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Here’s a really easy Christmas craft if you are in the mood to make some floral arrangements! (Seriously – no excuses, just make one. I promise they are simple!)

You can use these anywhere you need a little Christmas floral accent, or even give them as gifts. They are so stinkin’ easy – you do not need to be a floral designer (there’s a shortcut) and guess what – they don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful, festive, and fun! Here’s a sample:

I had an idea around Halloween that I wanted black goblets for my spooky Gothic tablescape, but I didn’t want the cartoony plastic ones with fake bony fingers wrapped around them. I wanted cool, creepy looking drinkware that had a real haunted house vibe. I had some glass goblets that would have worked (one of each in several different patterns – why? Don’t ask.), but they were clear glass. I had the bright idea to spray paint them, but quickly realized they’d no longer be safe to drink from if I did that. I did not literally want guests dropping over dead from drinkware poisoning… so I ditched the “black goblet” idea and used the smoke colored ones I had from Dollar Tree instead.

But the idea of cool, creepy black goblets stuck with me, and I decided to go ahead and paint a few, and use them for floral arrangements. Here’s one just to show you the concept:

At that point I thought they were really neat and I thought, heck why not use up a few more of these goblets and turn them into a Christmas craft! So I painted a few red and a few gold back when the weather was still good, and saved them til I was ready to get the Christmas stuff out. (Hint: that wasn’t October, but I was – for once – thinking ahead!) Here’s how you can make this super-simple project!

Started with some spray-painted goblets! If it’s too cold to spray paint, try doing it in the basement (just wear a mask and/or ventilate well) or even paint outside but bring it in right away to dry.

Cut pieces of floral foam with your good kitchen paring knife and hot glue those down into the goblets. I did use two different types of floral foam for mine, because I used what I had on hand. I believe one type can be wetted for keeping flowers fresh, but we are using silk flowers and we will not be submerging them this time around. After cutting chunks and wedges of this material, I don’t think my knife is speaking to me any longer.

Now here’s the secret to why I say you don’t have to be a floral designer to do this project: You’re going to use ready-made faux-flower stems, bunches, and “picks,” so the design work has already been done for you! You can also use any Christmas craft stuff you already have on hand like ribbon, bows, jingle bell garland in a conveniently knotted mess, glitter (OH GOD, THE GLITTER!) etc.

One of the easiest ways I add touches of Christmas around the house is just by sticking Christmas picks and baubles into existing vessels and floral arrangements. It Christmases up the house but I don’t have to redecorate the whole place to get a festive vibe. Plus it gives me something to hunt for around the house long after all the other Christmas stuff is put away, kind of like the confetti we used to throw around as kids on New Year’s Eve, which my mother would be vacuuming up even into June some years. But I digress.

ANYHOO… because I have a lot of gold-painted accents in my home already, I decided to make my gold goblets non-seasonal. This way, I could customize just by adding a Christmas (or even other holiday) bauble when needed. Of course, you can make yours any way you like! To do this, I just pushed ready-made bunches of silk flowers (acquired at thrift stores super-cheap) down into the foam of the gold goblets. Seriously, this cannot be any easier! Now the photo below is just for reference – trust me, you have to shove the stem all the way down into the foam unless you want it to be irrationally precarious.

For the red goblet, I decided to make this one All-Christmas-All-the-Time. I started by hot-gluing a bit of thin gold ribbon around the rim. (Oh! I also hot-glued some PINK ribbon around the gold stem, as you can see above. ^ I really should add a bow to that one, but I’m still trying to get the hang of making a finger bow as demonstrated in numerous TikTok videos.) Again: gold ribbon as shown below.

I love anything Christmas-themed featuring branches and birds because, after all, isn’t Advent about preparing our hearts, making a nest for the Savior to dwell, like a bird preparing a nest for its young? I know – adorable! So I made sure to use a pick that had a little faux cardinal on it (because I mean, a real cardinal just wouldn’t be very practical – he’d be flying around all the time, hitting the windows and pooping everywhere, and besides my cat was here first so it really wouldn’t be fair.)

Anyway, if you’ve read this far, you’ve already realized that this Christmas craft project involved 1.) Spray-painting goblets; 2.) Hot-gluing floral foam into said goblets; and 3). Sticking ready-made floral picks and faux flowers into the foam; 4.) Being intimidated by a cranky old cat; 5.) Making a nest for the baby Jesus because Advent; and 6.) Accepting the kudos and compliments of your friends and family because THIS CRAP YOU MADE LOOKS FREAKING AWESOME!

Here’s an image you can Pin if you’d like to save this easy Christmas craft for future inspiration!

Found this cute ceramic Santa boot at Goodwill awhile back, and I bought it to do an easy flip since my Christmas color palette leans more toward (wayyyyy more toward) pink, white, and gold. It’s a pretty good size, and in very good condition – certainly suitable for a floral arrangement, or possibly a seasonal pen cup. Here it is sitting on my painting mat:

Now I’m not saying Santa would actually wear pink boots – I mean he’d have to change up his whole outfit, which I doubt he’s willing to do just for me. In fact, the only pink Santa outfit I ever remember seeing was this one on my own tree – I personally like this look, but he might not:

Still, if I’m going to have an object representing Santa’s boot, then I’m for sure going to make it match the rest of my Christmas decor! I actually did not paint the black part at all. I did cover one tiny scuff mark using black Sharpie. By the way, the paint I used for the pink part is Martha Stewart Crafts chalk paint, in the color Seashell. This is the same paint I use for my frothy pink Christmas village.

Ok here is the boot all taped off. Now hear me out: I did it this way on purpose, even though it took much longer, because I really wanted to do a nice job on this so I wanted to get all the curves just right without finding later that I had missed a spot with the tape. It was so much better to do it in tiny pieces like this so I could carefully place each one.

Here it is after one coat. I ended up doing two. This step sort of makes me think I could do a lace ruffle under that top cuff. I suppose Santa wouldn’t like that either! (Hmmm….)

Once all the paint was dry, I pulled off the tiny pieces of tape (admittedly not as satisfying as pulling off one long piece) and decided it needed something more.

Glitter. Yay!

Adding glitter is as simple as brushing on some plain old white glue (Elmer’s or… “Jot” brand, which is from Dollar Tree) and then dousing the whole thing with your choice of either fine powdery glitter or whatever size you like. I used a throw-away brush for this but I did rinse it out really well in hopes of re-using it later – you could also use a small sponge brush.

This project was so easy, I don’t even think you can call this post a proper tutorial. It’s literally just “buy a thing and paint it, then add glitter.” But I mean that’s precisely the point I’m trying to make – buy a thing and paint it! Add glitter! And make Christmas truly personalized by customizing the stuff you find so it fits your style, your color palette, and your taste.

Now keep in mind, I chose to paint my piece to make it go with my color scheme. But I could just as easily have painted peppermint stripes, or skipped the paint and added faux fur or ribbon or any other embellishments instead – or in addition!

What are your thoughts? Will you try your hand at customizing a thrift store piece? What are your Christmas colors?

As for me, I would totally be Santa’s helper, and work all night on Christmas Eve, if I could wear boots like these! Well, almost like these. I don’t think ceramic boots would be very practical for sliding down chimneys or leaping out of the sleigh, and I certainly don’t think they’d be warm. And if it’s one thing I really hate, it’s when my feet are cold.

Oh! P.S., here’s an image you can use if you’d like to Pin this Santa Boot *cough* tutorial *cough* for future inspiration!