Christmas tree ornaments can be made at home using some creative techniques. There is a lot that one can create to decorate Christmas trees. One can think about many other ornaments for decorating Christmas trees apart from the glass and beaded ones. One can buy tree ornaments from the market since they are available in different shapes, sizes, colors at affordable prices. However, the activity of preparing them home makes it enjoyable. Christmas wreath is one such decorative item that can be made at home. Let us find more about the decorative items that can be prepared at home. Homemade Ornaments for Christmas Tree The different ornamental items that can be prepared at home include berries, painted tennis balls, bells, confetti, etc. However, apart from those mentioned above, many different ideas can be used in the preparation of these Christmas tree ornaments. Christmas vacations is an ideal time to make such ornaments. Craft Stick Santa Claus To make a Craft Stick Santa Claus, materials such as big craft stick, white felt (½ sheet), acrylic paints (red, white, black, peach, pink and gold), black marker, felt glue, scissors, a piece of yarn (8") and toothpick would be required. It is one of the interesting homemade Christmas tree ornament ideas to consider. The procedure used for preparing a Craft Stick Santa Claus is quite simple. To begin with, the entire stick has to be painted white. Top portion of the hat should be colored red and a pom-pom glued on its tip. A peach color should be used for the face while a bit of pink for painting the cheeks. Black paint is required for coloring eyes and belt at the center of the stick. Golden paint can be used to add details to the belt. Boots at the bottom should also be painted in black. Three strips of white felt should be cut and glued together; one below the hat, next below the belt and the last above the boots. Paper Snowflakes Paper snowflakes, just like the Craft Stick Santa Claus, are easy to prepare. One would require a piece of white paper and sharp scissors to make this personalized Christmas ornament. The paper used to prepare snowflakes has to be square-shaped. The squares of sides with a length of 5 inches are perfect for this Christmas craft. The square should be folded diagonally to make a triangle. The triangle should again be folded to create a smaller one. The resulting triangle should be divided into equal parts and the left & right sections folded over the central one. The end of the resulting shape which is opposite to the tip, should be cut at an angle to make the edges of snowflakes pointed. Small triangles need to be cut from the sides with the help of scissors. Unfolding the paper carefully is important to prevent the whole design from getting torn. Floral Rosette Ball Ornament This easy-to-make Christmas ornament can be prepared with the help of a foam ball, miniature size floral roses and a ribbon that is 16 inches long. The foam ball should be wrapped with a ribbon and its knot tied at the top. Loose ends of the ribbon must be tied together in such a manner that a nice bow is created. Floral roses used for decorations should preferably have wires as their stalks. The length of wire stalks should be maintained at a length between ¼ and ½ inches. Floral should then be pressed into the foam ball using points of wire stalks. The foam ball should be painted with glue (before pressing the wire stalks) in order to make sure that floral do not come off. Salt Dough Ornaments The procedure to make Christmas ornaments from salt dough is very easy and even kids can try it out. The proportion of flour:water:salt used for preparing dough ornaments must be 2:1:1. Hot water need to be used for preparing the dough. The dough prepared with these ingredients should be rolled to a thickness of 1/4 inches. Ornamental shapes should be cut from the dough and a hole made at the top of each of them. This hole serves the purpose of tying ribbons to ornaments, so as to hang them on Christmas trees. Once the shapes are properly cut, they have to be baked for about half an hour at 320-330 °F. The dough ornaments should be painted after they cool down followed by baking. Using Plastic Toys The use of plastic toys can be best made for decoration of Christmas trees. The variety in shapes and sizes of these toys makes them especially suited for decoration work. You may paint them in a variety of shades with the help of acrylic and other such colors. Silver, golden, red and green shades are most suited for Christmas tree decorations. One thing which need to be kept in mind is that the paint selected for this work should readily stick to the surface of plastic. Significance of Christmas Tree The Christmas tree holds immense importance in the celebrations of this festival. It is a typical symbol associated with this festival - celebrated in the winter solstice. The Christmas tree is a coniferous and evergreen tree decorated with various ornamental items. The tree can either be placed outdoors or indoors and nowadays, even artificial trees are commonly used along with natural ones. The evergreen Christmas tree symbolizes the fertile time of planting when the Sun begins its ascent after the winter solstice (21st December). The decoration procedures for homemade Christmas tree ornaments for kids are described in the above paragraphs. Children can enjoy making such Christmas ornaments and the whole process adds to the fun of vacations and spirit of Christmas. Have fun making these ornaments and decorating your tree. A Merry Christmas to you all!