For the past few years, we have been doing homemade Christmas Tree ornaments complete with homemade garland which has that nostalgic feeling. It also smells simply divine and has that feeling of times that have since passed. Everything from paper chains to dried cinnamon fruit to cinnamon stick trees and spiced applesauce ornaments and everything in between, it’s sure to be a deliciously scented Christmas!
Our love of pioneers inspired us to do a completely homemade Christmas which includes everything from the heart — homemade ornaments and garland, and handmade “Santa” bags to place our thoughtful homemade, hand crafted gifts inside, all placed carefully under the tree. It’s simple, helps us focus on being grateful and reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas.
It’s a homemade Christmas!
Pictured here are a few of our homemade ornaments that made 2020 extra special!
We love a variety of ornaments with no particular theme, using an array of mediums like felt, polymer clay, fabric, natural items, yarn, beads, wood, candy canes and so much more. We all take turns creating and teaching each other our ornament crafts (my kids love this and gives them an opportunity to direct and teach a how-to project) for a few weeks, which then fills our tree.
Let’s get crafty!
- CHRISTMAS CANDY CANE MICE
We enjoy making these simple, cute Christmas Candy Cane Mice which take a limited amount of supplies! All you need is some felt in various colors, scissors, candy canes, small pom poms, tacky glue (or hot glue), some googly eyes and the mouse pattern (although you can easily draw one up!) Get the pattern here:
Cut out one body piece from felt and one set of ears. Cut a notch in the body to place the ears through. The candy cane will get slipped through the backside of the same notch with the curved end of the candy cane left out for the tail (this part can be a little tricky!). Glue the pom pom on for the nose and googly eyes. You can add yarn or jute for whiskers, but we like our mice as is! Once the glue has dried, hang the mice on the tree from the curve of the candy cane!
Kids of all ages (myself included) will love making these cute ornaments! They also make fun simple gifts to hand out to fellow classmates or a with a thread and needle, sew on a name for a fun gift label for gifts!
2. CINNAMON STICK TREES
These cinnamon stick trees add a beautiful scent to the tree (especially if they are fake like ours is), and are simple enough to create! All you need is various holiday fabric (fat quarters works great for this), jute and cinnamon sticks. We also used wooden star cut outs, but this is optional (you can make stars out of paper or felt or leave it off).
Cut fabric into 1″ strips. For a small cinnamon stick, you will need roughly 8 strips of fabric. To make the fabric pretty, cut with pinking shears. Tie fabric onto cinnamon stick. Tie as many as you would like – the more that are tied on, the more full it will appear. The fabric may need a little manipulation for it to lay just so. Cut the edges of the fabric, at an angle, into the shape of a tree, leaving it wider at the bottom and narrow at the top. Wrap jute around the top of the cinnamon stick and tie so it can easily be hung on the tree. Glue a star on the top (we hid the jute behind a wooden star), or leave as is.
3. GINGERBREAD CLAY HOUSES
These cute little gingerbread houses are simple to make and kids will love decorating them! You can simply paint them, add glitter, ribbon, pom poms, stickers, bells and anything else that would make the gingerbread house look like a perfectly delectable gingerbread house!
To start, you will need mini clay terra cotta pots (I believe ours are 2″) along with paint, ribbon and any other supplies you may require!
Paint the pots in fun shades of gingerbread-brown. We did 3 coats of paint on the outside and 1 on the inside. Then we painted white paint around and dripping to look like icing or snow. Adding a touch of glitter will make the snowy-looking-icing sparkle! Then the rest, we simply used a variety of shades of acrylic paint to paint on candy, doors and anything else we wanted. We then put a ribbon through the hole in the pot, slid a bell on and tied a few knots on the inside of the pot to hide the messy knots and make the outside look clean!
4. APPLESAUCE ORNAMENTS
I always love adding a scented salt dough type ornament to the tree! I like the rustic look of it and they smell wonderful, not only when they are baking, but for weeks to come! The living room smelled divine – almost like a cider!
Mix together the following ingredients:
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup cinnamon
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup flour
Mix to form a dough. Add more flour if needed. Roll (not too thin or they break) and cut out into whatever shapes you like. Poke a hole through for jute or ribbon. Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 200F for 2 hours. Do not over bake. Let cool. Tie ribbon or jute to each piece or string together and hang on tree. You can also paint and decorate before hanging on the tree.
5. FELT MITTENS
These mittens are super easy and fun to make. Cut 2 pieces out of felt, embroider a design on (we opted for snowflakes) and then sew the mitten pieces together. We tossed a few rose hips in, broken cinnamon sticks and whole cloves to make them smell wonderfully festive! Attach a ribbon, string or piece of thread to hang on the tree.
Get the mitten pattern here:
6. SPICED FRUIT GARLAND
Making a fruity garland is really quite simple to make. It fills the house with such a beautiful citrus scent when baking the fruit (to dehydrate) and can be strung to hang on the tree. Each year, I place the fruity garland in plastic bags and then into a plastic sealed container to store until the following year and when we open them, it smells as if I just baked them! All you will need is some cinnamon and citrus as well as a few apples.
Cut the fruit into slices, about 1/4″ thick. Do not slice too thin or they will burn. I remove just the larger seeds, otherwise I leave them in the fruit. I use lemon, oranges, limes and apples (no need to core).
Place the cut fruit onto parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon. Place in oven and bake at 210F for 2 hours. Flip every 30 minutes. Once the fruit appears dry and candied, but still pliable, remove from oven and let cool. Do not over bake, or they will burn and will not smell nice at all! Once cooled, “sew” the fruit onto string or thread for a garland. We made ours into smaller sections so it would be easier to string onto the tree.
7. CHRISTMAS GNOMES
These cute little Santa gnomes are quick to make and add some festive cheer to any tree! They only need a few simple supplies like felt, yarn, thread and a wooden bead.
Making this gnome is much like making a yarn doll! Wrap yarn around your 4 fingers about 70 times. When you remove the yarn from your hand, place a piece of yarn through the centre and tie which will hold all your yarn together. Tie a piece of yarn around the top to form the “head” which the hat will be glued to. Cut the bottom loops which form the beard.
Cut the hat out of felt and carefully glue or hand sew together. If you would like a design on your gnome’s hat, embroider your design with thread before you form the hat. Glue the hat onto the head part of the yarn. Get the hat pattern here:
Glue the wooden bead for the nose and glue any yarn to the sides of the wood bead to hide the hole in the bead. Sew on a piece of thread or ribbon through the hat so it can be hung on the tree.
We hope you enjoyed a few of our favorite crafts from this holiday season! Have fun creating these and fun family memories!
Happy Holidays!
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