Christmas tree decorations don’t have to be fancy or expensive to have an impact. In fact, often with the beauty of the tree itself and the twinkling of the lights, simple decorations are all you need.
Simple Ideas For Homemade Christmas Tree Decorations
Homemade Christmas tree decorations can make for some fond holiday memories with your family. Special ornaments can bring back memories of holidays past and remind family members of fun times and ages.
Homemade Christmas tree decorations can also help stretch the holiday budget. Here are some ideas for making your own ornaments and decorations for your tree.
Popcorn Chain
Use some air-popped popcorn and red beads to make a pretty popcorn chain. You can also do this without the beads or use fresh cranberries (but sometimes they’re pricier).
Thread a sewing needle with upholstery thread. Push the needle through the popcorn kernels one at a time and push them onto the thread.
Don’t cut off the length just yet; unwind the thread as you go until you reach the desired length. Then cut it off and tie in a knot at both ends to keep the corn from slipping off.
Cinnamon-Scented Dough
You can make cinnamon-scented, permanent, non-edible ornaments out of dough. They last for years and look lovely. Here’s how you make the dough:
In a bowl, mix together:
1 cup cinnamon powder (ground cinnamon)
1/4 cup applesauce
Then add:
1/2 cup white craft glue
This mixture forms a stiff dough which smells wonderful and looks like brown gingerbread. All that’s left is to roll out the dough and cut out the desired shapes.
When dough is still soft, decorate with dried cloves, buttons, beads, etc. After they dry, you can paint them. Don’t forget to leave a hole at the top for the hanger.
Buttons
Do you have a button collection sitting around? There are several kinds of ornaments that can be made with buttons. Here are some ideas.
- Wreaths – String buttons on wire pieces about 9 inches long. You can use floral wire or thin copper wire. Use needle-nose pliers to make a small loop at one end of the wire before you string on the buttons. Then bend the button-covered wire around into a circle and use the pliers to attach the straight end of the wire to the loop. To hang, tie a ribbon to the juncture where the wires meet, and use another ribbon to make a bow where the ribbon tie is.
- Garland – Buttons can simply be strung on string to make a garland, or used to augment a popcorn garland.
- Decorative balls – Glue buttons to plain Styrofoam balls or worn-out commercial Christmas balls.
Cards
Use holiday cards to make ornaments. You can simply punch a hole in the upper folded corner and hang with ribbon, or you can get more elaborate.
Try cutting out two circles from the card, and cut a slit halfway across the middle of each circle. Push the slits together to create a 3-dimensional ornament. Punch a hole at the top for a hanger.
Folded Paper Ornaments
These folded paper ornaments resemble starbursts. You can use origami paper, simple printer paper, or even magazine pages to make these.
There are so many ways to get creative and grab some things you have on hand around your house and make some amazing Christmas tree ornaments. It’s sure to be a fun time for the whole family!
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