24 ornaments kids can make

Turn an LED tea light into a snowman by gluing on googly eyes and drawing a dotty smile. Make a hat and scarf out of felt, add a pompom to your toque and string fringe to your scarf with hot glue. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

Cut a triangle out of coloured, stiffened felt. Using white glue, stick tree branches onto felt. Decorate with small pompoms, beads and a star. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

Little shards of broken crayons and a blow-dryer are all you need for this speckled masterpiece. If you want a more marbleized look, heat up your bauble for another minute or two. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

Hot-glue the end of a piece of yarn to the inside of a Mason jar ring. Wrap yarn around the ring until it’s covered, securing other end with more glue. Decorate your wreath with tiny beads and a bow. Loop a ribbon through as a hook. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

If you want an ornament that’ll truly last for decades, make it out of salt dough. 1. Preheat oven to 250F. 2. Mix 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt and ½ cup water together in a small bowl. 3. Knead your dough on a floured surface and roll out.
4. Use cookie cutters to create festive shapes. (We found this one at a baking supply store.) 5. Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 2 hours. Let cool.6. Paint your shape. Once dry, go crazy with the decorations. This is one of those times where more is more—add sequins and beads with white glue. Difficulty: Set aside a chunk of time. 

Other things to try: Make a handprint in the dough and create a mini-Rudolph; colour your dough by adding glitter and food dye; sculpt a snowman or angel. 

1. For some geometric fun, cut three decorative straws into four equal pieces (you’ll have 12 pieces). String a length of twine through three straw pieces, and then knot the ends together, forming a triangle. 2. Tie another piece of twine to one of the points of the triangle, adding two more straws. Then knot the end of that piece of  twine to the other end of the straw. (It’s now a diamond shape.) 3. Using that same technique, keep adding two straws at a time until you have one straw left. Take a long piece of twine and string it through the side that has two triangles (not three) and add the last straw. Tie the ends together to form a pyramid. 4. Tie the two loose triangles together and you’ll have a diamond prism! (Don’t worry, this is easier than it sounds.) Difficulty: Set aside a chunk of time.

Watch how this ornament is made: Straw prism ornament 

Cut a heart out of cardboard. Cover the front with brown felt, wrapping it around the edges and securing with glue. Decorate with fabric paint and you’ve got a gingerbread cookie that will never get stale. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

Carefully cut out the bottom of the ornament with an exacto knife (for parents only). Trace that piece onto cardboard and cut out. Paint cardboard with white glue, sprinkle on white glitter, and secure figurine with more glue. Hot-glue bottom back in place and cover edge with a sparkly garland. Difficulty: A bit more involved. 

Watch how this ornament is made: Snow globe ornament 

Cut a semicircle out of paper and roll into a cone, securing with tape. Cut tissue paper into equal-sized strips. Hold them together and cut fringe. Use a glue stick to affix fringe to cone. Trim your tree with pompoms. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

Watch how this ornament is made: Fringe Christmas tree ornament

Create a standout ornament with glow-in-the-dark beads and puffy paint. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

Arrange five toothpicks into a star shape and secure with hot glue. (This can be fiddly.) Cover ends with washi tape. Loop string through top of star and knot. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

Print out your fave image onto card stock. Cover top and bottom of photo with washi tape. Decorate bottom with knotted pieces of yarn and pompoms. Difficulty: A bit more involved.

Use troll hair, felt and hot glue to make the spookiest ornament around. Difficulty: A bit more involved. 

Cut a multi-sided shape out of cardboard and paint it. Once dry, mark 1-in. sections on all sides, and then cut slits (½-in. long) at each mark. Knot one end of a long piece of string, thread it through one slit and start stringing. Once you’ve made your star, tie the ends of the string together on the back. Difficulty: A bit more involved. Watch how this ornament is made: String art ornament 

Just like you’d do on your bicep, apply temporary tattoos to your bauble. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

Glue a red pompom to a wooden bead. Cut antlers out of stiffened felt and glue to back of bead. Once dry, pull both ends of a piece of twine through hole and knot at the bottom. Difficulty: Easy peasy.

Pour confetti, glitter and sequins into your ornament. Boom—you’re done. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

With this ornament, there are no rules. Simply paint wooden shapes and then glue them, along with metallic doilies and other sparkly things, onto a thin piece of wood (available at craft stores). For a finished look, add a washi-tape frame. Difficulty: Easy peasy.

Use our template (find it here) to cut out two trees on thick card stock or bristol board. Cut a slit at the top of one tree and at the bottom of the other and fit trees together. Decorate with mini pompoms. Poke a hole at the top of the tree to string through yarn, knotting at top. Hot-glue on a pompom star. Difficulty: Easy peasy.

Add all your scavenger-hunt treasures to a ball. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

Peel back one half of a sheet of contact paper and decorate with all manner of glitter and sequins. Smooth the top sheet back over the glitter. Cut out a star shape and cover edges with thin washi tape. Hole-punch one tip of the star and pull string through, knotting end. Difficulty: Easy peasy.  Watch how this ornament is made: Glitter star ornament 

Trace a Mason jar lid onto a piece of material, cut out the shape, and glue on a fabric snowflake (available at craft stores). Next, hot-glue around the inside edge of the ring and stick on your circle. Hot-glue a piece of twine to the inside of the ring. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

Pour a bit of paint into your ball, coating the inside. Let dry for a day or two. Wrap cellophane around it, tying the ends with ribbon. Difficulty: Easy peasy. 

Cut a star shape out of stiffened felt. Paint penne, farfalline or a pasta shape of your choice. Once dry, hot-glue pasta together onto felt, adding smaller pasta shapes (like anelli) to the points. Optional: add glitter. Glue a loop of string to the back. Difficulty: A bit more involved. 

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