How to Hang Floating Witch Hats for Halloween
Add a bit of whimsy to your Halloween Porch decorations this year with these DIY Floating Witch Hat luminaries! They even light up, making them a fun and only slightly eerie Halloween decorating idea.
If you like this project, you might also like these DIY Halloween Porch Decorating Ideas! (FYI: Images from this site are copyrighted. DO NOT use them without permission.)
Halloween Porch Decorating Idea: How to Make DIY Floating Witches’ Hats
Our front porch has a section that is long and narrow. It’s not quite wide enough for furniture, but I still love to decorate it. Last Christmas, I hung giant stars from the ceiling of that section of the porch- (see the stars hung at Christmastime)
It always made me smile a little bit when I’d drive by at night and find them lit up.
I’m always looking for clever front porch decorating ideas for Halloween. Building on that same idea, one year on Halloween, I hung floating light-up Witch Hats along the porch. (By the way, is it Witch’s Hat as in a hat that belongs to a witch, or is it Witches Hat as in multiple Witches with hats?)
I’m not sure, I think both. If you disagree, I apologize for my grammatical infraction in advance; there is no need to offer your opinion 🙂
The Floating Halloween Witch Hats project is straightforward and adds a fun and unexpected element to our front porch for All Hallows Eve.
Let me show you how to do it. If you’re a Harry Potter Fan like we are, then I think you’ll agree that they add a special “Hogwarts-Inspired” touch to our front porch.
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How to Hang Candlesticks on a Porch for Halloween
If you’d like to learn how to hang floating candlesticks on your porch, you can also check out our Floating Candlestick Tutorial.
The neighborhood kids always get a big kick out of the decor when they are out trick-or-treating. They would also be great to use as decorations for Halloween parties.
Floating Witch Hat Supplies
Inexpensive Black Witch Hats — available on Amazon
Light Options:
- LED light sticks – (linking to the product category on Amazon, not the specific item since the sellers keep raising the prices based on visits from this post, you want an LED light stick with a clip that is battery-powered and lightweight. )
- A reader told me they used battery-powered tea lights, and they worked well. They tied the fishing line around the wick. Someone else also suggested using glow sticks.
- In the video, I used LED Light pucks. I like these best since they have a hole in the backplate to run the fishing line through. They also have a remote and an auto-timer setting, so you don’t have to remember to turn them on and off each night. I noticed that the LED light pucks didn’t hold up as well to the weather as the light sticks, so I recommend using light sticks instead.
Safety Pins (don’t need if you’re using LED light pucks)
Outdoor Command Hooks for Lights
How to Hang the Witch Hats
Before you begin, you must decide how many hats you’d like to hang on your porch and where you’d like them to be. I recommend laying the hats out on the floor of your porch to determine the number and spacing.
Step One: Attach Command Hooks to the Ceiling
After you’ve figured out where you’d like the Witch’s hats to hang, attach one command hook to the ceiling in each spot. Let the hook set up for about 10-15 minutes.
Two: Add Fishing Line to the Witch Hats
String about 2-3 feet of fishing line onto the needle. Feed the needle through the point of the Witch hat on the outside of the hat. Bring the fishing line through to the interior of the hat. DO NOT pull all the fishing line through the hat; leave it on the outside of the hat.
Remove the needle and tie the fishing line around a safety pin.
Three: Add the Lights
Use the safety pin to attach the fishing line to the light stick. It can be LED or the temporary kind you can find in the Halloween section of stores. Just make sure it’s lightweight. I’ve had readers tell me that they used glow sticks or tea lights.
UPDATE: Since this post was first written, the quality and brightness of LED lights have significantly improved. You should be able to find a lightweight LED light easily.
Now just tie a loop at the end of the fishing line on top of the hat and hang it on the command hook.
Video Instructions
We’ve created a short video to guide you through hanging the hats on your porch. We used LED light pucks for the video. You can watch it playing on this page or view it on our YouTube channel.
Tips if you are making these to decorate your porch for Halloween!
- Most LED light bulbs will not last for 30 days straight. If you want to hang these up on Oct 1st and leave them on all month, that probably won’t work.
- I turned mine on and off each night. I did not plan for them to last all of October without burning out. In addition, one year, I only turned them on Halloween night. They look great lit up simultaneously as the jack o lanterns on my front steps.
- You can adjust the height of the hats as you like; just lengthen or shorten the fishing line.
- Even though we did this on our front porch, I think it would be adorable inside of the house too!
Want even more fun ideas? Follow me on Instagram to get your daily dose of creative inspiration!
This post has been updated from a previous version to include all of the wonderful tips and tricks shared by readers who have made these Hanging Witches Hats.
UPDATE: LOOK how cute they are on Ali Edwards Front Porch (image from Instagram) !!!
More Halloween Decorations & Projects You May Like:
- 15 Frightfully Fun Ways to Decorate Your Porch for Halloween
- Witch Costume Ideas for Kids, Teens & Adults
- FREE Printable Non-Candy Halloween Treats
- Recipe for Exploding Eyeball Cookies
- Free Printable Fall Bucket List
- Free Printable Halloween Treat Bags
If you love to quilt or sew, you might like:
- Halloween Haberdashery Quilt Pattern
- How to Make a Quilted Witch Hat
- More than 25 CUTE things to sew for Halloween!
How does the fishing line stay on command hooks.
Since the fishing line is looped it just hooks on
If using LED light pucks that do not have holes on the backplate, how would you suggest attaching the fishing line to them?
if they have a detachable plate, I’d just drill two small holes in the plate.
I wish I could upload a photo of my Halloween decorated front porch. Thanks to your easy to follow tutorial, I was able to replicate your idea easily and beautifully! I used tea lights in mine. I took off the battery door, threaded the fish string through the on/off switch, threaded it back through the door, tied a knot, closed it back up! Everyone loves it!
Definitely doing this again next year!
I’m so glad you like it!! I didn’t think about trying to fish it through the battery door. Thats a great idea
I am in love with this! The kids want to do this for Halloween this year however I have been trying to find the light sticks and can only find green ones, can you point me in the right direction
Try tealights that come on for 6 hours and off 18. Check amazon they have a lot of good varieties HTHs! 🙂
I love this decor! I have done this for the past few years and every year they end up a mess due to wind. The strings end up all tangled together. I have even tried to add small weights hoping that would help prevent the swaying so much.
Any suggestions ??
I think I’d try to put them on shorter strings… Mine are pretty far apart
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I would like to copy the instruction for the witches hat,may I do so. I’m a senior citizen and don’t remember well. thanks
This is precious! I’m definitely adding this to my decor this fall. Thanks for sharing!!
I did this last year, and glow sticks were not bright enough. I also tried tea lights, and could barely see them. I was thinking of LED lights of some sort…
What kind of witch hat should I use? I bought one that has sheer cobwebs around the top portion of the hat, but for some reason the LED lights still do not show through enough. Really love this idea just wish I knew how to make it work.
It worked great, I used glow sticks and added clamp on fishing weights to lower or raise the lights or hats.
Great idea
i used glow sticks this year and they were no where near bright enough! i will have to get the led sticks for next year and try again … even though we got NO trick-or-treators 🙁
I have done the hats on our porch since 2015, and haven’t been happy yet with the lighting sources we’ve tried. I might just skip the lights this year…. We also get no trick or treaters, but I LOVE decorating for Halloween.
This is just the cutest idea ever! Love it!
I love your DIY ideas. Thank you!
I really like this project! I was wondering if some green lights might be cool? Anyone know if you can get green lights? Or those snap stick things in green? On the grammar thing… You have more than one hat, so, it is hats. Now, do all those hats belong to one closet-challenged witch? Or to a bunch of witches? If it is one witch, then it is Witch’s Hats. Now, if it is a bunch of witches, it is Witches’ Hats. When you have plurals that end in things like “es,” you add just the apostrophe, not the apostrophe+s. Hope that helps!
how would you attach tea lights?