5 DIY Christmas Ornaments

Holy moly, can you believe that Christmas is almost here? There are steamy mugs of apple cider to drink, gifts to wrap, and trees to trim.

Store-bought Christmas tree ornaments are far from eco-friendly. They’re usually mass-produced in far-off factories (sometimes with questionable labor practices), shipped all over the world, and they’re usually made from unsustainable materials like plastic. Boo!

The good news is, you don’t have to shop the big box store for ornaments. This year, instead of using store-bought ornaments, you can give your tree a fun DIY twist by making your own, eco-friendly Christmas ornaments! We’ve got some ideas to get you going.

1. Foodie ornaments. Annie B. Bond shares some recipes for ornaments that you can bake up right in the oven.

2. Recycled Paper Cranes. Paper cranes make lovely ornaments! Just raid your recycle bin for junk mail, cut into squares (try 4″ square to start), and fold your paper crane. To hang it from the tree, simply tie a bead to one end of a piece of thread and use a sewing needle to feed it up through the bottom of the crane’s body. The bead will keep the thread from pulling through, and you can tie a loop in the top of your string to hang it from the tree.

3. Woven Cardboard Stars. Over at Crafting a Green World, you can learn how to make star ornaments out of reclaimed cardboard.

4. Use a light bulb. We know that those incandescent light bulbs are no good from an energy standpoint, but what can you do with the ones languishing around the house? Flip ‘em over, paint with some glass paint, wrap wire around the threads to make a loop, and hang your fancy homemade ornaments from the tree!

5. Recycled felt. Over at GreenUpgrader, you can learn how to use recycled felt to make sweet little owl ornaments for the tree.

Don’t have a crafty streak? Don’t despair! We have you covered with some handmade, eco-friendly ornaments that you can buy instead of making.

Next>> Handmade, Eco-Friendly Ornaments

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Eternal G.

3:54PM PST on Dec 18, 2011

Awesome!

send a green star

Faith B.

4:47PM PST on Dec 11, 2011

Happy Holidays to everyone :)

4:46PM PST on Dec 11, 2011

great article, thanks for sharing

Michele W.

11:25AM PST on Dec 11, 2011

Thank you

rosemary w.

8:38AM PST on Dec 11, 2011

rebecca, i had to look that up on the internet. sounds harder than most orgami, but worth the effort. it would be cool to do a whole tree of orgami ornaments and add to it each year. an international handmade ornament tree would be fun to. each year one could concentrate on different cultures. in chicago, there is a museum that decorates trees like that each christmas. a lot of the ornaments can be made by anyone interested in learning how from books or from the internet.

Laura R.

5:57AM PST on Dec 11, 2011

really nice =)

Rebecca S.

9:26PM PST on Dec 10, 2011

just made some Japanese Kusudama balls for "holiday" tree ornaments :)

Carmen S.

1:08PM PST on Dec 9, 2011

thanks for this article

Melissa F.

9:09AM PST on Dec 9, 2011

I may have to try some of these ornament ideas. Thanks for the awesome ideas!!!!