Snowball Curtain Lights Two Ways (Christmas Card Holder AND Fillable Advent Calendar)

Update string curtain lights to make them look like falling snow with this easy snowball lighting tutorial. Leave it as is for a glowing decoration for the holiday, or use it in a functional way as a DIY Christmas card holder OR a DIY fillable advent calendar.

Snowball Christmas lights add a magical holiday touch to holiday decorations. I found a few at stores but did NOT like the price, so I set out to make my own DIY snowball lighting for less than $20. Of course, these can stand alone as lighted decor, but they can also be used in two different ways. They can be made into a Christmas card holder or a DIY advent calendar for kids.

I started this project while browsing for Christmas decorations this holiday season. I love “window shopping”, both online and in person, but I don’t usually buy anything new for decorations each year. Instead, I use what I see as inspiration to make my own DIY holiday decorations for a fraction of the price!

Here’s the thing. I simply won’t pay $100 for any sort of decoration, especially one that I can make myself for the fraction of the price. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea, just not the price tag. No judgement if you love the look and aren’t able to DIY. Buy what you love!

DIY Snowball Curtain Lights

Supplies to Make Snowball Lighting

• LED curtain fairy lights
• cotton balls and craft balls (I found both at Dollar Tree)
• faux sparkling snow (Dollar Tree has this every year at Christmas time)
• Command hooks (medium wire hooks)
• gold mini binder clips
• mini kraft envelopes (Hobby Lobby also sells these in packs of 25)

Steps to Make Snowball Fairy Curtain Lights

To make the snowballs, I picked up some cotton balls and white pom poms from Dollar Tree. The cotton balls are slightly smaller than the pom poms, so it gives the lights a little interest with the different size snowballs. I ended up needing 3 bags of pom poms and 1 bag of 100 count cotton balls. (If you choose to use only the pom poms, just know you’ll need to buy several more bags which will end up costing a bit more.)

To attach the sparkle snow to the cotton balls, I used spray adhesive. This is the fastest way I’ve found to add fake snow to anything, but just know that some of the snow does fall off if the snowballs are handled or moved a lot.

To attach the snowballs to the light strands, use a low temperature hot glue gun and place two dabs of glue on the side of the cotton ball, leaving a space gap between the glue. (See the section below about hot gluing LED lights for information on why this is important.)

Then, close up the cotton ball around the wire and hold for second while the glue cools. (You can see this process a bit better in the video within this post.

Can I use hot glue on LED fairy lights?

Small amounts of hot glue can be use on the wire portion of mini led string lights, but it’s important to use a low temperature hot glue gun. A high temperature hot glue gun exceeds 220 degree F and that’s too hot for the wire. But low temp glue guns usually heat up to about 170 degrees F which worked on my wires. Be sure to only use the glue on the wire portion and avoid using hot glue on the plastic coating around the actual light.

Hanging Curtain Fairy Lights

Because I do not plan to keep these up all year, I used a temporary solution to hang my fairy light curtains. I attached the lights to a dowel rod (the lights come with the hooks attached making it very convenient).

Then, I put two Command hooks on the wall and hung the lights up on those hooks. They’ve been up for over a week and are holding strong. I will update this post if I find these particular hooks don’t hold up through the holiday season. The dowel rod fits perfectly in these wire hooks.

The fairy curtain lights come in lengths of 9.5 feet, which is definitely longer than the height of any of my ceilings. So I folded the bottoms up and twisted them with the wire which is holding well and keeping the lights from dragging on the ground.

How to Make DIY Christmas Card Holder

It’s so easy to make these curtain lights into a DIY Christmas card holder! All you need are gold mini binder clips. Simply attach them to different parts of the wire and clip on the Christmas cards as they come in!

Another Version of a DIY Christmas Card Holder

A few years ago I made this Christmas card holder from an old (very large) embroidery hoop ring I found at a thrift store. I used one string of fairy lights and threaded them across the hoop, in between the two hoop frames.

How to Make a DIY Fillable Advent Calendar

The process for making these snowball lights into an advent calendar is the same. Use gold mini binder clips and attach them to the wire. Then, attach kraft or white envelopes (I found mine at Hobby Lobby) with numbers for the days leading up to Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

Other DIY Christmas Projects

I love decorating for holidays on a budget, and this snowball lighting curtain definitely me a ton over buying it. Sticking with the theme, I’ve also created a DIY Christmas village from thrift store finds, upcycled an old nativity set with an antique mirror finish, reused old glass jars to make snow globes and made DIY snowflake ornaments from toilet paper rolls.

Even More DIY Christmas Decorations