A small tree is a perfect way to bring a little holiday cheer into your assisted living apartment at Autumn View Gardens. Just as homemade gifts add a special touch to the holidays, customizing your tree with homemade ornaments makes it unique. Easy Christmas crafts for your small tree make a fun activity when your grandchildren or friends visit. You can also make them as gifts for other people. Check out these Christmas craft ideas for your small Christmas tree.
Mini pom-pom wreaths add a colorful touch to your small tree. Grab a bag of pom-poms from the craft store — you can go with traditional green or get creative with different colors. You'll also need some medium-gauge wire, which you can get at the craft store, and some wire cutters.
Cut a piece of wire to form the wreath loop. The length depends on how large you want your wreath to be. Twist it into a loop to get an idea of how large you want your wreath. Leave a little extra wire to twist together when you're done. If you're doing this Christmas craft with kids, do the cutting for them and supervise them closely to ensure they don't poke themselves with the wire.
Then, you simply thread the pom-poms onto the wire. If you're using different colors, you can create a pattern or put them on randomly. When you've covered the wire, twist the ends together and adjust the loop as needed to make it a circle. Tie a ribbon onto it as a hanger.
A package of clay from the craft store or a batch of homemade salt dough lets you get creative with homemade ornaments. Roll the clay or dough out with a rolling pin. You can use cooking cutters in different shapes or cut the shapes freehand with a knife. You can also mold the dough into various shapes. To add texture, press a rubber stamp or other objects with an interesting raised pattern on them into the clay. Don't forget to make a hole for a ribbon near the top.
Some materials air dry, while others need to be baked in the oven at a low temperature to harden. Read the package instructions for the clay or the recipe for the salt dough you make to determine how to finish the ornaments. Once they're done drying, you can paint them if you want.
Decorating with dried orange slices adds a touch of nostalgia to your small tree. Dried oranges are simple to make. Cut oranges into 1/4-inch slices, put them on a metal cooling rack over a baking sheet and pop them in an oven heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Flip the pieces every hour to help them dry out evenly. It takes about three to four hours to dehydrate them. You can also use a food dehydrator to dry the orange slices.
Once they're dried, poke a hole in them and string ribbon or twine through them. You can add other decorations, too, such as bows, wooden beads on the string or a cinnamon stick tied near the orange slice.
Mini photo frames fit perfectly on a small tree and let you share your favorite memories. Dollar stores often have small, lightweight frames that work well for this Christmas craft. You can also cut a frame from thick cardboard.
Cut and decorate the frame however you want it to look. You can add designs or paint it a solid color. Adding a coat of glitter adds a sparkly touch. Add photos of your family, friends or favorite holiday memories to the frames. Then, hot glue a ribbon loop to the back as a hanger or simply tuck the frames between some branches.
Mini wood slices are available at craft stores and offer a rustic base for your DIY Christmas ornaments. You can often find wood slices that already have holes drilled in them for ornaments, or you can drill your own holes. Paint designs onto the wood slices to fit your decorating theme. You can paint Christmas symbols or words that relate to the holiday. You can also use vinyl shapes and words to decorate the slices. Add a ribbon or piece of twine as the ornament hanger.
Decorate your small tree with even smaller trees. For this craft, you'll need a cinnamon stick, artificial pine garland, a hot glue gun and some decorations. The cinnamon stick creates the trunk of the tree and adds a delicious cinnamon scent. You can also use a skinny stick from outside. When choosing the pine, look for a thin pine garland or pine garland ties — you want them to be thin since you're making mini trees.
Cut the pine garland into gradually longer pieces. Hot glue the sections onto the cinnamon stick with the smallest section at the top gradually getting longer with the longest piece at the bottom. The idea is to create a Christmas tree shape. You can decorate the tree by gluing pom-poms, sequins and other small decorations onto it.
