Christmas Santa and Elf LED Hats

Add LED lights to Santa and Elf hats for more festive blinken litez! This is very easy to do, only takes about 30 minutes, and costs less than $10 per hat. I am pretty sure it took longer to write this instructable than it did to make the first hat. You can invite friends over and do several at the same time. I did 6 in one evening with my kids. They love to wear them, and everybody that sees them wants to know where we purchased them.

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Step 1: Materials needed:

1. Santa or Elf hats from local store of choice. The thicker pile ones work better as they hide the slit you cut for the LED better. You can get them for $3-$7 at your local drug store. The thicker pile are a couple bucks more. The elf hats have a thick felt that works well too.

2. Battery powered string of LED lights. I got mine from Walgreens. They are $4, or they are on sale all the time for 3/$10. The ones I purchased last year had 20, 2mm clear, LED's. They are very bright and add a nice sparkle. They were powered by 4 AA's and will run continuously for days. The ones for sale this year have 15, water color, 5mm, LED's, powered by 2 AA's. They will run for about 4 days on one set of batteries. The 2 AA's is nice because it makes the hat lighter and also makes it easier to hide the battery pack.

Do NOT use regular battery powered Christmas light bulbs! They are incandescent bulbs that will get hot, and can burn you or the fabric. They will also eat batteries like crazy. Only use LED strings.

3. Hot glue gun and glue sticks

4. Small sharp pen knife.

5. Clean work surface you won't mind getting some hot glue on.

TeganJovanka says: Dec 19, 2012. 11:20 AM

So cool :)

racoontnn says: Nov 20, 2012. 10:56 AM

Great idea. Very simple, cheap, easy to make and a wonderful result!

darkmuskrat says: Dec 3, 2007. 7:56 PM

Lol, I can see someone photoshoping one of these onto the O'rly owl.

supermonkeyballs says: Dec 3, 2007. 3:45 PM

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Buzz_Kill (author) says: Dec 3, 2007. 4:25 PM

I don't think you will find strings of LED's for $1 that have the flashing feature. You could certainly build your own with LED's, and a simple flashing driver made from parts you already own, but this was more of a DIY craft with off the shelf parts that anyone could build. I specifically mention to not use the regular incandescent lights you find at the dollar store because they can get too hot. They will also eat a lot of batteries. The LEDs will run for days on a single set. The dollar store does have hats for $1. But the fabric or felt is very thin and does not look right with the LEDs poking through. But ya, you can cut some corners and get it into the $5 range and still end up with a nice finished project. Plus all the goodies needed will be on sale or clearance soon. :)