Merry Sithmas: How we made our own Star Wars Christmas lawn ornaments

Guest post by Sarakenobi

star wars christmas lawn ornamentI saw a Christmas card last year that had an AT-AT with reindeer antlers that said “Merry Force Be With You.” I thought that would be awesome in my yard… and then thought about adding the sleigh and tauntaun reindeer from there.

Here’s how we made all of this ourselves…

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I borrowed an overhead projector from our local library and used pixlr.com and the internet to find pictures that I wanted and printed them on overhead transparencies. I don’t have a garage or a shed, so I took over the living room. We bought some 3/8″ plywood because it was cheap. It wasn’t that sturdy, and I think if I was to do it over I would get some thicker boards.

While using the overhead projector my kids thought it was the best thing ever to project toy shadows all over the place.
While using the overhead projector my kids thought it was the best thing ever to project toy shadows all over the place.

I turned the lights off and traced the outlines of the patterns on the boards. While I traced, my husband, Mike, cut the boards with a jigsaw in the kitchen. (We really, really need a garage!)

photo 1To make the “Merry Sithmas” sign, I painted it out and then we drilled holes in it and pushed red lights through.

star wars christmas lawn ornaments

star wars christmas lawn ornament6We tried a few ways to put them in the ground before settling on one that seems to be working pretty well. We took landscaping markers and drove them into the ground and THEN screwed the tauntauns on. With Vader and the AT-AT we used metal conduit piping. Mike drove them into the ground and then we attached the wooden pieces with some brackets.

I used nylon clamps to put rope light “reins” on — I wanted something lightweight to hold the rope lights because I didn’t want any extra stress on the boards if it got windy. It was windy and rainy the first day they were out and they are holding nicely.

I added spotlights and a Santa hat and voila!

star wars lawn ornaments

I am extremely pleased with how it turned out and I can’t wait to add more next year!

Comments on Merry Sithmas: How we made our own Star Wars Christmas lawn ornaments

    • I’m pretty sure at this point they just roll their eyes :p I live in a neighborhood where there aren’t many younger couples with kids – they are mostly retired.

  1. This is awesome! My husband and I are apartment dwellers currently, but this gives us ideas for the future. Sithmas and Yulethulhu together – heh heh heh. I am also left pondering how a Star Trek version of this would look, for my family with a yard!

  2. That is amazing. Our Christmas cards this year include a photo of my daughter on the front, in her Darth Vader Halloween costume. I glued on some snowflake sequins, and it looks as if she is using the force to call them to her. The inside reads “May your days be merry and bright, and may the force be with you”. ‘Force’ is written with glitter letters, because why not? They are probably my favourite nerdy Christmas cards ever.

  3. Love this! I have a Santa Yoda in my yard that I did in plywood to go along with the two inflatable droid decorations I have. I wasn’t going to do much this year, but a new family moved into the neighborhood and they have two little boys that are always going past my house in their land-speeder power wheels thing (I’m jealous). Anyhow they told me on Thanksgiving that ever since last Christmas, their boys always ask to go past the Star Wars house just in case we’ve put Star Wars stuff out. So I’m going to have to do more this year, and this gave me some great inspiration!

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