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16 best DIY Christmas decorations
Glue and glitter at the ready, here's the kit you need to get creative with your Christmas decorations
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Give your tree the personal touch or keep little fingers busy with some homemade Christmas decorations. If you're crafty enough you don’t have to buy a kit, but for the rest of us, these great kits will ease you into cutting and sticking mode.
Young or old, sewer or colourer, we have something for everyone to make their homes more festive than ever.
1. Make Your Own Christmas Decorations: £3, elc.co.uk
Looking for something basic to enthuse little children? This is a great way to enable kids as young as three to make their own works of art. There are three tree decorations including a Santa, gingerbread man and snowman, all with pre-cut and self-adhesive pieces.
2. Go Create Loo Roll Carol Singers: £3, tesco.com
The Go Create range has some awesome decorations for all ages, although pushed to pick our favourite, we went for this because we can think of no better way to recycle a loo roll. The carol singers come with step-by-step instructions and al the bits you need to create your very own choir.
3. Make Your Own Snow Globe Kit: £18.99, johnlewis.com
Kids will love making this unique snow globe from Seedlings. The kit includes the globe, modelling clay and, of course, glitter, which you can watch falling like snow when you shake the finished globe.
4. Button Bag Christmas Crafts Kit: £12.95, wauwaa.com
Let young imaginations run wild with this delightful kit, complete with all the essentials (including a fabulous bag of buttons) that children aged six and over need to make a stocking, bauble, bell, tree and star. Unlike many craft kits, the fun isn’t over within a few minutes – there’s plenty to keep them busy for hours on end.
5. Laura Ashley Make Your Own Wreath: £21, lauraashley.com
Never quite find the wreath you really want? Have a stab at making your own with this kit that contains everything you need to make your own personalised version for your festive home. It’s all good quality too, so the wreath will see you through many Christmases to come.
6. Nativity Peg Doll Craft Kit: £16.50, nationalgallery.co.uk
This peg doll kit will enable you to recreate the an entire nativity scene of traditional figures including Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the three kings, the Angel Gabriel and a shepherd, donkey and some sheep. You can even make a manger and stall from the box itself. A wonderful keepsake.
7. Festive Figure to Paint; £2, tigerstores.co.uk
Kids can simply paint this, then hang their masterpiece on the tree. If they’re steady with the paintbrush they can go for intricate detail, but even a youngster’s mish-mash attempt will give them lots of fun and a yuletide memento to feel proud of.
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8. Geo Make Your Own Fringed Tree Kit: £11, talkingtables.co.uk
If you’re lacking in space or are looking for something different this year, make your own giant fringe wall Christmas tree. The kit includes 10 metres of mint green paper fringe, 12 glitter die cut decorations and a geometric gold and cream card tree base. It measures 5.8ft, but you can always make it smaller.
9. Totem Build Your Own Reindeer: £20, shop.tate.org.uk
Suitable for ages six and over, this vibrant, fun and contemporary looking reindeer is a real eye-catcher of a Christmas decoration once completed. You’ll need patience and skill though – there are 42 building pieces to put together for the reindeer that reaches 33cm in height.
10. Make Your Own Sock Santa: £3, theworks.co.uk
This sock Santa is a great value kit that has clear instructions to make a charming Santa decoration that is bound to bring a smile to your face every time you get it out of the decoration box in future years. Includes felt, buttons, stuffing, pom pom, instructiosn and of course socks.
11. Christmas Skiing Dolls: £3, hobbycraft.co.uk
It will come as no surprise that Hobbycraft has some great make-your-own options this year for Christmas, but none of them beat this skiing character set. Use the yarn and wooden frames to sew, fill and glue your way to a duo of winter ski people. They’re approximately 15cm high.
12. Make Your Own Felt Penguin: £1, poundland.co.uk
This is such a bargain for a decoration that is great fun to make and looks good too. Simply sew the two parts together, using the thread provided, then start sticking or sewing the decoration. There’s a guide so you can’t go wrong and the finished product can take pride of place on your tree.
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13. Christmas Paper Chains: £2, elc.co.uk
Paper chains are one of the simplest and oldest ideas for make-your-own decorations. This kit contains three different festive designs and a whopping 90 gummed papers to link together for instant results. Great for rainy days.
14. Monty and Mabel Penguin Knitting Kit: £25, johnlewis.com
Unless you’ve been burying your head under a rock for the past month, you’ll know that Monty and Mabel are the penguins in this year’s John Lewis Christmas ad. This kit enables you to knit your own, which you can either use as Christmas decorations or give to a very lucky child on Christmas morning.
15. Colour In Angel Bunting: pack of two £3.99, eggnogg.co.uk
Many littluns love nothing more than colouring in, especially when it’s too cold to play outside. Keep the busy with this unique angel themed bunting set that they can colour in to their hearts’ content, then cut them out and string them across the room for a festive look.
16. Clara Christmas Decoration Sewing Kit: £13.95, notonthehighstreet.com
This kit from Clara has everything you need to make three gorgeous tree decorations in festive red and white, including wool blend felt, stuffing, thread, ribbon, buttons and beads. Be warned, this one involves some stitching, so not for the sewing-ly challenged.
Verdict:
For something really innovative, we think the Seedling Make Your Own Snow Globe Kit tops the list and makes a great gift too. Hobbycraft Christmas Skiing Dolls are also hard to resist and are cheaper too
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