Spread the Cheer: 5 DIY Christmas Ideas

By Bethany Lam

As the festive season is upon us, it’s time to start decorating the house and creating some Christmas cheer. And as we know Christmas can be an expensive time of year, here are some cost effective ideas to help you create that yuletide wonderland in your own home.

1. Toilet Paper Roll Decoration

What you need:

  • Toilet paper rolls

  • Hot glue (normal glue or tape is fine too)

  • String

  • Scissors 

  • Popsicle sticks

  • A photo/piece of paper

What to do:

  1. Fold the toilet paper rolls a little (do not make it flat)

  2. Cut from one side to the other horizontally. You should get a leaf shape. 

  3. Cut until you have 5 of them like in the picture.

  4. Set up the hot glue gun. Glue the ends of the 5 leaf-shaped paper rolls together to form a star like the one in the picture; one arch point up and 2 pointing down.

  5. Cut out 2 equal lengths of the string. 

  6. Place the star so that it looks like the one in the picture: Attach one end of the first string string to the bottom left arch and the second string end to the bottom right arch. 

  7. Attach a popsicle stick horizontally, each end stuck to the string with glue. Grab another popsicle stick and cut it in half. Stick them according to the photo. Then, add one more popsicle stick (not cut in half) and place it parallel to the top one, just like in the picture. 

  8. Last, add a photograph onto it by sticking it behind the popsicle sticks, or draw something on the paper and stick it behind the popsicle stick.

2. Yarn Christmas Tree

What you need:

  • Hot glue

  • Yarn (preferably green) 

  • Scissors

  • Fabric

What to do:

  1. Loop yarn around four finger 15 times, and then after slipping them off, separate it from the ball of yarn. Tie it with another piece of yarn. Repeat two more times but this time, loop it around three fingers and then two fingers. In the end you will have 3 loops of green yarn, each a smaller size. 

  2. Then, cut it in the opposite direction of where they were tied. 

  3. Lay the largest set of yarn flat horizontally on your table. Then, lay the second largest set of yarn on to the largest set, but this time vertically. Glue it into place. Then, place the last set of yarn horizontally onto the second largest set of yarn. Glue it into place.

  4. When you lift it up, it should be a large set of green yarn. Cut a small circle and glue it on top so that it would be easier to hang onto something. Decorate by cutting out fabric and sticking them on.


3. Christmas Paper Plate Masks

What you need:

  • Paper Plates

  • Pompoms 

  • Glue

  • Popsicle sticks

  • Cotton

  • Scissors

  • Pipe cleaners 

  • Colored paper

What to do:

  1. Cut out a half circle on the top part of a white paper plate. Glue a popsicle stick on the bottom of the paper plate. 

  2. Last step, decorate!

    1. Add pompoms to make a nose

    2. Add cotton fluff to make a beard

    3. Cut out colored paper to make different accessories

    4. Add cotton balls to decorate the hat

    5. Use pipe cleaners to decorate accessories

4. Nutcracker Popsicle Sticks

What you need

  • Popsicle sticks

  • Paint

  • Paintbrushes

  • Cotton fluff

  • Hot glue

What to do

  1. Place three popsicle sticks next to each other, and glue them side to side. 

  2. Glue two popsicle sticks and each has to be a little behind the popsicle sticks on the edge. Refer to the picture for guidance. Stick two more on the bottom, three quarter showing.

  3. Paint and decorate it so that it would look like a nutcracker. Use as many colours as you can!

  4. Add cotton fluff behind for the hair.

5. Toilet Paper Roll Decoration

What you need:

  • Very big white paper

  • Coloured paper

  • Colored markers

  • Glue 

  • Eyeballs

  • Buttons, spots, stickers, pompoms (optional)

What to do:

  • Cut out the same sized white circles many many times from the white paper. 

  • Place them from top to bottom and stick them together like the one in the picture. 

  • Make a hat with the colored paper and stick it onto the long white circles. 

  • Make a face with the eyeballs and buttons, spots, stickers, pompoms…

  • Write your names!

Renaissance College