Did you know lots of items found in your recycling bin can be used to make adorable Christmas ornaments and decorations? Making homemade recycled Christmas ornaments and decorations is a fantastic way for kids to express their creativity while also learning about sustainability. Reusing recyclables from around the house to create upcycled art and crafts is a great way to teach children how something that's been used can still be transformed into something beautiful, rather than being discarded.
These handmade decorations help the environment, are a budget friendly gift option and can also become a personal, heart warming tradition to include in your holiday celebrations. In this post, we’ll share fun and easy ideas for creating eco-friendly Christmas decorations kids can help make. Lots of these would also be great to make as affordable class take home gifts.
EASY RECYCLED CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT & DECORATION IDEAS CHILDREN CAN MAKE
Making recycled Christmas ornaments and decorations is a fun and meaningful way for kids to engage in holiday crafts while learning about sustainability. Turning everyday items like cardboard, jars, paper rolls and old fabric into Christmas trees, baubles and snow globes is a great way to reduce waste, save money, and teach children the importance of giving old materials new life. Plus, these DIY decorations made by children are a thoughtful, personal and unique gift that will be treasured for many years to come.
Go search through the recycling and grab your cardboard, egg cartons, empty jars, popsicle sticks, cardboard tubes and some glue and let's get crafting...
Cardboard ornaments
Keep the cardboard boxes all the online Christmas orders are delivered in and turn them into cute cardboard tree ornaments. With a little bit of paint or pom poms they can be transformed into cute decorations to hang on the tree, or use them as name tags for presents.
Button stars
Do you have a jar of random buttons? Every house had one when I was growing up because our mums would always save the loose or spare buttons from clothes. They're perfect to use for loose parts or collage crafting.
Grab a handful of buttons and glue them together to create these pretty button star ornaments. Use complimentary colours to create a cohesive design, or just use a bunch of random colours for a pretty rainbow star.
Egg carton tree ornament
Empty egg cartons are a great resource for crafting and we always have an abundance of them stashed. You can turn them into many different egg carton Christmas ornaments, including the tree above, just by adding a few other craft items like paint and pom poms.
If you're doing this activity in a classroom, or have a child with egg allergies, then instead of using used egg cartons you can buy craft egg cartons in bulk.
Bottle lid ornaments
It's a little bit frustrating that bottle lids can't be recycled, however don't throw them in the trash, they can still be used to make unique lid ornaments. The circular shape make them perfect to mimic baubles and you can use lots of crafty bits and bobs to decorate them.
Stained glass lid ornaments
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Next time you have Pringles keep the lids because they can be turned into cute plastic stained glass ornaments. All you need are the lids and some markers.
Popsicle stick snowflakes
Use some popsicle sticks and sparkly gems to create popsicle stick snowflakes. Add a loop of string and they can be used as tree ornaments too.
Plastic cup shrinky dink ornaments
Next time you have left over clear plastic cups from a party or picnic, put them aside for crafting. They're perfect to turn into shrinky dink ornaments. Kids can decorate them with pens then they'll melt down into the perfect circle shape in the oven.
CD ornaments
Most kids these days won't even know what CDs are, thanks to mp3s and music streaming, however if you have a sentimental collection wasting away in a box under the stairs like me then this is your sign to turn them into beautiful ornaments.
They're not doing anything except collecting dust, so let the kids get creative with some paint and glitter and make some sparkly CD ornaments. If you have younger kids you can just give them some Christmas stickers to decorate the CDs so it's less messy.
Scrap ribbon Christmas tree ornament
If you have lots of ribbons or scrap fabric laying around, this scrap ribbon Christmas tree ornament is a great way to turn them into a cute Christmas decoration. It's also a fun way for children to work on their fine motor skills and learn how to tie knots.
Toilet paper roll reindeer ornaments
Are you even a parent, or a teacher for that matter, if you don't have a huge stash of toilet paper rolls or cardboard rolls for crafts? Maybe I just have a problem, but if you do have a stash then you can use some to make these cute reindeer ornaments.
We've also made a cute toilet paper roll Rudolph craft and there's heaps of other Christmas crafts you can make from toilet paper rolls. If you don't want to use toilet paper rolls you can also make all these crafts with empty paper towel rolls or Christmas wrapping paper rolls.
Nutella jar snow globes
Keep your empty Nutella jars and, after thoroughly cleaning them, they can be turned into gorgeous handmade snow globes. The great part about Nutella jars is both the jar and the lid are plastic, rather than glass so they're safer for kids than normal glass snow globes.
They can be made into real working snow globes with any special miniature Christmas figurines your child likes. Find out how to upcycle a Nutella jar into a snow globe. These would make great gifts too.
Cardboard photo ornament
Keep a few empty cereal boxes and use the cardboard to make these cute photo ornaments. These are great to make at childcare and schools as take home Christmas presents for parents.
These sentimental ornaments will take pride of place on the tree each year. Parents can also replicate them each year to watch how the children change as they get older.
More Christmas Crafts for Kids
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