It is incredibly simple to make lovely homemade Christmas ornaments from both household items and simple nature finds.
That’s great news if we are trying to have Christmas on a budget but sadly many of the homemade Christmas ornaments on Pinterest are scarily tricky to pull off for us lesser mortals who can’t whip up gorgeous crafts and decorations at the drop of a hat.
So I have for you here a collection of genuinely simple homemade Christmas ornaments you can make from things around the house or garden or park.
You won’t – I promise – need huge craft supplies for these DIY ornaments and can recycle all sorts of household items to make them which is great for a more zero waste Christmas.
Have a browse through all the ornaments for ideas or if you are after an ornament you can make from a specific household item look in the index below.
And for more inspiration do check out my other simple Christmas posts.
Natural Christmas Ornaments
Pine Cone Christmas Ornaments
For me pine cones make some of the very loveliest homemade Christmas ornaments.
It’s not just how beautiful they look with both a rustic Christmas decor and more modern minimalist Christmas decorations but also going out for long winter family walks in the woods to collect them.
It’s one of my favourite family Christmas traditions.
Once you’ve got your hauls of pine cones home :
- Give them a good brush down to remove any leaves or creatures
- Leave them to air dry on some newspaper
- Or if you want to gently rinse them
- And then dry the pine cones in the oven
You can bleach pine cones but personally I don’t because of the safety risks of cleaning with bleach. I am going to have a go with my much gentler laundry bleach this year and will let you know how I get on.
Anyway once you have cleaned your pine cones there are all sorts of ways you can transform them into lovely homemade Christmas ornaments.
The very simplest way is to glue on some string or twine and then tie a big bow around the string as shown here by Make It Love It (whizz to the bottom of her post for the instructions )…
Or you can glue a ribbon bow directly bleached pine cones as in these ornaments from Stone Gable Blog …
It’s worth looking out for different sizes and shapes of pine cone when you’re out and about. We have a local tree that sheds big pine cones like these that with just a quick clean up and the smallest amount of leftover paint make wonderful statement ornaments …
If you find lots of little pine cones rather than any big ones you could make a garland of tiny pine cone ornaments as in this very easy step-by-step tutorial from the Magic Onions …
Tree Branch Ornaments
These beautifully natural Christmas ornaments made from fallen tree branches look like they involve lots of tools but actually don’t. If you can get your hands on a little saw, a manual screw driver and a screw, you can make them.
The one thing to remember is to let the wood dry out after cutting.
Dried Orange Ornaments
Dried orange ornaments are one of those homemade natural decorations that do take a bit of time but truly aren’t complicated at all and they’ll make the house smell absolutely amazing …
You don’t have to stick to dried oranges for your decorations. You can actually dry other citrus fruit – and in fact other fruit as well – in the same way to add to your homemade Christmas decorations including wreaths, garlands and ornaments for the tree …
If you do dry a range of different coloured citrus fruits, you can thread them together with cinnamon sticks in these beautifully fragranced homemade Christmas ornaments …
Nature Walk Ornaments
With nothing more than some natural twine or string you could easily put together a little collection of Christmas ornaments from nature walk finds. They would look lovely – brightened just by some dried orange ornaments – in a very simple and uncluttered or minimalist living room, home or apartment where their simple seasonal beauty truly has a chance to stand out …
Twig Christmas Ornaments
Twig Star Ornaments
Tiny twigs collected on a big family walk or in the park are brilliant for making all sorts of homemade ornaments. In addition to the little ribbon trees above, you can make these rafia stars from Happy Hooligans with kids …
Or these super simple twig star ornaments that could be easily tied together into a natural Christmas garland …
Twig Snowflake Ornaments
These little twig snowflake ornaments do need some good glue but it doesn’t need to be a glue gun so don’t worry if you don’t have one …
The making of twig snowflake ornaments have been a little bit over complicated and could be made in a simpler way without so much zealous glue gunning but they are nice examples of other ways to play with colour and shape in homemade twig ornaments …
Twig Tree Ornaments
These twig trees need a little bit of calm care with the string but would make a lovely sorting and sizing activity for little children to arrange the twigs you’ve collected on a walk in ascending size …
Elegant Christmas Twig Ornaments
Or for a more grown up, elegant ornament simply gather some fir twigs and a few ornaments together with some copper tape as shown on My Scandinavian Home …
It’s basically just a freestyle Christmas arrangement but definitely an advertisement for less is more!
Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments
Salt dough Christmas ornaments are always a popular Christmas activity with kids – the snowman my tween crafted as a tiny toddler with about five pots of glitter still makes it onto our tree every year.
But salt dough ornaments can also be a beautifully simple way to capture little finds from a nature walk without a sprinkle of glitter in sight. These from Compost & Cava are especially lovely …
Upcycled Christmas Ornaments
Ribbon Christmas Ornaments
Any leftover bits of ribbon you have from previous Christmas gifts can be super easily upcycled into these lovely ribbon twig trees ornaments from Fireflies and Mudpies.
You could go for a rustic Christmas decor look with twigs and garden twine but you could also do a more modern minimalist Christmas look with ribbons tied around any little poles or rods you can recycle from your kids toy box.
If you don’t have ribbon, no worries. Simply recycle some from old cotton pyjamas, shirts or hankies.
Scrap Wood Ornaments
These simpler wooden homemade Christmas star ornaments are actually incredibly simple to make from any scrap wood you have around the house. With a little bit of help and supervision even children can make them. Even if they are not old enough to help with the sawing, they can have a lovely calming time helping to sand them down …
Button Christmas Ornaments
Gather up any old buttons you have around the house to make super simple but super lovely homemade ornaments from buttons with your kids. Green and red buttons are obviously handy but all those random spare white ones we all have lying around are also great for stars and icicles and more.
My daughter and I made these little button tree ornaments years ago when she was tiny. They couldn’t be simpler. Just thread two holes on each button with strong thread, string or wire and pop a white button on top as a star.
We made this equally simple felt & button tree ornaments when my daughter was three or four. You don’t have to use felt simply recycle any fabric you have and use up spare buttons.
Recycled Bead Ornaments
If you have any old beads hanging around the house from broken jewellery or old kids crafts sets recycle them into these pretty homemade Christmas tree ornaments.
The ones in this easy DIY ornament tutorial have been made with layers of felt but you could stick together circles of any scrap fabric you have and then just pop half a cork screw on the bottom for the Christmas tree bucket!
Yarn Christmas Ornaments
Leftover yarn is another good material for quickly making simple homemade Christmas ornaments especially if you are trying to create a country cottage rustic Christmas decor.
If you are not a knitter yourself, ask around on local Whatsapp groups etc to see if any neighbouring knitters have any they are keen to declutter.
These wool stars from Live Laugh Rowe are super simple to make. They look great here in natural colours but could also look super fun and cool in bright neons if that’s the only yarn you can get for your ornaments.
These Christmas tree twig ornaments with different colour yarn styling could be glued together or tied together if that’s easier …
Scrap Paper Christmas Ornaments
A good old Christmas declutter – before Christmas!! – is seriously one of the best kept secrets of a happy Christmas. Whilst you’re at it do lightening quick declutter of all the scrap paper littering your home and then turn it into unbelievably lovely homemade Christmas ornments.
These origami stars look amazing but are actually incredibly simple and there’s a brilliant step by step tutorial here on how to make them …
These stunning Moravian star ornaments are obviously will take longer than the ones above but they are still not actually that complicated to make from recycled scrap paper with this brilliant step by step Moravian star tutorial …
Simple homemade Moravian star ornaments can be made into garlands but also look lovely hung by a window with the winter light behind them …
Newspaper Christmas Ornaments
If you’ve got some old tatty baubles, you can give them a makeover with just a few strips from an old book or newsaper as demonstrated by Craft and Creativity …
More Rustic Style Christmas Decor Ideas
For more natural and homemade Christmas decorations do check out this collection of 35 Rustic Christmas decor Ideas which covers rustic table and mantlepiece decorations plus wreaths, garlands and gift wrap that are again still very simple both cheaply and at the last minute with very little crafting skill …
I do hope you enjoy these simple ideas for homemade Christmas ornaments as much as we have over the years.
For more simple Christmas ideas do check out my other Christmas posts which will give you lots of lovely but practical and affordable ideas for :
Varga says
Dear Sloely!
We create an online Advent calendar for railway colleagues, which we publish on http://www.vasutasmagazin.hu. We would like to ask for your permission so that we can take one or two Christmas DIY ideas from you, with a source sign, of course.
Are we allowed to do this?
Thanks to:
Alice says
Hi – that’s fine as long as any images are linked and attributed to the correct source.