Last Updated on March 3, 2022

I am sooooooooooooo excited to share this post with you today! If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I live in Greensboro, NC. I love Greensboro for so many reasons, not the least of which is that it has a unique Christmas tradition of lighted Christmas balls! They are so, so magical.

They hang from trees and make the neighborhoods that partake in the fun feel like a wonderland at night. Before I continue babbling about them, let me give you a better idea of what I am talking about. Check out this short video that will show you how HUGE the impact of the magical lighted Christmas balls can be when a whole neighborhood hangs them. All those little dots you see are these awesome lighted Christmas balls! The lighted Christmas balls tradition started in the Sunset Hills neighborhood, but is starting to creep into ours, which is so exciting! Why not start the tradition in your neck of the woods?!

We knew we wanted to make some lighted Christmas balls for our house this year, so we headed to out to buy our supplies right after Thanksgiving. You only need a few supplies and they are SUPER easy to make! Oh, and before you dive into the tutorial, I wanted to let you know that I have some gorgeous Christmas printables in my super affordable printable art shop that I think you will love! You can check them out below:

How to Make Lighted Christmas Balls

Materials needed to make lighted Christmas balls:

• Chicken wire
• 100 mini-light strands {we used two strands per ball}
• Extension cords
• Duct tape
• String
• Gloves

Steps to make lighted Christmas balls:

1) First, put your gloves on–chicken wire is pretty sharp {ignore the fact that Joe didn't wear them–you should}! Next, cut out your chicken wire into rectangular shapes. To create a round shape, your chicken wire must be twice as long as it is wide. We worked with chicken wire about 2′ by 4′.

2) Place the two cut sides together and connect them by twisting the wires around each other {see below}. At this point, you will have a tube shape.

3) Begin pushing the ends of the “tube” together and twisting the wire together. You kind of “pleat” the chicken wire as you push it to the center of the tube and start to make your round shape.

4) Continue sculpting, making the shape as round as possible. Trust me, they look A LOT more round once they are hanging in trees, so don't be overly finicky about the shape.

5) Once your ball shape has taken form, wrap two strands of 100 mini lights around each ball. Be sure the leave the male end of your plug {on the second strand of lights} exposed so that you will be able to power it up. Weave the lights in and out of the chicken wire so that the lights are securely attached to the ball.

This was a family affair at our house. Note how classy my family appears in this photo. Joe dressed our girls {#wow #dadfashion} and he is sporting a Coors Light t-shirt. CLASSY I tell you. But, we had a lot of fun :)

6) Now you are ready to hang your balls. There are A LOT of different ways to do it–potato guns, fishing poles, etc. But, we tied a string to a lacrosse ball and Joe launched the ball with his lacrosse stick. Once the lacrosse ball cleared whatever branch we wanted to hang the ball on, we would lower it down, remove the lacrosse ball and attach the christmas ball to it. BE SURE TO PLUG YOUR LIGHTED BALL INTO AN EXTENSION CORD BEFORE RAISING IT INTO POSITION. We secured all of our connections with duct tape to ensure they did not come loose while hoisting the balls into position.

7) Once your ball is in position, tie the excess rope around a stake and stick it in the ground. When you are ready to remove them, just cut your strings and watch them fall :)

Ready to see the finished project all aglow at night?! Believe me when I tell you that these balls are difficult to photograph/video and are so much more brilliant and beautiful in person! But, I did my best to photograph our balls and hope it will be enough to inspire you to make your own.

We can even see them from the hallway upstairs, which I love.

We hung some “rainbow” balls in our backyard because our girls were BEGGING for some, but I didn't have a chance to take photos of those, and I really prefer the all white lights, which is why we hung all of the white light balls in our front yard :)

Aren't these lighted Christmas balls wonderful?! I hope you are feeling inspired to make some for yourself! If you are, be sure to pin this post so you can refer back to it later :)  And be sure to check out my other Christmas posts before you head out :)

 

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