There’s nothing more cozy and homey than a Christmas tree covered in handmade ornaments.

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year – not for the gifts; that’s actually my least favourite part. Rather, I adore the homeyness a Christmas tree brings to a space. Twinkle lights are also my jam. I have the best curtain of twinkle lights that I use all year round instead of a lamp in my bedroom, but Christmas is an excuse to hang them all through the house.

This year I put “make a new Christmas tree theme” on my 29×30 list. I’ve had the same red and gold theme for almost 10 years; it was time for a change.

Theme inspiration

I had an idea while I was traveling through Thailand to use a simple theme. Wooden beads and twine. My nephews made me a crocheted twine snowflake last year. It looked so beautiful against the white twinkle lights and deep green tree. Despite the initial inspiration, the twine never even made it into the Christmas Tree decorating!

As December neared, I started to research different handmade Christmas tree ornament ideas. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money and wanted to keep to my theme as much as possible.

The joke was on me though. Between beads and puffy paint, I’m sure I spent a lot more money than planned. First, I made dried-out oranges. These turned out so much more wonderful than I imagined they would be. The way the lights shined through the translucent dried orange pulp was stunning.

My theme developed a little to include more neutral colours, some browns, and a splash of colour with some salt-dough ornaments painted like sugar cookies and fancy “gingerbread” snowflakes (read: cinnamon ornaments) iced with “royal icing” (read: glitter puffy paint). I’ve been obsessed with watching sugar cookie decorating videos on Facebook for the better part of a year, so naturally I took the opportunity to “practice” with a slightly different medium.

After all the handmade Christmas tree ornaments were created, I needed some more garland. It was time for the old-fashioned popcorn and cranberry strings! This was my first time making them, but it was so relaxing and festive to string popcorn and watch the latest installment of ‘A Christmas Prince’!

Some of the inspiration for these ornaments included:

• DIY dried citrus ornaments
• these DIY wood bead snowflake ornaments
• these sugar cookies and these ones
• and these super easy homemade cinnamon ornaments

Overall, I’m so happy with how my tree turned out this year. I think I’ll keep it for next year!

Materials used to make handmade Christmas tree ornaments:

• Silver glitter puffy paint
• Green, yellow and red puffy paint
• Brown puffy paint
• Wooden beads
• Christmas bulbs
• Green ribbon
• Striped ribbon
• Tiny red bells
• Square Cookie cutters
• Snowflake cookie cutters
• Coffee cup cookie cutter
• Cinnamon sticks
• Fresh Oranges

Do you have any handmade ornaments on your tree or any other Christmas traditions?