You don't need a craft store run to make beautiful ornaments. Most of what you need is probably already in a kitchen drawer, a fabric scrap pile, or a recycling bin. Making ornaments now, while there's no holiday rush, also means you'll have a head start on a fuller, more personal-looking tree by December.
Salt Dough Ornaments
Mix one cup of flour, half a
cup of salt, and half a cup of water into a dough. Roll it out, cut shapes with
cookie cutters (stars, trees, simple circles work best), poke a hole near the
top with a straw before baking, then bake at a low oven temperature until firm.
Once cooled, kids can paint them freely — these are genuinely one of the
easiest and cheapest ornaments to make from scratch.
Cardboard and Paper Ornaments
Cereal boxes or any thin
cardboard can be cut into simple shapes and covered in scrap fabric, old
wrapping paper, or even pages from a book you're getting rid of. Glue the
covering on, punch a hole, thread some string or ribbon through, and you've got
a textured ornament that costs basically nothing.
Fabric Scrap Ornaments
Small fabric offcuts can be
wrapped around foam balls or stuffed into small fabric pouches sewn shut, then
decorated with a bit of ribbon or a button. Mismatched fabric scraps actually
look great together on a tree — it gives a handmade, cozy look that store-bought
ornaments don't have.
Button Ornaments
If you have a button jar lying
around (a lot of households do), string buttons of different sizes and colors
onto wire or sturdy thread in the shape of a small tree, snowflake, or star.
This is one of the fastest options and works well as a quiet activity with
kids.
A Note on Doing This With Kids
Salt dough and button ornaments
are the most forgiving for younger kids, since mistakes are hard to make and
the materials are safe to handle. It's also a nice way to build a “we made this
together” keepsake that means more on the tree than anything bought.
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