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Over the weekend we put up the Christmas tree, and I was a little surprised at the lack of homemade holiday ornaments. You’d think a crafty mama like me would have a tree teeming with kid-made adorableness, but other than a couple of things the girl made at school, it just isn’t so.
This may just be the year to fix it, because I’ve been seeing all kinds of DIY ornaments and Christmas crafts for kids that would be oh so sweet on our tree, or yours. They’re also great for decorating gifts. Join in with them to get your crafty on, too.
At the top of my list are these lovely melted crayon ornaments from Meet the Dubiens. Definitely needs to be supervised by an adult, but they’re so great looking I want to make a ton of them!
Use printed holiday paper or plain card stock and washi tape to make these little accordion-folded trees from Mom on Timeout. Great for practicing folding skills!
These little paper snow globes from Crafty Morning are so cute on little cardboard roll stands, but they would be cute with a little piece of paper cut out for the base and used as an ornament, too. Use pom poms to paint the snowman, or do it with fingerprints.
Try the gingerbread clay from the Imagination Tree to make adorable ornaments that look like cookies. It’s a great different thing to try if you do salt dough every year. (Or even if you don’t.)
We have a ton of blank puzzles so I’ve always wanted to make some puzzle piece snowflakes like these from Red Ted Art. They’re lovely all white but would be kind of fun drawn or painted on, too.
Playing with Sharpies and alcohol is a lot of fun for a simple tie-dyed effect, and these great ornaments from Happy Hooligans use the technique on an upcycled plastic container cut into fun shapes.
A super-simple craft that can be made in different ways for different ages is the pipe cleaner Christmas tree from ZingZing Tree. Make it plain for little kids and add “ornaments” for bigger kids.
This one isn’t an ornament, but the tape-resist forest from Left Brain Craft Brain is really quick and easy to set up and would be great for greeting cards or to use as wrapping paper if you make a big one.
And I just love the snowman bread tags from Crafts by Amanda, which would be perfect on a bag of holiday baked goods.
If this isn’t enough for you, check out the ornament roundups at Spaceships and Laser Beams (I love the jersey pompoms and the key snowmen!), Hands on As We Grow (love the shells since we always go on a beach vacation) and The Artful Parent (weaving, fabric houses and pompom pinecones). Tatertots and Jello has a great roundup of ornaments that bigger kids and adults can make, and you know I’m thinking hard about knit mittens for the tree!
Have you started crafting for the holidays, or do you have a favorite holiday kid craft? I’d love to hear about it!
