Homemade decorations

[3wheels]

Could you please share with me some nice homemade Christmas decoration ideas. I have a 10 and 7 year old and lots of craft bits. The 10 year old creates a lot! I've said this year we'll not go too overboard on the home made decorations, I'm thinking we should aim for good quality makes rather than quantity! Thank you. :)

If you have on demand or something akin to it try and watch the Kirsty’s homemade Christmas, some lovely ideas with wood, felt, fabric, concrete (!) etc

Oh, thank you. That's a good idea

We love making paper snowflakes to hang in the window

You could also make Pom Pom garlands as they’re easy but look nice

Christmas stars with paper?

Paper chains?

Google mini yarn hats. They were a big hit with my crafty kids last year (similar ages). They are pretty easy to make, you just need an empty loo roll, wool and something to stuff inside to plump them out.

christines-crafts.com/woolly-hat-ornaments/

DS brought a couple of these home last year that he’d made at school, they’re very cute. We’re going to make some more this year at home in different colours.

Great minds @Splann

We always have great success with collecting pine and fir cones - let them dry out for a few days, then put out newspaper. Roll them around on the newspaper in white poster paint, and while still wet, then roll them in silver or white glitter. Let dry. Then put in a basket or bowl to display, or hot glue loops of knotted garden twine to the bottom to turn them into tree decorations,

DD was able to do these even very young for nursery key workers but older kids will also be able to glue gun the loops themselves.

The only drawbacks are the environmental impact of the glitter and of course the mess…

They do look lovely though. I saw similar glitter pine cones being flogged by John Lewis for £10 a bag a couple of years ago !

These are also a perennial favourite Christmas craft:

www.redtedart.com/gingerbread-house-ideas/

They are a bit more fiddly to stick together than that link suggests, but 7 and 10 should be okay with them. They look so gorgeous, and some years we bag some up and gift them to friends or relatives.

Ooh, thank you! Some lovely ideas.

Salt dough ornaments for the tree. We used Christmas cookie cutters and then painted. Example photo of one my son made about 5 years ago now.

Lollipop sticks, embellishments and pipe cleaners for snowflakes.

We also gave some made from sea glass.

Thought of a few more! As well as the glitter pine cones, if you have ribbon and mini pom pom craft bits, the pine cones look fantastic with the teeny pom-poms hot glued into the “branches” and then hung with ribbon. You can also tie them onto baker’s twine to make a garland.

DD likes making paper chains; and also origami stars and threading these on baker’s twine too. We’ve also had success with Christmas angels made out of thin card and decorated then folded round to stand up - you can print templates of these online.

Also paper lanterns, and window decorations made of black paper with cutouts that you then fill with coloured paper or coloured tracing paper or acetates.

Tree decorations made of folded circles all glued together into a ball with baker’s twine glued in the middle also good!

We're making paper snowflakes (following this tutorial- ), printable collages (there is a christmas collage app) and window clings- teachingmama.org/homemade-christmas-window-clings/

Can you knit or crochet? I made a load of crochet snowflakes one year with white crochet thread with a silvery thread running through it, they were really lovely. It might be a bit tricky for kids though. Pattern here

I also found a pattern somewhere for mini stockings (just like normal socks but tiny) to knit and hang on the tree, which were big enough to pop a sweet like a Celebrations chocolate into. If your kids can't knit you could teach them and let them do the straight bits, they might need some help with the heel though. Like these.

Wreath
Homemade paper chains