Giant LED North Pole Outdoor Christmas Decoration

With Christmas right around the corner most have decorations up lights all over the house and a little ingenuity mixed in between all the glitz. This giant LED North Pole Outdoor Christmas Decoration will take your hard work over the top. No one ever said decorating for the holidays is easy, or cheap. But what you do with your DIY decorations can save you thousands of dollars. If your like me and change your decorations every year DIY is the way to go. This sign mixes LED technology with an old time favorite. In all $90.00 will make this sign come to life. If your like me and use what you have, what you have found or even combined other decorations to make one then you save a lot of money. I already had most of the pieces I needed to make this project so please keep that in mind. for example I already had the concrete tube you will need to make this which saved me around 25.00...in short using what you got is the key to saving even more.

Step 1: Gathering Supplies

For this project you'll need some supplies that you can gather at any home improvement store. I went to the home depot and got all of the supplies in one trip. DIY doesn't mean cheap, I tell you that because I got sick of all the DIY tutorials that say I did this for under 20 bucks. So you think to yourself I am going to do it. You go to the store and find out it cost double sometimes triple the amount. So this is definitely not something you will hear me say. I am a big proponent of recycling other things to make new things.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

8" X 6 ' concrete forming tube

Red Duct Tape

White Spray Paint

Frosted Glass Spray Paint

8" plywood round

8" Round Floral Glass or Plastic Bowl

LED Swirl Motion light Bulb

LED Multi Color Wire Lights Battery Operated used for wreaths

Lamp Kit

2 -Foam poster Boards

Red Ribbon

Silicone Glue Note: don't use hot glue i have found that in cold temps it freezes and comes right off

1 1/2" screws

Drill

Jigsaw

wood dowel

In all this will end up costing right around 90.00 from start to completion

Step 2: Spray Paint

Using white colored spray paint. Paint your cardboard tube white. give it a good double coat to ensure it is completely covered and let dry completely before the next step. Pretty simple and straight forward but you get the point.

Step 3: Making It Look Like a Big Peppermint Stick

Using red duct tape start at the top of your card board tube and start placing the duct tape around the outside perimeter of your cardboard tube spaced about 10" less if your doing a smaller version of this idea. The end result should look like a big peppermint stick. this step was already done for me as I have used this cardboard tube in the past for other decorations. Ignore the lights in the picture on the tube itself I have since pulled them off.

Step 4: Providing a Base for the Light

Cut a round 8" diameter plywood round that will fit directly in the top of the cardboard tube. Make sure it fits pretty snug in the top of the tube. This will be the base that your lamp kit will fit into to hold your LED light bulb.

Once you are certain that your plywood round fits snug cut a 1" diameter hole in the center and assemble the lamp kit according to the manufacturers direction.

Push the top of the lamp base up through the hole with the cord either coming out the bottom or the back side about halfway down if you have a small cord length to work with.

Place your plywood round in the top of your cardboard tube about 1 1/2" down inside. using screws secure the plywood round to the cardboard tube.

Test the LED light Bulb to make sure there are no connection issues.

Step 5: North Pole Light Cover

To make the cover for the top of your North Pole Sign take the 8" floral glass or plastic bowl and spray it with Frosted Glass spray paint. Do a couple coats to make it covered completely.

Using a clear silicone glue apply a thick layer across the brim of the bowl and the edge of your plywood round inside the cardboard tube.

Install the LED light bulb into the lamp Base

stand your cardboard tube up and place the 8" floral bowl onto the plywood round give it a twist to ensure a good contact with the wood. Let dry for 24 hours

Step 6: Making the Sign

I'm not going to preach to much about this step because I think any sign will do for this purpose. be creative and have fun while doing this and make it yours.

to make mine I took two poster foam boards

on one I spray painted it different colors to get the look I wanted.

On the other I spelled out NORTH POLE in block letters and cut them out.

I then used pieces of form board to create a gap between the two pieces of foam board using hot glue to secure the pieces about two inches apart from each other.

I used battery operated button LED lights on the colored foam board to light up the sign from the inside.

I then punched to holes in the top of the foam board so I could hang it onto the North Pole Cardboard tube

Step 7: Finishing It Up

After the bowl on the cardboard tube has had time to dry and it is securely fastened to the cardboard base take a one inch wood dowel and insert it into the card board all the way through about two feet from the top. I used a drill for this and used sylicone to secure it where the holes I made were.

Install using whatever you have on hand I used a 1" metal conduit and inserted in the ground about two feet. I secured the cardboard tube to the pole using wire so it would be secure.

Hang your North Pole sign and you are finished