The holiday season is here and we love to make homemade Christmas ornaments. We make our own ornaments for a Christmas tree decoration and keepsake.
And it is also so much fun to make homemade ornaments as a gift for someone special. Here’s a collection of our favorite kid-made ornaments to make this Christmas season. It’s the perfect Christmas craft for the whole family.
Christmas Tree Wrap Ornament
This ornament is so fun to make because everyone’s ornament turns out differently. A great idea for prepping this activity is to use a glue gun to attach the craft sticks ahead of time. Then, they are ready to wrap with pipe cleaners or yarn to create a tree.
Pipe cleaners are easy to bend and wrap if you are using just a few. If you want a fuller tree, I recommend tying a knot around the craft stick at the top of the tree and then challenging your child to wrap the yarn around and through the craft sticks. Use a little white glue to keep the last piece of string in place.
Add pom poms, sequins or buttons as ornaments. Glue a star on at the top (optional). Your ornament is ready to hang. This is a great craft for fine motor skills. However your child wants to wrap and twist works out and the ornament looks great.
Salt Dough Ornaments
You can make your own salt dough ornaments with a few simple ingredients. They are a great keepsake.
It’s also a great idea to make the salt dough ornament kits as a gift. The best part is you can look back at their little hands each year as you put the ornament on the tree. Older kids can make their own designs and drawing in the salt dough as a keepsake too.
Beaded Christmas Tree
This is another great open ended ornament craft. All you need are popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and beads. For younger children, twist the pipe cleaners around the craft stick to start and then challenge them to thread the beads onto it.
Older children can twist their own branches onto the ornament. Make patterns on the pipe cleaners, count how many beads you used, sort the beads by color, or just create and enjoy.
Handprint Reindeer Ornaments
This is an easy craft for younger kids. This DIY ornament is quick to make and fun to see on the tree. Make sure to write the name and year on the back. This reindeer craft would be a fun thing to make after reading a book about reindeer. There are many fiction and nonfiction books with a reindeer as a main character that kids love.
Painted Bulbs
Using clear ornaments and acrylic paint, these easy ornaments are a great gift for preschoolers to make for their parents. Have them pick two or three colors of acrylic paint, squeeze the paint into the bulb, and then move it around as the paint swirls and covers the entire inside. Add a decorative ribbon to the top and even a small tag that says Merry Christmas and the child’s age. These clear ornaments are also the perfect size to use to make a melted crayon Christmas ornament.
Pipe Cleaner Candy Cane Ornament
This handmade Christmas ornament is a classic. I let my kids make as many of these as they want for the tree because it is great for their fine motor skills to thread the beads. The best part is you can take the beads off after Christmas is over and use them again the following year.
Thread cheerios onto a pipe cleaner and put them on your trees outside. This is a fun way to give a gift to the birds. Wait and observe which birds (or squirrels) come and eat from your candy cane.
Craft Foam Candy Cane
This easy Christmas ornament is an open ended project. Set out buttons, pom poms, sequins, glitter, or even googly eyes. Cut a candy cane shape out of craft foam. Let your kids or students decorate their candy cane however they want.
Squeezing the glue bottle to get enough glue on the craft foam to hold the objects is great for developing hand and finger strength. Even though this candy cane shape is a little larger than most ornaments, it still balances and hangs from a branch on your tree.
Candy Cane Hunt
Hide candy canes around the house and go on a hunt for them. As you find them, hang them on the tree. Turn the candy canes into reindeer by adding googly eyes and a pipe cleaner for antlers.
Printable Ornaments
Printable ornaments are a great way for kids of all ages to add something unique to the tree. When my kids were toddlers I’d use printable ornaments of their favorite characters and let them decorate and redecorate the tree with them daily.
Older kids can spend time coloring and getting creative. Printable ornaments are a fun craft to have at a holiday party. Whether it is to spend time creating the ornament to add to your tree or for them to take home and add to theirs. Use pipe cleaners to attach the ornaments to the tree.
Ornament Scavenger Hunt
An ornament scavenger hunt is a fun way to keep your preschooler busy while you try to cook. Take pictures of different ornaments on your tree. I put them in a word document and printed them out. However, it would be easier to use technology.
Take the pictures on an ipad and have your child scroll through the ornaments and hunt for them. With this new easier way to get this activity ready, you could have a new hunt each day. Kids have a great time hunting for the ornaments and declaring when they have found one.
Muffin Liner Tree Ornament
This preschool ornament craft is an easy project using glue and muffin liners. Fold the cupcake or muffin liners and glue. Add a piece of string and it is ready to hang. It is sturdier and easier for younger children to attach the liners to a craft stick, rather than just to each other.
Lego Tree Ornament
If you have a Lego lover, this Lego tree ornament is so much fun to make. It uses a few simple pieces you probably have on hand. If your pieces aren’t green, you can spray paint the ornament once it is put together.
These adorable Christmas tree ornament crafts are so much fun to make and decorate the tree with. Whether you are using these projects as a craft time or to make as a gift, you will have so much fun getting creative!