How to Make Your Own Christmas Ornaments
Decorating your home for Christmas can quickly become a costly endeavor. Fortunately, your Christmas tree is one area where you can find plenty of ways to cut expenses. You can purchase a couple of boxes of cheap Christmas ornaments to get you started and do the rest yourself. A Christmas tree with homemade ornaments is much more personal and memorable, and adding new additions each year can become a priceless, family tradition.
A favorite amongst children, you can craft mini reindeer using whole walnuts, pipe cleaners and a marker. Show your kids how to fashion little antlers out of brown pipe cleaner and then glue them to the top of the walnut. Next, you can draw on a little face on each one. Maybe even personalize them with names of each reindeer on the back; just make sure one gets a red nose.
Everyone loves a photo Christmas ornament, but you don’t have to pay $25 ordering one off a professional printing site. Start collecting old jar lids for this project, it doesn’t matter if they have a back or not. You could make several different ones using various family photos or take a picture of each member of your family, so everyone has their own ornament. Once you’ve printed the pictures, use the lid to trace a circle of the picture to cut out, so it will fit inside the lid. When you cut, stay just inside of your traced line so you don’t end up smashing the edges inside the lid. Now all you have to do is glue the picture inside the lid. You could make one of these photo Christmas ornaments each year, but be sure to label the year on the back so you can always remember everyone’s age when you look back at them.
Another simple homemade Christmas ornament can be made out of pinecones from your back yard. There are dozens of ways to dress up a pine cone to suit your tree. You could spray paint them to match the theme of your other Christmas ornaments. Another option is to weave some berry sprigs through them for a slightly more formal look. Just make sure you clean them off well before using them and check for any critters hiding inside. If you want to be able to use your pine cone Christmas ornaments again next year, you can purchase fake ones at any craft store for cheap.