Homemade Christmas Tree Decorations – Part Two: My Handmade Gifts for Friends

Welcome to this, the second part of my Christmas mini series My Handmade Gifts for Friends. At this time of year it is so easy to get caught up in all the razzmatazz and commercialism of high street Christmas buying. If like me you are working on the less is more adage this year, you might like this weeks homemade christmas tree decorations. This is not the first time I have made these easy to make christmas decorations however. And so to set the scene appropriately for this pretty craft, I should tell you a little story first …

Many moons ago Mr M and I took delivery of an aged and dusty oak chest of drawers which we put into our garage until somewhere better in the home presented itself. It was a dark oak piece which had once belonged to Mr M’s grandmother who he affectionately referred to as Nanny Bon-Bon. “I don’t understand why bon-bon though” I said one day soon after the chest of drawers arrived. “Was it because of the sweets you could buy and you thought she was a sweet lady?” “The what?” he asked looking at me in a puzzled manner. “No,no not bon-bon, it was bom-bom” he laughed. “I said bom-bom because I couldn’t say Bruno… that was the dog’s name you see and I was too little to pronounce Bruno, so I said bom-bom instead and so that’s what she became known as, Nanny Bom-Bom… you see?” And then he actually looked at me like I was the twit.

That autumn, the chest was still in the garage and so we put it to good use and stored a windfall of apples in its drawers to over winter. When we went to see how the apples were doing, there were none. We had been visited by creatures with long tails and pretty much all that was left of the piece of furniture were the fronts and sides of the drawers. It was sadly decided the piece was beyond repair. I wanted though to preserve a little something of the furniture if I could and so that year I made a selection of homemade christmas tree decorations from the solid oak draw fronts.

I made classic shaker style doves, a selection of irregular stars and several obligatory hearts. Oh and a few helpful homemade signs which I gave as presents. I do love a sign. If you do, you might like these which I made a while back. They too would make pretty christmas gifts. That year I also made snowmen with old-fashioned dolly pegs which sit all year round in my crafty cupboard pinning new ideas for me to try.

We still have the old homemade christmas tree decorations and every year I quietly tell the story of how they came about. It’s a nostalgic moment where the M’s pretend to listen attentively and then surreptitiously they raise their eyebrows and quietly giggle to one another and think I don’t notice.

This year I decided I had a few more easy to make christmas decorations up my sleeve, so I began by raiding the plentiful supply of wood off-cuts in our garage. I stuck to the same three styles and did a quick Google search to find free templates which I printed off, cut out and drew around directly onto the wood. Mr M and his wood cutting machine cut out the shapes and I gently rubbed away splinters with a light sandpaper.

Drill holes where you will attach string, ribbon or such like to hang your wooden christmas decorations at this stage too. I forgot and again enlisted Mr M and his drill at a later point. I appreciate of course not everyone has a thing-a-me-jig to cut out wood shapes in their garage and if that is you, I have selected a few inexpensive buying choices at the bottom of this post which may prove useful. Each one a blank canvas for your own imagination.

For those shapes I wanted to paint, I primed and gave each piece two thin coats of pale grey and chalk pink paint from tester pots in my stash. Use any emulsion you have or play around at mixing to get bespoke shades like I did in last weeks post.

Then I quite literally raided the arts and crafts cupboard and chose carefully with each recipient in mind, a design I hope they will like. Something you may not know about me, and why would you, I don’t do tinsel. Each to their own, it simply does not float my boat. And whilst we’re at it, I’m not too fond of glitter either. It’s ok in small doses, maybe one or two Christmas cards at a push. Lots of glitter though brings out both the hoover and the worst in me.

Here are this years concession to glitz and glitter for two girlfriends in particular. For the gold star I used this wonderfully simple and effective decoupage method you saw here. Both sides of the star were covered in this years Sainsbury’s festive napkins and the tiny gold jingle bell and sparkling jewel are attached simply with a thin piece of wire although string or ribbon would be just as effective. To hang I used a small amount of gold cord.

A dear friend of mine is a bookworm and since the book I used was destined for a skip (you can read that story here if you like) I am sure she will forgive me using its delicate pages for this heart. For this easy homemade christmas decoration I simply used craft glue to attach the paper and then sprayed with this to protect the heart. Whilst still damp, I used a sprinkle of glitter and then sealed with another light coat of the fixant. Both sides were treated to the same effect. I remained unhappily covered in the sparkly stuff for the rest of the day. Then I selected appropriate jewels and ribbons to create a personal and unique homemade christmas tree decoration for someone special.

My three lovely nieces’ homemade christmas tree decorations will take the place of gift tags on their main presents. I tried here to keep each one as pretty and individual as I could, selecting tiny bits of old broken necklaces, christmas cracker decorations from christmas’ past and the pretty pink rag ribbon you first saw in this post.

This was another craft session where I established once again, the less is more rule works best for me. So this unadorned and extremely easy to make christmas decoration of a simple peaceful dove will be mine. Financially these gifts cost me nothing. It is unlikely of course you will have exactly the same bits as me. It is possible however you may have similar.

I like to think of these homemade christmas tree decorations as gifts which keep on giving, year after year. I am hopeful that there will be a smile each year the decoration is unwrapped too. That is what christmas is supposed to be about for sure. So will you have a go yourself at any of these easy to make christmas decorations? Or do you perhaps have other shapes or materials in mind? Or are you tempted to send for any of these affordable ideas below which you can have fun decorating? And if you have a particular craft for christmas you would like to share, do let me know in the comments below. You know by now, I love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by this week. Next week I have a delightful christmas gift which can be totally personalised for a family member or friend. Do join me and have a wonderfully creative week, whatever you are making x

And here is that selection of templates to help create your own homemade christmas tree decorations I promised…