Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments

Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments Crafts

Popsicle stick Christmas tree ornaments are fun to make at home or school. During the last couple of days just before Christmas break, I like to do some Christmas themed crafts. Children are often so excited about Christmas at this point that it’s nice to give them a chance to do art and craft activities that there isn’t normally time to do. It gives them a chance to be creative and experiment with colours and decorative materials.

There are various popsicle stick Christmas tree ornaments that can be made so there is lots of choice in the level of complexity.  There are also opportunities for fine motor skill work, depending on what type of ornament you make. 

You can see that we have made many different of popcicle stick ornaments. They include photo frames, reindeer, triangles, squares, diamonds, christmas trese, triangle stars, criss cross star/snoflake, criss crossing pentagon, 3 pairs criss crossing. Let children be creative and see what other types of shapes and creations they can make!

With younger children, an adult will need to glue the popsicle sticks together beforehand.  I use either PVA glue (Elmer’s) or a hot glue gun.  Both work well, but the glue gun dries faster while the PVA glue works better if you want to be able to fix any mistakes in placing your sticks.  Hot glue guns are not safe around young children so this part definitely needs to be done out of reach.  Older children can use PVA glue to make their own ornaments. This gives them the opportunity to play around with them to see how they can make different shapes or patterns with the voids in-between the sticks.  They may also notice how changing the angle affects the length/sides of the shapes.

What you need to make Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments

• Glue (hot glue or pva glue aka Elmer’s Glue)
• Popsicle sticks / craft sticks (plain and/or multicolour)
• Things for decorating
  • Piper cleaners
  • Buttons
  • Jewels
  • Foam stickers
  • Paper shapes
  • Glitter
  • Beads / pony beads
  • Decorative string
  • Ribbon
  • Pom poms
  • Laminate
  • Paper card
  • Photos
  • Paint

If you make ornaments with younger children you will need to start them ahead of time so that they have time to dry or so that you’re not having to use a hot glue gun around them.  Older children can potentially glue their own popsicle sticks together as discussed above. 

There is the potential to make lots of different shapes and designs such as photo frames, Christmas trees, stars, snowflakes, reindeer and many interesting shapes.  It can be fun to experiment and move sticks around to see how it changes the whole formation.

Children can use all kinds of materials to decorate their ornaments in different ways.  They can paint them and stick on decorations. They can wrap around pipe cleaner or string and even thread on beads or pony beads before doing this.

Questions to ask

• What colours are you choosing? Why?
• How many beads/jewels, etc. are on there?
• What shapes can you make?

What they get from it

There are many different ways to create and decorate these ornaments so children have the opportunity to be creative. There is always the option of making these into fine motor activities so that they can practice things like wrapping and threading. It is a fun way for older children to explore shapes and angles.

Popscicle stick ornaments make a lovely homemade Christmas present, particularly the photo frame ornaments. This is a great way for children to be able to make something to give to others.

Take it further

You may want to see some of my other Christmas themed posts here. In particular you may want to see my salt dough Christmas decorations- Handprint Ornaments and UK Nature Inspired Ornaments.