Christmas Ornaments for Kids to Make

We are in full Christmas mode over here– FINALLY! I love this time of year, and sharing it with my little ones makes it even more magical. We have lots of Christmas songs to sing, cookies to eat, and of course decorating to do!

Our house pretty much always has artwork the kiddos made scattered throughout, and this time of year is no different. One of my favorite ways to get the whole family involved in the decorating is to find some Christmas ornaments for the kids to make!

To kick off the holiday season, we stayed in our jammies all day and had a full-blown ornament-making marathon. So naturally, today I’m sharing some awesome Christmas ornaments that we made together!

In honor of one of my favorite Christmas songs (Muppets version obv), and the number of ornaments we made, I present the 12 Days of Christmas Ornaments 🙂

1. Twig Reindeer Ornament

You all know how much I love finding ways to incorporate nature into our crafts, so I snuck a few into our ornaments too. To make a twig reindeer just hot glue 3 small sticks together to make a triangle. I suggest that the adult does any hot gluing unless the kids are a bit older.

Then the kids can use regular glue to put an eye on each side, and a little red nose at the bottom! You can either just tie some string around the top, or make a loop and glue it in the middle to keep it in place.

2. Melted Crayon Ornament

This one was my personal favorite. It’s so cool seeing all the colors melt together! All you have to do is take shavings off crayons with a peeler and put them inside a clear ornament. Then the kids can use a blow dryer to melt the crayons, being careful to not keep the heat in one spot too long.

3. Cinnamon Cut-Out Ornament

You can make your tree look AND smell amazing with this one. Mix 1 cup of cinnamon, 3/4 cup applesauce, and 2 TB of white liquid glue together. Roll the dough out flat between two pieces of parchment.

Let the kiddos pick out what Christmas shapes they want to make and cut them out with cookie cutters! You’ll need to poke a hole through the top of them where you want to put string through, and then just heat them in the oven at 200°F until they’re hard! Usually takes about 1.5-2 hours.

4. Twine & Twig Star Ornament

This one requires hot glue again, so if your tiny assistants are too tiny, take over for this part. We used sticks for this again to get a rustic feel, and I broke them all to be about 3 inches.

Then one by one I added them to the star shape and hot glued the ends together to keep it in place! Once it’s secure, tie some twine or string to a twig and let the kiddos start wrapping! 

5. Swirly Paint Ornament

Super easy, yet super fun for little ones! Just squirt different paints into a clear ornament and roll/shake it to make them spread! The colors will mix a bit, so using colors that blend well together may be a good idea (ie. green, yellow, and blue).

We used primary colors and they did blend into a sort of gray in certain spots, but it really wasn’t too bad.

6. Framed Art Ornament

Make a frame by hot gluing twigs or popsicle sticks into a rectangle. On a stiff piece of paper (we used the back of a paper plate) the kids can finger paint to their hearts’ content. Then just cut it out to fit behind the frame and glue them together!

One thing to note for this one is to either tie the string for hanging on the frame before adding the artwork, otherwise it’ll just have to be glued to the back.

7. Wrapped Pine Cone Ornament

Always fun to add some fine motor skills work to craft time. For this one you’ll need a pine cone and 2 pipe cleaners. The little crafters can take a pipe cleaner and weave it between all the pine cone scales.

When the first one starts to run out, just wrap the next pipe cleaner around the end of the first one so they make a continuous line, and continue! After they’re done wrapping, you can tuck the pipe cleaner ends around a scale and they should stay put. We added little dots of glitter glue to the edges of ours because we’re fancy 😉

8. Salt Dough Hand Print Ornament

This is actually one we did in years past, for both kiddos’ first Christmases. I love it so much that I wanted to share it anyway! To make the salt dough, just mix 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour, and 1/2 cup of water. You can halve, double, or quadruple the recipe as long as you keep to those proportions.

Once the dough is mixed, roll it out using a lightly floured surface and rolling pin. Let your little one push their hand print into the dough, or do it for them if it’s a baby. For older kids, they can also choose a cookie cutter shape to do instead.

Then take a knife to cut the shape out and bake it! 250°F until hardened, again taking about 1.5-2 hours. Once dry, the kids can paint their creations, or you can paint it for a special keepsake like we did!

~ With the new movie out, the whole world seems obsessed with Frozen at the moment. So for some extra pizzazz, the last 4 Christmas ornaments for kids to make are all inspired by Frozen!~

9. Frozen-Themed Glittery Snowflakes Ornament

Give your kids a clear ornament, and let them fill it up with light blue paint. Making sure to keep their thumb over the opening, they can shake it all around until the paint covers the whole inside. Turn the ornaments upside down on a napkin or paper plate to let the excess paint drip out.

Once that’s all set, you or the kiddos can paint on some white snowflakes and swirls! Lastly, let them add some silver glitter glue to the designs for a little accent.

10. Frozen-Themed Crystal Snowflake Ornament

This one adds a little science to our crafts, and the result is super cool! I cut 2 blue metallic pipe cleaners in half, and used 3 of the new pieces. Put two of them together like a T, and fold both over each other. Then fold the last one in half over the center as well.

To make them a bit sturdier, I also twisted some of them in the center until they stayed in place. After that you can just wrap the ends around your pinky or one of your kids fingers to make little circles on each of the pieces. This is an easy way to make it look more advanced without getting to complicated.

Now, for the fun part. Head over to my post on Science Experiments for Kids for instructions on crystallizing your snowflake! The only difference from the Geodes we made there, is that you’ll have this snowflake at the end of the string instead of a ball.

11. Frozen-Themed Lace Covered Ornament

This one starts out similar to the Glittery Snowflake ornament, but ends up looking much different! Again you’ll take the light blue paint and spread it around the inside of a clear ornament. Once the paint has spread around and the excess dripped out, it’s time to get fancy!

Take a square piece of lace and place the ornament in the middle. Glue around the top of the ornament where the hanger part goes, and side by side attach the lace. Once you have all 4 “sides” done, there will be the excess folded up between them.

Cut some of that off and just put a thin line of glue down the middle of it to attach it to the ornament. So simple, and yet the end result is so lovely!

12. Frozen-Themed Glitter Pine Cone Ornament

Last but not least, we have one more pine cone to add to our list of Christmas ornaments for kids to make! Being part of our Frozen series, the kiddos painted their pine cone a light blue. (Hint: the fun part of the Frozen themed ornaments is you can change out the color and then they’re just regular ol non-specific ornaments again!)

Right after they finished painting, they sprinkled silver glitter all over while the paint was still wet. I recommend spraying the entire thing with adhesive spray afterwards to keep the glitter from getting everywhere. Then just attach your string for hanging and you’re all set!

I had so much fun with these Christmas ornaments for kids to make. More importantly, I know my little ones really loved it as well.

Some of them were more involved and required more help from me, but even those were a lot of fun since we were doing them all *together*. That’s what I try to focus on this time of year– doing intentional activities with my babies that will hopefully become cherished memories one day. 

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