are tied on after it. Berries, juniper, boxwood, holly or ornaments can go in too.
2. A Snowy Wreath Tied With A Thrifted Plaid Scarf On A Vintage Junk Porch
Best for: A rustic or vintage porch in snow country
Wreath tie: A thrifted plaid scarf, a couple of dollars at the thrift store in 2022
Fillers: Dried hydrangeas, seedpods, dogwood branches, pinecones and split logs from the garden
Containers: Galvanized buckets, watering cans and enamelware
Lora calls the scarves her outdoor decorating secret. She buys them at the start of the season and knots them onto a wreath, around a porch chair or onto a sled or shovel, choosing classic Christmas plaids because they pop against snow.
On a covered porch, old sleds, skis and ski poles can lean against the house, and a runner sled laid on a table becomes a base for other pieces.
3. A Lush Door Garland Built On Chicken Wire With Red Bulbs And Boxwood Wreaths
Best for: Double doors that need a deep, full frame
Base: Chicken wire fixed to the wall around the doors, then two pre-lit garlands side by side
Fillers: Faux ivy and eucalyptus she owned, dried backyard vines and fresh greens from the forest
Finish: Red bulbs in clusters of three and two old boxwood wreaths with red satin bows
Difficulty: Intermediate
Lucy says putting the chicken wire up first made the whole process easier and the result lush. The red bulbs come in mixed sizes, the larger ones from Michaels and the smaller from the Dollar Store.
The fresh greens go in last, mostly around the edges to widen the frame. The boxwood wreaths on the black doors are very old, and she added simple red satin bows.
4. Classic Red Satin Bows On Every Wreath, Swag And Lantern
Best for: A columned portico with a classic red and green look
Ribbon: 2½-inch satin wired ribbon
Bought: Swags, window wreaths and an oversized red berry door wreath from Canadian Tire
Planters: Fresh-cut pine from a local farm and red branches from the nursery
After years of neutral porches, this was her first red-and-green exterior, and the bows carry it. Each large bow is two bows fastened together, with long tails, and the wire in the ribbon is the point: “you need to have them hold their shape.”
The same ribbon ties around the lanterns on the steps, and the planters are refilled every year with simple pine branches.
5. A Lit Railing Garland With Real Stems, Bows At The Columns And Wreaths On The Windows
Best for: A long covered porch with a white railing
Garland: Cheap garland wrapped with lights, then filled with real stems in four varieties
Hung with: Floral wire or zip ties, with a bow wired on at each column
Seating: Everyday porch furniture with pillows and blankets
Katie’s house is 165 years old, in a historic district in Wisconsin, and the porch was newly finished. She calls the look “a little traditional with a slight modern flair,” and the railing method time-consuming but easy.
There is no garland around the door this year, just a winter wreath, new mats and a pair of Home Depot planters. Plain wreaths she already owned hang on the windows.
6. Railing Garland With Red Bows And A Slim Flocked Tree On A Small Porch
Best for: A small porch with steps and an iron railing
Railing: Garland draped evenly, held with zip ties and finished with pinecones and red bows
Tree: A pre-lit, slim flocked artificial tree
Cost: Ornaments from an older indoor tree, clearance ribbon and a thrifted velvet Santa
Michelle’s rule for a small porch is to think vertical, with hanging wreaths, tall potted trees and wall signs, and to focus on a few standout pieces. The slim tree fits the small porch and wears red balls, ice skate ornaments and black “noel” ornaments.
The black gift boxes under it are thrifted fabric bins, painted black.
7. Fresh Greenery Porch Planters With Birch Logs And Lighted Branches
Best for: Big porch planters that sit against a wall
Greens: Douglas fir, silver fir, pine and cedar, three or four kinds mixed
Materials: Soil, birch logs, clean sharp clippers, pinecones and a wooden skis pick
Lights: Indoor/outdoor lighted twig branches in brown
The sturdiest branches go in first, at the back, as a backdrop, then birch logs with the soil packed firmly round them. The boughs layer from back to front, draping over the rim and getting smaller toward the front, with stiff and loose branches mixed.
Empty pop bottles in the bottom of a big planter save on soil. Her favorite part is the lighted branches, which glow in the middle of the greens at night.
8. Black Urns Filled With Magnolia, Cypress And Berried Aucuba In Last Summer’s Soil
Best for: Urns that still hold last summer’s soil
Bought: Silver cypress, which she believes is Carolina Sapphire, and pine from a Christmas tree lot
From the yard: Magnolia branches and aucuba with red berries
Prep: Bought branches trimmed at the ends and soaked overnight
René’s readers asked what was in the urns, and part of the answer is her own yard. Everything was arranged in the dirt already there from summer plants, which she calls “the easiest way to add a festive touch to a front porch.”
The fir wreath on the white door came from the local tree lot, dressed with bells and ribbon kept from previous years.
See the idea: Our Christmas Front Porch by Cottage and Vine
9. A Rustic Bench With A Foraged Tub Planter, A Vintage Lantern And Sap Buckets
Best for: A rustic red and white porch made mostly from what you own
Planter: Foraged pine, spruce, red berry branches and birch logs in an old planter inside a thrifted galvanized tub
Garland: 10-plus-year-old faux garland wrapped in fresh cedar, on vinyl siding hooks
New this year: A 28-inch metal gingerbread man from Walmart
Cost: A braided coir mat under $15 in 2025
In New Hampshire, Jennifer writes, it is so cold that the branches freeze in place and stay fresh-looking all winter long. The bench holds that tub, a truly vintage metal lantern and a red metal star, with vintage sap buckets underneath.
A small green sled leans on the wall behind it under a jingle bell wreath, and a swag of oversized red and white metal bells hangs above.
10. Live Evergreen Trees In Wicker Baskets Around A Hand-Painted Nutcracker
Best for: A covered entry with room for several pots
Trees: A Buxus standard, an Alberta spruce, a Leyland cypress and a dwarf Alberta spruce
Garland: Four 15-foot strands of fresh garland from The Home Depot, on leftover mug hooks
Wreaths: Fresh Trader Joe’s boxwood on magnetic hooks, tied with strips cut from a checkered blanket
The star of this porch is a large nutcracker from her local shop, The Simple Nest, already hand-painted by the owner. The trees around it are living, spend the winter in their planters and can go into the yard as they grow. They are watered about once a week, even in winter.
One strand of bells, cut in half, gives each glass door its own.
11. Light-Wrapped Columns, Flocked Trees And Rocking Chairs That Glow At Night
Best for: A porch that is seen most after dark
Trees: Three $30 flocked trees from Walmart and lighted birchwood trees from Raz Imports
Columns: Wrapped in lit garland by a professional installer, KY Lakeside Lighting
Signs: A large metal JINGLE sign from Walmart and a $25 North Pole sign from Trees N Trends, in 2022
Brooke calls the porch her favorite place at Christmas, “the coziest little place to sit and drink cocoa.” The rocking chairs, wooden reindeer and signs fill the porch, and at night the lit columns and the lanterns on the wall carry the whole scene.
A commenter on the post added that her own decorations are all tied down and held in place with big rocks.
12. Two Old Sleds Flanking The Door Under A Fresh Garland
Best for: A vintage porch built from family pieces
Sleds: Two old sleds, one of them from her own childhood
Garland: Two loose Trader Joe’s garlands layered together
Containers: Old metal bins and wood crates of cut garland sprigs
Kelly has stood the two sleds beside the door for several years. She prefers the looser, wilder look of the cheaper Trader Joe’s garland, and two of them together give it fullness.
Cut-apart sprigs fill the bins and crates, sometimes with a surprise like a little gnome. Her daughter’s ice skates and her husband’s childhood metal shovel join in, and one year the shovel was the back-door wreath.
13. A Modern Farmhouse Porch With A Vintage Sled, Roadside Skis And A Homemade U-Cut Sign
Best for: A red, black and white modern farmhouse porch
Found: A vintage sled from Facebook Marketplace, free roadside cross-country skis and thrift-store skates
Signs: A homemade U-Cut Christmas Trees sign and a large PEACE sign
Seating: A nine-foot vintage church pew with a buffalo-check throw
The two big pots by the door hold evergreen shrubs all year, and this time Krista laid cedar and pine boughs on top instead of pushing them into the soil, capped with fabric ornaments and antlers. On a covered porch, that holds.
The U-Cut sign is made from “a surprising item” that is not actually wood, and new black lanterns give the porch its evening glow.
14. Pastel Poinsettias, Vintage Skis And White Skates On A Bench
Best for: A small porch in a warm climate
Flowers: White and pink poinsettias from Trader Joe’s
Lights: Remote-controlled battery candles in vintage lanterns
Finish: Bows cut from an old bed sheet on a dog statue and a homemade village wreath
Linda’s porch is in Florida, where “we don’t get snow,” so a flocked faux garland on the bench brings the winter. She styled it in a pastel coquette theme, over a large pastel rug with a welcome mat she stenciled herself on top.
The poinsettias sit around the bench, and if you don’t like their pots, she suggests wrapping them in burlap or setting them in galvanized buckets.
15. A Plaid Screened Porch With A Swing, Blankets And A Hand-Me-Down Tree
Best for: A screened or covered porch with a swing or bench
Tree: A friend’s tree that was about to go to Goodwill
New this year: Gingerbread cookie ornaments, the only new piece
Cost: A $9.99 deer pillow, in 2018
Everything on this porch except the gingerbread ornaments came from decor she already owned, styled in classic red Christmas plaid. The swing holds a reversible plaid Pottery Barn pillow, and an old red ice chest carries a galvanized basket of Dollar Spot faux snowballs.
The “Let it Snow” chalkboard is a printable she sells in her own Etsy shop, enlarged at a copy shop and framed.
16. Rocking Chairs, Plaid Throws And A Vintage-Style Wooden Santa
Best for: An open, windy farmhouse porch
Planters: Fall planters cut to soil level, refilled with pine clippings and watered in
Seating: Black rocking chairs with a pillow and a red plaid throw
Finish: A reproduction wooden Santa, retro metal reindeer stakes and a candy-cane wreath
Pam’s porch is straight, narrow and open to the farm fields, and the wooden Santa blew over three times during the photo session. “I HATE that he keeps falling over,” she writes.
The planters fare better. The water freezes and holds the pine boughs and the reindeer stakes in place against the wind, and the clippings stay green until late winter.
See the idea: Festive & Fun Christmas Front Porch Ideas by House of Hawthornes
