Every home that celebrates Christmas has its own version of a Christmas tree. We have the traditional fir or pine trees that people buy from tree growers. These real trees give off that distinct holiday scent. Then we have the artificial ones that are used year in and year out. Others get a little more creative making Christmas trees out of wood planks, tree branches, strings, a pile of books or even egg cartons. Of course, all these kinds of Christmas trees would look and feel dull without some kind of decoration. Lucky for you, there are lots of easy DIY Christmas tree ornaments you can make right now to spruce up your tree.
This Look does not have an image.
Dried Orange Slices
Most homesteaders try to avoid plastic like it was the plague. Well, with how things are going with our oceans and landfills, maybe plastics will indeed be the end of us. When it comes to easy DIY Christmas tree ornaments, few could be more environment-friendly than using dried orange slices.
Dried Orange Slices by Ekaterina Syrkina/Bigstock
To make these homemade Christmas tree decorations, you just have to cut a few oranges into 1/4 inch slices then place them in a dehydrator such as the Hamilton Beach Weston Pro Series PRO-2400 Dehydrator. This homestead kitchen must-have has a 160 liter/24 tray and 80 liter/12 tray versions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7itexlOD4
If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can dry your slices in the oven. Just place them on the rack and bake at low temperature for some hours until they’re dried up. Let the slices cool before poking a hole at the center or near the edge. Tie a string through the hole and hang on your tree.
Cinnamon-Scented Tree Ornament
As mentioned, real trees give off this classic Christmas-y scent. These scents gradually disappear, though. To keep your home smelling nice, you can make tree ornaments out of actual cinnamon sticks.
Simply make a loop out of floral wire or naturally wrapped wire into then attach it to the cinnamon stick. Hot glue fresh rosemary sprigs of different lengths to the cinnamon stick making it look like a miniature Christmas tree. You can also glue small gems to the sprigs. Now you have a little cinnamon and rosemary-scented Christmas tree as ornament for your actual tree. It’s a treenception.
Wood Slices
If you want rustic DIY Christmas tree ornaments, go for wood slices. A band saw or miter saw is the perfect tool for this DIY project. The Laguna 14|Twelve 14” Band Saw is a good piece of equipment to have if you’re into woodworking. If you don’t have something like this Woodworker’s Journal Readers’ Choice Award for Stationary and Benchtop Tools winner, ypu can always use a chainsaw, circular saw or even a hand saw. Once you’ve cut your wood slices from small logs, you need to do some sanding and polishing.
If you don’t have the luxury of such tools or if you prefer not to do any sawing, there are wood slices available online. The Fuyit Natural Wood Slices measure 2.4 to 2.8 inches in diameter and are 0.8 cm thick, which are the right sizes for your handmade Christmas tree decorations. Each set includes 30 pre-drilled and unfinished wood slices that have been sanded and polished, and 33 feet of natural jute twine. You can hang the wood slices as they are or paint them first.
This Look does not have an image.
Rustic Candy Cane Ornament
Candy canes are another common sight during the holiday season and many of them can be seen hanging from Christmas trees. It’s probably not wise to hang actual candy canes, though, as ants may get to them.
What you can do is use plastic candy canes. But these red, green and white striped Christmas decors look rather boring and redundant. Turn them into something more rustic like this one.
Use natural jute twine to wrap the candy canes and give it a rustic look. You’ll need hot glue and a glue gun, of course, to keep the twine in place. After the wrapping part, you can add other decorations to give each candy cane a unique look.
Rustic Christmas Balls
If you don’t feel like hanging glittery Christmas balls this year, you can transform your old ornaments into something more rustic. You can use your leftover twine from your DIY candy cane project though it would be better to use something else to give your tree a diversified look.
For this handmade Christmas tree ornament, you can use old Christmas balls. If you plan on using the old ones in future Christmases, you can get new balls or use Styrofoam balls instead.
There are two ways you can use the burlap. First simply cut a square piece that’s big enough to cover the ball and then some. Place the ball at the center of the burlap then gather the ends. Make sure the burlap wraps tight around the ball before tying the ends together with twine. As you can see in the video below, you can use any kind of fabric.
The second method is to print out this template and to cut out the right size from the burlap you need for your Christmas balls. Use a little glue on along the edges of the burlap pieces then apply them to the balls. Let the glue dry before attaching other small ornaments or, in this case, stamping the burlap.
Somehow it doesn’t feel that Christmas-y without a tree. A Christmas tree is certainly not enough, though. You need to decorate it with some easy DIY Christmas tree ornaments.
Follow Gentleman Pirate Club for more DIY projects you can do to keep the spirit of Christmas going. Check out the different tips to follow in order to have a safe holiday season, as well.
