Christmas Painted Terracotta Pots DIY

Learn how to paint snowman, reindeer, and Santa’s belt terracotta pots. These make cute Christmas decorations, gifts, or favors!

Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy painting. And then I do an easy craft like these mini terracotta pots for Christmas or these painted Halloween pumpkins and wonder why I don’t paint more. It’s so relaxing and so satisfying when you’re done!

I’ve said it before…I am not a natural painter. I readily admit these ideas do not just sit in my head, waiting for a pen or paint brush to bring them to life. Nope. I copy something for inspiration, because I have to see it in front of me first. And I give you full permission to copy my designs for these pots, too! (In case the tutorials below didn’t make that obvious. 😜)

This is a perfect Christmas craft for older kids and adults. The easiest of the three Christmas pots is Santa’s belt, but I’ve broken down each painting process step-by-step below, so the snowman and reindeer pots are just as simple!

Use these painted pots for Christmas favors, gifts, or the most adorable Christmas decoration (they’d be perfect on a tiered tray or as Christmas ornaments!).

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

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Supplies needed for DIY painted Christmas pots

• mini terracotta pots: I found mine on clearance at Hobby Lobby (and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t snag all that they had!). Terracotta pots are usually seasonal (spring and summer) and I’ve found them at the craft store, Walmart, and sometimes Dollar Tree (depends on the year). You could also check a garden center or Home Depot. Of course, you can order small terra cotta pots anytime here, but prices might be a little higher.
• acrylic paint in various colors, plus metallic gold acrylic paint (if you have spray paint, chalk paint, or paint pens on hand, those would work too, but craft paint is usually cheaper)
• paint brushes: regular and foam brushes, plus at least one tiny detail brush for finer details
• acrylic paint sealer, optional (I like the matte finish)
• tan/brown pipe cleaner and red pom pom for reindeer
• hot glue gun

Painting tips for these pots

• Do your best to paint in a single direction to minimize brush strokes. So, up & down on the bottom half of the pot and a single brush stroke going around the lip (essentially side to side on the lip).
• Start with lighter colors of paint first, that way if you paint “outside the lines” and overlap later, the darker color of paint shouldn’t have too much trouble hiding the lighter color.
• Let the paint dry between sections/colors. In other words, you shouldn’t be painting next to something or over something that’s still wet or you’ll risk mixing your colors.
• You need a good detail paint brush when painting the faces and details on these pots! My paint brush is actually pretty old and half the bristles fell out, which ended up making it perfect for this because of how skinny the tip is. If you don’t have a fine-tip paint brush, you could also try a toothpick in some areas, but it’s not ideal.
• If you mess up your paint, you can fix almost anything by painting over it once it has dried. For example, I got too heavy-handed painting the little grey accent marks in the eyes of the reindeer so I just let it dry and went back over them with black paint to make the lines thinner.
• If you plan to use your pot for an actual plant or anything with moisture, seal your pot both before and after painting. If you’re just using your pot for decoration, you can skip the pre-sealing and just seal after painting if you want to protect the finish from chipping.

How to paint terracotta pots for Christmas

Santa’s belt

1. Paint the lip of the pot and interior white.
2. With a fine-tip paint brush, “cut in” the bottom with red paint, doing your best to keep a straight line around the pot. Once you’ve got it cut in, you can use a foam brush to continue painting the rest red, including the very bottom.
3. Paint a metallic gold belt buckle square in the center of the pot. Start with a thin line and thicken it as you go to get the shape/size right.
4. Paint a black band around the pot and in between the belt buckle. Similarly, start with a smaller band, then straighten and fine-tune the line with a detail paint brush.
5. Touch up the gold belt buckle if needed.

6. Paint holly leaves and berries on the lip of the pot:
   • Paint green holly leaves first with a detail paint brush.
   • Using the rounded tip on your paint brush’s handle, make three red dots for berries.
   • Once dry, add white accents: thin lines on the leaves and tiny dots within the berries.

7. If you want, seal the entire pot with spray sealer (one or two coats) and let dry.

Snowman

1. Paint the bottom of the pot (underneath the lip) white, including the very bottom.
2. Paint the lip of the pot and interior light blue (or any color of your choice). The lip will make the snowman’s hat. Use a fine paint brush to carefully “cut in” between the bottom and lip, keeping the line as straight as possible. Once you’ve got it cut in, you can use a foam brush to continue painting the rest.

3. Paint the hat details:

• Mix a tiny bit of black or grey paint with your hat color (light blue for me) to create a darker shade of your color. Paint two stripes in sections around the pot, with about 3/4 inch between each set of two.
• Paint dotted white lines in between the sets of dark stripes.
• Dry brush white paint between the dotted white line and the dark stripe on its right side. To do this, dip a flat paint brush (I used one with a 3/8 inch wide tip) in white paint and brush onto some scratch paper until the brush is mostly dry. Then brush the pot, just scuffing the edge to give a textured look.

4. Paint the face:
   • With your tiniest detail brush, paint two black dome-shaped eyes slanted slightly towards each other at the top. The tops should be round and the bottoms more flat.
   • Add eyelashes and “cheek curves” underneath the eyes.
   • Paint an orange carrot nose. Remember, the widest part of the carrot should be in the center of the face. I made my carrot slightly crooked and pointing up for a more organic shape.
   • Paint light pink rosy cheeks. I also made these not perfect circles. You can even use your fingertip to smudge the paint a little.
   • Paint detail lines on the carrot: I painted lines in pairs, two on the top, two on the bottom, and two on the top. Then I also painted a couple tiny lines on the underside of the carrot to give it a little more dimension.
   • Paint a wiggly smile with lines underneath each cheek.
   • Using the rounded tip on your paint brush’s handle, dot a white circle on the right hand side of each eye.
   • Using grey paint (I used some leftover mixed blue/grey paint from the hat earlier), paint a little crescent in the left bottom corner of each eye.

5. If you want, seal the entire pot with spray sealer (one or two coats) and let dry.

Reindeer

1. Paint the entire pot brown. (Note: if you plan on sealing your pot, I found that the spray sealer made my brown paint a little bit darker, so you may want to start with a slightly lighter shade of brown so you still have some contrast between that and the reindeer’s face.)
2. Paint the face:
   • With your tiniest detail brush, paint two black dome-shaped eyes slanted slightly towards each other at the top. The tops should be round and the bottoms more flat.
   • Add eyelashes and “cheek curves” underneath the eyes. (I was undecided about the eyelashes initially but I think they just make it cuter, so you can go ahead and do them now.)
   • Paint pink rosy cheeks (I used a darker pink than I did with the snowman to have less contrast with the dark brown). Again, these aren’t perfect circles and I smudged the paint a little with my fingertip.
   • Add a half smile with a line underneath one of the cheeks.
   • Using the rounded tip on your paint brush’s handle, dot a white circle on the right hand side of each eye.
   • Using grey paint, paint a little crescent in the left bottom corner of each eye.
3. If you want, seal the entire pot with spray sealer (one or two coats) and let dry.
4. Hot glue a red pom pom on for a Rudolph nose. Alternatively, you could use a red button or even simply paint a nose.

5. Make two antlers out of a pipe cleaner:
   • Cut a pipe cleaner in half. Fold as shown below to form three loops. I made my loops different sizes for variation, with the middle loop being the biggest. Twist the end of the last loop around the end of the first loop to attach together.
   • Repeat and hot glue both antlers on the inside of the pot.

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And your Christmas pots are all finished and ready to use! If you need ideas on how to use these mini clay pots, you could:

• fill with small wrapped treats or treat bags and tie on gift tags for the perfect small gifts or favors
• fill with mini candy canes and display on a tiered tray
• turn them into clay pot Christmas tree ornaments
• use elsewhere in your holiday decor: on a bookshelf, mantel, entry table, etc.

As cute as these would be for gifts, I’m totally keeping mine for myself, haha. They’re just too cute to part with!

DIY Painted Christmas Pots

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas painting tutorial. See, I told you it would be easy! Don’t over-complicate it!

Happy painting!

Don’t forget to pin and save for later!