DIY Christmas ornaments are not only a nice way to add a more personal touch to your Christmas tree, but they also make excellent gifts for family and friends! Whether it becomes the gift itself, or an added bonus to decorate the present, you don’t want to miss these Christmas ornaments to make with kids!
Need a few ideas for Christmas ornaments to make? With kids, they will have fun while you put them to work, and the ornaments will be that much more sweet! Check out these fun Christmas ornaments to make with kids, you won’t be disappointed!
Handmade Christmas Ornament Ideas
Cinnamon ornaments: Fill your home with a scent of the season with these no-bake ornaments! What you need: 1 cup of flour, ½ cup of salt, ½ cup of cinnamon, ¾ cup of warm water (very warm). Mix the ingredients in a bowl and knead the dough with dusted hands. Roll it out and use your favorite Christmas cookie cutters to make ornaments, making sure to poke holes for the ribbon or string! Let dry for 24 hours before painting or stringing. Hint: You can add some cinnamon to the paint too!
Melted snowman: Purchase clear, round ornaments at your local craft store. Then, all you need is some epsom salt or kosher salt, peppercorns, and a piece of orange felt cut into a small carrot shape, place all ingredients in the empty ornament and you have a melted snowman ornament! You can also use orange clay and mold your own carrot noses!
TIP: Add iridescent glitter to the salt to make the “snow” really glisten!
Santa handprint: Make salt dough (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 ½ cups of very warm water) roll it out ⅛ to ¼ inches thick and have your kids make their handprints in the dough. Next, you will carefully cut around each handprint, leaving a border of about ¼ to ½ inches thick around the print. Poke holes on the end with the palm of the hand as this will become Santa’s hat and bake on 325 until hard, about 1-2 hours depending on thickness. When cool, paint the fingers white for the beard, paint a hat with the tip of the hat being the thumb, and paint on Santa’s face, not forgetting about his cherry nose!
Scrap ribbon tree: Perfect way to use up scrap ribbons! Green is recommended but other colors make it festive. Find sticks in the yard and cut them to be about 6 inches long. Tie a string to the top to hang it, and tie the rest of the stick with pieces of ribbon from top to bottom. Next, you will trim the ribbon from top to bottom, small to large until it makes the shape of a Christmas tree.
Snowflakes: Using popsicle sticks, glue four of them in a criss-cross manner so it makes an eight-pointed star. Coat with glue and sprinkle with blue, silver, or white glitter. Attach a ribbon to the back for easy hanging and you’re done!
Easy-hang candy canes: All this takes is red or green pipe cleaners and red and white beads. Fold over one side of the pipe cleaner to hold the beads on, and have the kids string beads on in a red and white pattern. Next, you will fold over the other end to hold all beads on, shape it into a candy cane and that’s it!
Pine cone ornaments: Find pine cones outside or purchase at an art store. Use spray adhesive glue to coat the pine cone and sprinkle generously with glitter. Once dry, tie a ribbon to the top to hang it up!
Snowmen fingers: Purchase solid colored ornaments. Using white paint, dip the child’s hand in and place an ornament on the painted hand with the top up, making sure to get a good hand print around the ornament. Once dry, let the kids paint snowman features onto the fingers!
Scrabble letters: Using ribbon about as wide as the scrabble letters, tir a loop in the top to hang, then have the kids glue their chosen words, names, or whatever vertically. Dress up with a nice bow on top and a jingle bell on the bottom!
Lightbulb ornaments: For bigger kids only. Don’t throw out those burnt out light bulbs throughout the year; upcycle them into Christmas ornaments! You can hot glue on a piece of floral wire to the screw part to hang, paint the bulb to look like Santa, a snowman, or Rudolph!
Now that you have all of these fun ideas for Christmas ornaments to make with kids, it’s time to put the little elves to work! After all, Christmas is always just right around the corner!