A Christmas Village

Alas, Christmas time is upon us. Largely. Like 8 days away upon us. Ok, I’ll stop- sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. These days, my palms start to get sweaty when I think about how close we are! But let’s forget about that part and take a walk down a snowy Christmas lane, shall we? Here’s the fun for today:

Awhile back, I kept seeing these beautiful white ceramic houses in different stores and they always looked so pretty all lit up and sitting on the mantel. However, each one can run anywhere from $25-50 and there’s just no way that’s going to happen in this house. SO, I set out to try my hand at DIYing a few of my own.

All it takes are a few second-hand store Christmas village houses (doesn’t matter how silly or ugly they may be) and a couple cans of spray paint! Here’s what we started out with:

I made sure to choose buildings that were relatively the same size. To get the white effect, I sprayed them with a flat white spray paint (one with that had Paint and Primer all in one).

Let me warn you- this project was super easy, but took some time. I probably put about 4-5 coats of paint on these because certain colors kept bleeding through. However, the end result is well worth the effort and patience it took.

To make the village, I used a bit of fake snow, placed the houses, and added some over-sized ornaments and pine cones. Well, really they’re just regular-sized, but up next to the houses they look gigantic. 🙂 Our Christmas village is cute and festive during the day…

… but night time in the village takes the cake for me.

How pretty and glowing they are! And all for the cost of a few thrifted houses (I think I spent maybe $20 for all six of them) and a few cans of spray paint! I predict we’ll be using these for years to come… I wonder where they’ll end up next year? For now, they’re lighting up our holiday season right atop the mantel. 🙂