My mom hangs the same glitter-covered pinecone that I made in elementary school on her Christmas tree every single year. At this point, she’s done it for a solid quarter of a century. My tiny, freckled face plastered on the top of an old pinecone like the angel on a tree never fails to make her smile. With these DIY ornaments for kids, you can paint, glue, and glitter your way to craft the same type of Christmas magic with your own children. One day — as far away as that day seems right now — you’ll want them to look back on.
It’s so much fun to pull out handmade ornaments from when my kids were little and hang them on our tree. As they get older, the ornaments they craft get more intricate and admittedly look nicer on the tree, but there is just something special about those popsicle stick creations from preschool. Will I ever tire of seeing a shrunken handprint that my youngest son made when he was a toddler? No, I most certainly will not. I will always hang my kids’ DIY ornaments by their faded and frayed red ribbons with pride.
Gifts are great and all, but one of the best parts about the holiday season are the memories you make along the way. Crafting an ornament or two with your kids to hang on the tree, exchange with classmates, or give as gifts is the perfect way to celebrate the season. If you're in need of some inspiration, this list is filled with DIY ornaments that are simple enough for kids to make, but also fun for you to enjoy together.
Candy Cane Ornaments For Kids
The easiest of all of the DIY projects on this list, if your kids can thread pony beads onto a pipe cleaner, then they can likely handle making these candy cane ornaments from A Little Craft In Your Day all by themselves. There’s no glue, no glitter, and not a single glass bulb needed to make these kid-friendly ornaments. Simply set your little ones up with a bag of red beads, a bag of white beads, and a fistful of red pipe cleaners and let them have at it while you turn on a Hallmark Christmas movie and relax.
Gingerbread Salt Dough Ornaments
There aren’t many things that I love more than the smell of fresh gingerbread cookies in the oven. The scent just makes my whole house feel magical. Although they look and smell good enough to eat, these gingerbread salt dough ornaments from A Pretty Life In The Suburb aren’t for snacking. But they do make a great DIY ornament project for you and your kids to enjoy together. The red and white twine hangers give these little guys a very festive look. Plus, with plenty of cinnamon and ginger in the dough recipe, they’ll make your tree smell amazing.
DIY LEGO Ornament
For all of the little builders out there, Creative Green Living has the best DIY ornament hack for kids that uses repurposed LEGO bricks to create adorable tree decorations. All they have to do is dig through that massive bin of LEGO odds and ends in their room to fish for pieces that will fit together to make the shape of a Christmas tree. They can also experiment with other holiday shapes like candy canes, snowmen, and more. This is one DIY ornament that’s part craft, part STEM, and all fun. Plus, when it’s time to take down the tree, the LEGO pieces can just go right back in the bin.
Mini Art Easel Ornaments
For budding artists who love to show off their latest creations, these DIY mini art easel ornaments from A Beautiful Mess are just precious. Your kid can use whatever colors strike their fancy and paint anything their heart desires on the tiny canvas — glitter would be a fun option, too. Depending on your child's age, they may need your help to use the super glue to attach the canvas to a miniature art easel, but even attaching the ribbon or yarn hanger is pretty simple. These fun ornaments make adorable gifts for teachers and grandparents, but they’re also a great way to memorialize your little one’s artwork on your own tree for years to come.
DIY Pokemon Ornament
For kids who just have to catch ‘em all, this DIY Pokemon ornament from A Little Craft In Your Day is an adorable project to make around the holidays. All you need is a red Christmas ornament, some white and red glitter, white and black acrylic paint, painters tape, and a bit of decoupage. When there’s glitter and paint involved in a craft project like this one, I always try to either have my kids work outside or make sure to cover our workspace with something like newspaper or an old bedsheet. Once you have all of your supplies ready, your kids can make this sparkly and fun Pokemon-themed ornament for your tree in about half an hour.
Colorful Salt Dough Ornaments
Making salt dough ornaments with your kids is basically a holiday rite of passage. If you’ve never done it before, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what an easy process it is to achieve beautiful keepsake ornaments. Many salt dough recipes are meant for kids to paint and decorate once they’re baked and have dried, but this recipe for colored salt dough from blogger Julie Blanner uses food coloring to create pastel hues that are so simple and beautiful to decorate with. This is one fun family activity that you’re going to want to make over and over again with your kids.
DIY Snow Globe Cup Ornament
I absolutely cannot get over how adorable this snow globe ornament craft is from Girl Loves Glam. Who knew your kids could make a pretty, magical snow globe without even the tiniest bit of glass in sight? Basically, your kids just have to put a sticker on some card stock, glue that to another piece of paper, fill a clear plastic cup with faux snow, and assemble it all. They’ll probably need some assistance with the hot glue, but these ornaments are just the most precious thing. They would make a great class project for holiday parties or even a class ornament exchange.
Snowman Ice Cream Cone Ornaments
No list of DIY holiday ornaments would be complete without a smiling snowman or two, but these snowman ice cream cone ornaments from Handmade Charlotte are just so festive and fun. The snowmen are made from white pom poms that look like scoops of ice cream stacked inside of felt ice cream cones. The tiny felt hats and carrot-shaped noses put the whole look over the top. This project definitely takes a bit of patience and dexterity to get everything stacked and assembled just right, but it’s nothing your kids can’t handle, even if they need a little help here and there.
Peppermint Melt Ornaments
You probably have a few cookie cutters in holiday shapes like stars and trees buried in the back of your baking drawer, so why not put them to good use this season? Using metal cookie cutters as a guide, your kids can create DIY ornaments by melting peppermints onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. The step-by-step tutorial on the blog, A Little Craft In Your Day, shows you exactly how to create these fun works of art with your kids without making (too much of) a giant sticky mess.
DIY Pom Pom Ornaments
My kids have a craft drawer that is filled with mostly pom poms. I have no idea where they all came from, but we have them and I 100% intend to use them to make these ridiculously easy and cute DIY pom pom ornaments from Lovely Indeed. Use whatever color and texture of pom poms you’d like (or, what you have on hand) to glue together abstract reindeer, elf, and snowman faces that your kids can use to decorate the tree. You can also use spare felt scraps to out antlers, hats, and scarves to accessorize the ornaments and create as many different looks as possible.
DIY Glitter Ornaments
Normally, I tend to shy away from craft projects that involve glass or glitter, but that’s definitely easier said than done around Christmastime. Luckily, these DIY glitter ornaments from Burlap And Blue are super simple for kids to help make and you can keep the mess contained by laying down some paper underneath your workspace or heading outside. Using a small amount of Mod Podge and a paint brush, kids can create unique designs to cover in loose glitter across their ornaments. They can even use different colors of glitter to create fun looks that will sparkle and shine on your tree.
DIY Unicorn Ornament
I often use mason jars to display bouquets of flowers or to store pens and scissors in on my desk. Little did I know, the lids to those mason jars (that I have haphazardly stuffed in my junk drawer) could actually be transformed into a DIY unicorn ornament. The Creative Green Living blog suggests using scrap yarn, felt, card stock, and a glue stick to create these adorable ornaments in the shape of your kiddo’s favorite magical creature. And if the look of your child’s scrappy unicorn ornament doesn’t match with the rest of your tree’s holiday aesthetic, these ornaments would look just as festive hanging in their room.
DIY Handprint Ornaments
If you don’t already have a million and one different DIY handprint ornaments on your Christmas tree, this adorable craft project from the Mod Podge Rocks blog is a great one to make with your kids. All you need is some quick dry clay to help your little one press their hand into to create the basic handprint shape. Once the clay is dry, your kids can paint their handprint in whatever style they desire — Santa, reindeer, a snowman, or anything else festive that they want. This DIY ornament is not only easy and fun to make, but it’s the perfect way to capture a moment in time with your kids that you’ll both get to reminisce about every time you hang the ornament on your tree.
Accordion Tree Ornaments
When you need to keep your child’s little hands busy so that you can get your online holiday shopping finished in time, set them up with a simple DIY ornament project like these accordion tree ornaments from Mom on Timeout. You can use colorful Washi Tape on plain card stock to create festive patterns like the tutorial suggests, or you can just buy some holiday-themed card stock at the store to make things a bit easier on yourself. Either way, it doesn’t take much effort here to fold the card stock so that it fans out into the shape of a Christmas tree. Then, all you have to do is add a ribbon and hang it up.
Shrink Paper Ornaments For Kids
Whether you call it Shrinky Dink, shrink film, Make It Bake It, or shrinking paper, I highly suspect that most people reading this list have made at least one shrunken craft in their lifetime. The popular crafting paper that shrinks up in the oven is a favorite of teachers and has been used to make homemade keepsake ornaments for decades. Creative Green Living shows you step by step how to cut festive ornament shapes out of shrink film for your kids to color on with markers, shrink to size, and hang these DIY ornaments right on your tree.
Confetti Ornaments
These colorful DIY confetti ornaments from the Mod Podge Rocks blog are a ridiculously simple way to use up all of the leftover tissue paper that you stuffed into a lone gift bag at the end of the last holiday season. (I’m not the only one who does that, right?) Your kids can tear or cut small strips of tissue paper — red and green, or really just whatever you have on hand. Then, paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on the outside of a plain glass bulb ornament and layer the strips of tissue paper in a random pattern across the ornament to create an effect that looks like confetti.
Cinnamon Stick Ornaments
It honestly doesn’t get much more festive than a DIY Christmas ornament made from cinnamon sticks — unless it’s shaped like a reindeer with googly eyes and a bell for a nose like these ornaments from This Grandma Is Fun. This little guy looks like he’s ready to jingle all the way onto my tree. Equally as adorable are the cinnamon stick ornaments for your kids to make that are shaped like trees with red and green buttons for the ornaments. Honestly, I just really wish that all of the ornaments that my kids made smelled like cinnamon.
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