DIY Rustic Wood Church Outdoor Christmas Decoration

This post is going out early so you can create it before the Christmas season starts.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is a Christmas drive looking at lights.  From a very young age, we went every year, then took my sons every year, and now my granddaughters.  It’s a simple part of the holiday season that builds loving memories.

I bet right now you can remember a pretty outdoor Christmas display that thrilled you.

As soon as I moved out from home I created a small outdoor display with lights, and over the years I have created various outdoor Christmas decoration ideas. They vary year to year depending on what stage the children are in.  We used to have 6-foot plywood Santas, small reindeer,  a couple of giant candy canes by the front door,  and of course all sorts of Christmas lights.  We also made plywood snowmen that look like each family member including the dog.

It’s such a fun part of the festive season I don’t think I could skip it entirely.  Now that we are getting older I prefer all-white joyous Christmas lights (Hubs disagrees) so we have colored lights on the house, and white lights on the Christmas displays.  

This rustic old wooden church is traditionally joyous it brings a quiet holiday spirit to our front yard. I love having it and the nativity scene we built more than a decade ago when we bought our first home.  

For the front porch decor this year we created a matching rustic wood angel.  Once the post is written I will add that tutorial to the bottom of this post.

How to Make a Rustic Wood Church Outdoor Christmas Decoration

Outdoor Wood Church Christmas Decoration Supplies

We made this church for free, using the gifted wood and scrap wood we had on hand.  It’s a great project for a weekend. We had so much fun making this beautiful old church and digging around to see what we could use without buying anything. If we didn’t have 1 by 2, we sliced up 3’4 inch plywood, instead of a two by four we used a leftover piece of 4-inch wide trim.  The 2 by 12 is from an old step we took apart etc.  In the images, you can see what we used, and I want you to use whatever you have on hand as well, it’s a great repurposing project but make sure your wood is unfinished.  

The tutorial guide will mention the wood by commercial lumber sizes.  

You will need:

General woodworking pattern is not a full-size pattern but is all you need for this project.

For the Wooden Church

4 seven-inch wide pieces of shiplap or lumber, preferably reclaimed old wood.

3 pieces of 1 by 2 cut 28 inches long (cross pieces)

1 – 1 by 2 cut 12 inches long (top cross piece)

2 – 1 by 2 cut 11 1/2 inches long with a 47-degree angle at one end (Upper peaked  roof)

2 – 1 by 2 cut 11 inches long with a 47-degree angle on one end (Lower sloped roof) 

Note – if I could not source old wood I would buy rough lumber and stain it walnut

Wooden Church Base

• 1 –  2 by 12 cut 42 inches long
• 2 –  1 by 2 cut 32 inches long (cross pieces)
• 1 – 1 by 2 cut 28 inches long (vertical back brace. 
• 1 – 1 by 4 cut 28 inches long 45-degree angled ends (horizontal back brace. 
• 120 grit sandpaper (remove slivers)
• ​Good quality wood glue
• 1 1/2 inch wood screws
• Drywall compound or Spackle (snow)

Tools We Used 

Electric screwdriver, miter saw, router, assorted wood clamps, wire brush, paint spatula, house spackle, saw horses, wire brush.

Instructions

I am providing written instructions first, there is a video tutorial farther down the post.

Step One –  Clean and Repair Old Wood

Hub’s son did me a favor and found these old tongue and groove boards from a shed on the back of his property that’s been falling apart. This wood has likely been weather outdoors since the 1930s or 40s, in the cold Canadian climate, so it is very rustic and exactly what I wanted for this project.  I am thrilled with his gift.  You don’t need to use tongue and groove wood, I wanted tongue and groove for the striped look it gives the church.  You can use old 1 by six or fence boards as well. 

How much cleaning and repairing you need depends on the original of the reclaimed wood.  Our wood is gloriously old so the first step was to glue any cracks in the wood first, and then we clean it with a wire brush to remove any spiderwebs and so forth.  

To glue the cracks place wood glue into the crack and then use a clamp to hold it in place while the glue dries.  While going through your reclaimed wood, sort the wood with long pieces that are good from the shorter pieces.  The long pieces will be the steeple, you can use shorter pieces for the sides.

Step Two –  Using the Pattern Cut the Wood

Once you have the wood cleaned use the template and line up the wood beside each according to how you will use them.  Then take each piece and cut it to length.

Before gluing the pieces together give the contact areas another clean with a wire brush.

Step Three – Glue and Clamp

Glue all the tongue and groove slats together, and wipe off any excess glue.  Then clamp into place.  Working with gorgeous old brittle wood had its challenges including twists and bows, so we clamped our church from the top side to the underside, making sure the wood slats were fit in as closely as possible.  

We also took two pieces of scrap wood, laid them across the entire width of the church, and clamped them in as well.  This snuggled the edges into place AND helped take out the curvature in our reclaimed wood.

Step Four –  Adding Cross Braces

Once the boards are clamped well, measure across and cut cross pieces using scrap wood.  Drill the wood first to prevent cracking, put some glue in the hole and then screw in place as shown.  Let everything dry overnight.

Step Five –  Make the Wood Church Base

The base consists of five pieces of wood.  

Expect that, the church will not fit into the groove, as we want the base to be as tight as possible. For the main base, you will need a 2 by 12, cut two feet wider than the church (52″).  Using a router ( or multiple slices with a circular saw and a wood chisel to chip the wood out), cut a one-inch wide square groove in the center of the 2 by 12.  

1. Place your church on top and mark any areas that don’t fit using a pencil mark.
2. Wood chisel to cut out the remaining pieces.  
3. Place the church back in. You may need to hammer and wedge the church into the groove.
4. Use the existing cross piece or cut at least a 2-inch wide piece of wood the full width of the church for the vertical back brace.
5. Take a four-inch piece of wood and cut the ends into 45-degree angles as shown so it doesn’t show from the front.
6. This will be the horizontal back brace.  Screw the horizontal back brace into the 2 by 12, and the vertical into the back of the church.  

Adding Horizontal Wind Braces

It helps to have the church up on saw horses to attach the cross supports.  Cut two pieces of 1 by 2 inch 32″ long, find the center, and align it with the center of the groove on both sides of the base.

Predrill and then screw in the cross pieces to the ends of the 12 by 8. When storing you can remove these to save room, but they are necessary because of the wind.  

Use the 120-grit sandpaper to sand off any rough edges on your church.

Step Six – ​Door and Windows

With the church lying on a flat work surface, draw out the windows and doors using chalk. Because I am not good at drawing, I made a pattern on newspaper using chalk, cut the patterns out, and then traced the outline onto my church.

Using chalk and a measure to keep items even measure the placement of the doors, and mark with chalk. Double-check the measurements Fill in the door and windows with the spackling. Put it on as smoothly as possible then use a folded piece of paper  Use a folded piece of paper and run the edge over the top to smooth the surface as much as possible.  

Once you have the spackling as smooth as you can make it, it doesn’t have to be a super smooth finish.  Then using a stick or knife make a cross on the top of each window,  and draw a center down the middle of the tall door.  

​Adding Faux Snow

This was fun to do, and very easy. I placed the church on its base and started to add the snow.  Think of what direction you want your pretend snow to be falling from.  If it’s from the top cover all the top edges of your church with spackle making sure it piles on from the top and then slides down the front.

To make the church look cold run the paint spatula with a little bit of speckling down the front.  You can watch how I did it in the video tutorial.  Adding the snow is an easy project, it adds texture to the church and makes it more rustic looking.  

The Cross

Our cross is from a local thrift store that I painted to place up on our church.  If you can’t locate a thrifted cross use a dollar tree wood cross and paint it the same way.  I gave the cross a metallic shine with metallic copper spray paint.

Step by Step video Tutorial

Displaying the Wood Church as an Outdoor Christmas Decoration

Our home sits at the end of a dark driveway without a streetlight, so having lots of Christmas lights is necessary.  For the old church, we placed white branched artificial Christmas trees on both sides of our little church and then used the real wood trees and shrubs for the bright star, and light strings.  We used wooden stakes and twine to hold all the trees and light strings in place.  The church we left standing just as it is.

Merry Christmas Leanna and Herman

Other DIY Outdoor Christmas Decoration Ideas

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