29 DIY Ornaments for Any Holiday Style

We love decorating Christmas trees. And that’s probably a good thing because we usually have one up in the studio by early November! Decorating a Christmas tree can be the ultimate personalization project – you can create any style or concept that you can dream up. We’re compiling all of our favorite DIY ornaments (and tutorials on how to make them yourself) for a gorgeous handcrafted holiday that can reflect your individual taste across all kinds of crafting materials. 

Paper Christmas Ornaments 

Paper ornaments are perfect for a kid-friendly home because there is no need to worry about breaking them. Because paper crafts happen to be our niche, we have tons of project options for DIY ornaments made out of paper! There are so many different types of paper, so we tried to cover as many of these gorgeous materials as possible.

If you have tissue paper lying around from your holiday gift wrapping, our tissue pom poms or origami ornaments are both beautiful projects for filling out your Christmas tree. Cardstock is a great material for DIY ornaments because of its glittery options, like our teal paper ornaments or gold glitter papercut ornaments.

As you might know, almost all of our text weight paper flowers are made with metallic paper from Paper-Papers, and this also happens to be our go-to material for DIY paper ornaments. Our paper and foam ball ornaments, 3D snowflakes, paper birds and new papercut ball ornaments all feature shimmery metallic hues that make a Christmas tree pop.

Now that we have our crepe paper lines, we loved making crepe pomegranate ornaments in tons of shades of red for a unique variety. 

Felt Christmas Ornaments

Felt is a beautiful material for wintertime because it can look so cozy. Woodland animals are a common theme around the holidays, and we have a whole series of felt animal ornaments that you can use as tree ornaments or gift toppers. The great thing about these felt animal ornaments is that they can also double as stuffies for the kids after the holidays are over.

For cute felt Christmas characters that you can incorporate into your tree decor, our felt santa ornaments and pinecone elves are both fantastic holiday kid’s crafts. For a more traditional holiday decor scheme, needle felting can be a beautiful crafting technique to make DIY ornaments.

Our felted Christmas cardinal features a bold red color for the holiday. If you are creating a white Christmas in your home, our favorite snowy felt ornaments are felted angels and felt ball bunny ornaments. 

Scandinavian Inspired Ornaments

Last year we created a Christmas tree with Scandinavian inspired decor for the Michaels Dream Tree Challenge. Scandinavian design has a minimalist color scheme with clean lines and metallic accents, all elements that we love. Some of the essential parts of creating our Scandinavian tree were our little paper houses that you can light up with your regular string lights and our glittery metallic paper geodes that you can customize with pretty cardstock.

Pinecones can be a wonderful starting point for DIY ornaments, and we were so excited to pull out our simple white pinecone bird ornaments again this year. Making wood stars tied with twine is great for a rustic textural touch to a Scandinavian holiday concept, and you can easily enlist some helpers to make these DIY ornaments. Wood is a texture that can be incorporated into almost any style of holiday decor, and metallic wooden ball ornaments provide some elegant metallic accents for a tree that really sparkles.

Super Simple DIY Ornament Ideas

Paper and felt may be our signature materials, but we of course use so many other crafting materials and techniques to make DIY ornaments. Self-hardening modeling clay is a great base for a homemade ornament, and we were able create gorgeous glittery snowflakes that complement any holiday style. Our snowflake ornament project is also simple and safe enough to do with your little ones.

Another popular ornament for kids to craft are yarn pom pom snowman ornaments.

If you want to continue using yarn for holiday crafting, a personal favorite of ours are these pretty yarn wrapped monograms – we actually each have our own hanging in the studio! For an sweet and unique ornament, you can find mini domes at your local craft store to make mini snowglobes for your tree.

To help you break out of the mold this Christmas, we designed macrame knotted ornaments for a boho twist. We certainly try to come up with as many unique ideas for DIY ornaments as we can, but I have to admit that you can also never go wrong with a traditional holiday decor concept. We love a classic gold ball ornament, and you can easily elevate the traditional look with some gold or silver foil and Mod Podge glue. 

Christmas Tree Garlands and String Lights

We’ve come a long way since wrapping store-bought tinsel around our trees, and there are so many DIY options for gorgeous Christmas garlands to adorn your tree. For a frosty white look to go with your DIY ornaments, we love a soft wool felt leaf garland.

You can easily add glitter or other decorative accents to this simple felt garland. Another easy option is a felted snowball garland, and you can even buy pre-made felt balls (our favorite place for this is Benzie Design). If you would rather work with paper, you can make a shimmery garland that reflects the light with metallic cardstock from your local craft store.

Metallics are always beautiful for creating a festive holiday, and a feather garland for your tree is great if you want something that will stand out from the ordinary. Or, instead of crafting a garland, simply spruce up your string lights with some paper accents, like our origami boxes or papercut ball ornaments. 

Whether you’re creating a classic white atmosphere, warm metallic concept, colorful festive decor or a trendy, unique holiday style, you can easily DIY your way to making your vision come to life this Christmas. Feel free to reference some of our top Christmas tree decorating tips, and remember to have fun with it!

Pop over to our membership page to start handcrafting your way to a gorgeous holiday home, or browse all of our DIY Christmas projects here. Need some help thinking of DIY gifts for your family? Find our ultimate DIY gift guide for inspiration. Cheers! ~ Lia and the Team