Setting up your christmas village is super simple but here are some tips for finding cute pieces for your village and for making your village look extra cute!
DISCLAIMER: Some links may be affiliate links. If you purchase a product with the below links, I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for your support!
what you’ll need for your village
First, source your houses, garland and filler decor. Christmas village houses are usually easy to find at the thrift store. If they’re not already white or in a neutral color palette, you can easily spray paint them to give them a quick makeover. I used white chalk spray paint on my houses to make them look cohesive. Depending on the space where you will set up your village, you can buy more or less houses. You can also buy more to give it a more eclectic full village look or less to give it a more minimal look. I went somewhere in the middle. Though I thrifted all of my houses, you can also find some cute affordable ones online and in stores. I’ve linked some cute options below.
You may also be able to find garland at a thrift store but I bought one at Hobby Lobby. The garland makes a great backdrop for your village so you can choose one that matches your style. I chose a sparse garland so that my little houses would be the main focus while still adding a pop of color to the all neutral palette but you can choose a chunkier garland or even a flocked one depending on what you like.
Lastly, you’re going to want to buy some filler pieces. This could be little trees, smaller houses, little snowman or nutcrackers or any other decor pieces that could fill in some of those gaps and make your village look more cozy.
set up your village
Now for the fun part! If you have any houses that need to be plugged in, put those down first. Since I had three I spread them out evenly across my table so there was one in the middle and one on either side. Then, lay your garland over the cable so they’re covered up. If none of your houses are plug in, you can put your garland down first and then arrange your houses around it. Next, arrange any other bigger decor items. I put down the two other tea light houses I had and then some larger bottle brush trees. With all the cute little filler pieces you've gathered, you can fill in any little spots and add to your village until you're happy with how it looks.
adding lights to your village
There are no rules for creating your christmas village but I think it should have a lot of lights to really get into the holiday spirit. This is completely optional of course, as the village looks cute even without any lights, but here are some ways you can incorporate lights into your village:
- Add twinkle lights: add twinkle lights to your garland, in the inside of your houses or around the houses and other items
- Try to find christmas houses with built in lights or that function as tea light holders: many houses now automatically come as tea light holders so you just need to add your own tea lights to create the warm glow
- Add candles: as part of my filler decor, I added two candle holders with faux candles. You could definitely add many more candles for a cozier look
You can watch me put together my first christmas village in the video below!
