When the holidays roll around, there’s an endless amount of ways to decorate your home. Banners are typically used for events like weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, going away parties, family reunions, and other types of celebratory events, but why stop there? They can look just as great for bigger holiday events too — including Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And perhaps best of all, they’re super easy to make yourself.

Simple and Merry

Short on craft supplies? Not a problem, because you really don’t need much. Take a look at how simple these banners from The Tom Kat Studio and 1001 Rzeczy are. Just use white paper and some string or fishing line, and add your merry message. Or leave it blank and wrap it around the tree!

A Rustic Christmas

Burlap is such a great material for making banners — especially if you’re going for a bit of a rustic look. You can make your own designs out of it, or just check out the gorgeous banners you can get from The Paperie Attic and Thirty-Six Design on Etsy.

Etsy shop WoodStreets also sells these fantastically rustic-looking wooden banners with reindeer designs on them.

Upcycled Stories and Music

Got some old books lying around? How about sheet music? Don’t throw them out or give them away. Instead, use their pages for banners like the ones below! It’s a super easy way to make your banners look elegant without having to put too much effort into being super creative. These banners from Hymns and Verses and Brandi Sawyer cleverly pair music sheets with titles of Christmas songs.

Here’s a similar example from City Farmhouse that simply uses ripped pages out of an old book.

Just Cheerful Letters

You can always go without the paper backdrops and just cut out your own letters (or buy them from a craft store) for your banners. They may stand out better against the paint on a wall, like these examples from Etsy shop Cheshire Kat and Home Coming MN.

You could even put letter banners around your tree! Here’s a fab tutorial for how to do it from The Tom Kat Studio.

If your lettered banner isn’t very readable when combined with all those other decorations on your tree, you could try combining it with black pieces of paper, like this tree from Classy Clutter.

A Little More Crafty

Paper isn’t the only thing you have to work with when designing your holiday banner. Like the rustic reindeer example above, you could take small pieces of wood and paint or stencil designs on them. Or alternatively, you could just buy them from Banner Style on Etsy!

Don’t be afraid to play around with your shapes and material. Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss shows this adorable hot cocoa station banner that uses circular designs and clothing pins to hang them up!

You could even go out and get some pretty-looking holiday picture frame ornaments, which would be perfect to put your letters in and then incorporate into your banner. Whipper Berry has a really amazing project to inspire you.

Banners are perfect for practically any occasion. And because they’re fun and easy to make, you can even get your kids involved in the process and make something that really reflects your own personal style for the holidays.