Here's a sackful of homemade Christmas decoration ideas to help you have even more fun this festive season. Making some DIY decorations is a magical way to get the children even more excited about the build up to the big day, and these cute little crafts are easy to master if you want to add a more personal touch to your tree and table.

Homemade Christmas Card Garland

This easy-to-make garland is a great way to use up last year’s Christmas cards.

You'll need:

  • A craft punch or scissors
  • Old Christmas cards
  • String or thread
  • PVA glue

How to make:

  1. Using a craft punch or scissors to cut out the shapes of your choice.
  2. Lay a long stretch of thread or string along the table.
  3. Dab a spot of glue on the back of a card shape; slide it under the thread and place a similar shape on top to sandwich the thread between the two shapes.
  4. Repeat the above steps until you’ve filled the length you require with shapes. Then hang and admire your handiwork.

Homemade Festive Felt Tree

These trees look sweet hung on a tree, or you can make them larger as a table decoration.

You'll need:

  • Sheets of felt in green and white
  • Scissors
  • Needle and thread
  • Beads

How to make:

  1. Cut a circle the size of a pencil end out of one of the sheets of felt.
  2. Place your first circle on a different colour of felt and cut around it leaving a small gap of about 1mm.
  3. Repeat this process, making sure your circle gets larger and larger, until you have a perfect tree shape.
  4. Tie a knot in a piece of thread then push a needle and thread through the centre of each layer, starting with the biggest.
  5. Once all your layers are threaded add a shiny bead for a star and tie a tight knot to secure the thread. Make sure you leave enough of a loop to hang it up.

Safety first: If the kids are making these decorations, help them with the cutting out and don't leave them unsupervised.

Paper Trees

This delicate tree decoration stands out from the crowd and is so easy to make.

You'll need:

  • Coloured A4 paper
  • Scissors
  • Needle and thread
  • Beads

How to make:

  1. Cut a 1cm strip of paper along the longest edge of an A4 sheet.
  2. Thread a needle and tie a knot in the end of the thread. Add 2 or 3 beads onto the thread as the tree trunk.
  3. Pass the needle and thread through the end of the paper strip and then add a bead to the thread after the paper.
  4. Bend the paper back on itself and push the needle through the paper once again.
  5. Thread on another bead.
  6. Repeat step 4 ensuring the paper bends get smaller each time until they have formed a tree shape.
  7. Add a final bead and tie a knot to secure it. Finally, tie a loop from the remaining thread to use for hanging up on your tree.

Reindeer Characters

These little Christmas cutiesare fun dotted around the house or as decorations on the dinner table.

You'll need:

  • Cardboard toilet roll
  • Scissors
  • PVA glue
  • White paper
  • Brown paint
  • Black pen
  • Red paper

How to make:

  1. Cut one third off the top of the toilet roll. Then, using the opposite end, cut four rough squares to form the legs.
  2. Draw the shape of the reindeer’s head on the off-cut and also a small square for the reindeer’s neck then cut both pieces out.
  3. Paint the head, body and neck brown and when dry draw hooves on the body and eyes and a nose on the face with a black pen (or a red nose for Rudolph!).
  4. Cut antlers and a tail from the white paper. Glue the neck to the head and then both to the body. Finally, stick on the antlers.

DIY Snow Globes

Make your own magical ornament. Kids will need some adult help with this one.

You'll need:

  • A jam jar with lid
  • Glitter
  • A Christmas toy
  • Plasticine
  • Superglue

How to make:

  1. Start with a clean and label-free jar.
  2. Get an adult to superglue your chosen toy to the lid of the jar, then leave it to dry for an hour.
  3. Place a teaspoon of glitter in the jam jar and fill to the top with cold water.
  4. Over the sink – this bit is messy – place the lid on the jar and screw it tight. Some water will spill out at this point but don’t worry: this way you’ll be left with plenty of water but no air bubbles.
  5. Get an adult to make sure the lid is on really tight.
  6. Turn over and shake to your heart’s content – and let it snow...

Paper Pinwheels

These paper pinwheels will add an exciting twist to your tree this year.

You'll need:

  • Coloured paper or wrapping paper of your choice
  • Scissors
  • String or thread
  • Tape or glue

How to make:

  1. Cut a piece of paper about 6 x 21cm (the width of an A4 sheet).
  2. With the paper sitting portrait format in front of you, fold the bottom edge up by 1cm and continue in a concertina fashion until you reach the end.
  3. Loop a bit of string or thread around the middle of your paper ‘concertina’ and tie securely.
  4. Fan out each edge to create your pinwheel and secure with tape, glue or staples.
  5. Add a circle of a contrasting paper to the front to cover the centre.

Bow Table Names

Add a personal touch to the Christmas table with these fun festive place names.

You'll need:

  • Clothes pegs
  • Bows (or small toys for the kids)
  • Glue gun or strong glue (for the adults to use)
  • Card

How to make:

  1. Glue the bows or toys onto the pegs and leave to dry.
  2. Write out your guests’ names on small pieces of card and clip the name and the napkin into the peg before placing on top of each of your table settings.

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