Need Christmas tree decorations for kids to make, Christmas tree ornament craft ideas, or DIY Christmas gift ideas that friends and family will actually love? For a unique holiday gift, personalize ornaments by using items found during your vacations, travel gifts, or hikes. Perfect homemade gift ideas for kids to make and Christmas crafts for preschool and up and even easy classroom ornaments to make!
Fun Christmas Tree Decorations For Kids To Make
How do you make Christmas tree ornaments?
For these easy Christmas tree decorations to make at home, you’ll need:
- Plastic ball ornaments (or glass ball ornaments) with removable tops
- Paper strips printed with Christmas 2021 (or School Year 2021, a destination and year, etc.)
- Ribbon or twine
- Items to put inside the Christmas ball ornament (like sand and shells from vacation, etc.)
- Scissors
- Pencil with eraser
- Glue
(See the full craft directions for these DIY personalized Christmas ornaments below.)
If you’re looking for easy DIY Christmas ornaments for kids ideas, these are it! They’re such a simple holiday craft for kids and these kid-friendly ornaments will be treasured for years to come!
With supervision, this can be an ornament project preschoolers and up (at home, classroom crafts, or group crafts), so definitely file it under one of the best Christmas crafts for kids to make!
What are the best homemade gifts?
The best do it yourself Christmas gift ideas are those that mean something to the person receiving it! And, this DIY Christmas gift ornament is one of the most thoughtful and creative DIY Christmas gifts I’ve ever made. It’s one of those simple homemade gifts craft that you can tailor to each person receiving it!
The great thing about this craft is that it’s a custom ornament gift that will give back every year when they put it on the Christmas tree or set it out at the holidays! (You can even make your own keepsake ornament club by giving a new one each year.)
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Here’s how our DIY Christmas gift ideas started…
Wherever we go — vacations, nature walks, shopping, breakfast, the bathroom (OK, maybe not the bathroom. Whatever.) — my daughter has to gather some mementos from the trip.
She calls them her “collections.”
And, her collections quickly start to take over… everywhere.
So, when she gathered collections during our summer beach vacation one year, I decided I was finally going to do something with them.
(We bring back sand, shells, driftwood and more every year!)
So, I bought some clear glass ornaments and made homemade keepsake ornaments with the sand, shells, pebbles and driftwood (all things we found on our vacation) — and they turned out really cool!
They were so amazing that we even made some as gifts for our friends who were on the trip with us.
The great thing about this craft is that you don’t have to do it just at the holidays.
Buy the clear glass ornaments when you see them clearanced after the holidays and make them throughout the year from different collections from your vacations, travel, and even your nature hikes.
Then, when you’re ready to decorate your tree, you have a whole new set of ornaments (or DIY Christmas gift) that really mean something to the family and you will have fun reminiscing.
Don’t Do a Christmas Tree? Do a DIY Ornament Display
Try a fun ornament tree display stand that you can use to display all your keepsake ornaments (even year-round!).
OK! Let’s get to our easy Christmas ornaments kids can make craft! I love this idea because it’s such a unique Christmas tree ornament DIY project!
DIY Christmas Gift Ideas and Christmas Tree Decorations For Kids To Make
How to Make Christmas Ornaments From Vacation and Travel Keepsakes
If you’re wondering “What can you make for Christmas gifts?” or “What are good gift ideas for Christmas?” or need DIY ornament ideas with clear balls then this holiday craft is definitely something you should put on your list!
They’re the perfect DIY Christmas gifts for mom, dad, co-workers, grandparents, friends, teachers and more and simple Christmas crafts to make to celebrate the holiday season.
If you’re making this an ornament project for preschoolers or kindergarten, I would have them fill the ornament and then you / adults do the glue part.
If you have a group, I recommend making Christmas tree decoration making kit and adding all the items and craft supplies needed to a baggie. That way you can just hand out the bag to each crafter and make it easier on yourself.
You could also easily make this a Christmas tree decorations school project or homeschool co-op by having them add things from the school year to the ornament and then putting them on a classroom tree!
These are also perfect Christmas decorations easy to make at home with the whole family (and have each person add their favorite finds from vacation or nature walk, etc.).
DIY Christmas Gift Ornament
These Homemade Keepsake Ornaments for kids to make are perfect for holding travel souvenirs and vacation keepsakes. It's one of my favorite DIY Christmas Gift Ideas ever and make perfect homemade holiday gifts for kids to make for grandparents, parents, teachers, friends, and more!
Materials
- Clear Ornaments with Removable Tops
- Paper (Color of Choice)–cut into 1/2-inch wide slips (if using your computer and printer, cut them into 1/2-inch slips after printing)
- Ribbon (assorted colors of choice)
- Souvenir items to put in ornaments
Tools
- Pencil with Eraser
- Scissors
- Hot Glue or Super Glue
Instructions
- Print (from your computer printer) or write the name of the event and year on a slip of paper. On a separate slip, write the location or any other information you want to include. For example, we printed SUMMER 2012 on one slip of paper and the location (city and state) on the other.
- Curl only the ends of the paper, curling away from the wording. (I used the scissor edge to gently curl it the same way that you curl ribbon.)
- Gently remove the top of the ornament. Place (or pour) sand, crushed leaves, pieces of wood, rocks or whatever you want into the ornament.
- Loosely roll the slips of paper and then place them, one at a time, into the ornament. Use the pencil (eraser side) to help unroll the paper and position the slip of paper inside the ornament.
- Add the other slip of paper and repeat Step #4 until they are all in and in place.
- Glue top of ornament on using hot glue or super glue. If you have sand in your ornament, you may want to glue a small, round piece of paper on the opening before you glue the top of the ornament back on. This will prevent the sand from accidentally pouring out. (Yes, I’m telling you this from personal experience.)
- Tie with ribbon and hang on tree or wrap as a gift!
Notes
What do you put in the ornaments? You can put anything you want in the Christmas ornaments: items from vacation, sand, nature finds, shells, small trinkets, or anything that reminds you of the person you are gifting the holiday tree ornament! It's fun to get creative with them!
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Let us know how your DIY Christmas ornament crafts turn out!
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