Decorate a Miniature Christmas Tree with Your Children

Decorating Christmas trees and making ornaments with your children can be a cherished holiday memory for you and your child, but especially when decorating a miniature Christmas tree. Miniature Christmas trees are much more manageable than their larger relatives and therefore much easier to decorate. Here are a few things you should consider to keep things merry and bright:

Be careful with smaller children and miniature Christmas tree ornaments. Their small size may present a choking hazard, so you should never leave young children unattended around them. Consider using paper ornaments cut from coloring pages instead of store bought ornaments for the three and under crowd.

If you decide to use store bought ornaments or a mix of homemade and store bought ornaments, miniature tree decorations are common holiday items at most dollar stores and are also less expensive than full size Christmas tree ornaments at most large retail chains. Choose the store you buy your ornaments and decorations at wisely as larger retailers may overwhelm younger children with choices. Don't forget miniature strings of Christmas lights while you're there.

If you plan to make some or all of the miniature Christmas tree ornaments with your children, have all of the materials and tools you'll need gathered before you begin. When working with multiple children, make sure the kids have equal amounts of materials to curb squabbling. Let the kids choose some holiday music to make the work cheerier, and be sure to take pictures of their finished ornaments and tree.

Here are a few easy homemade miniature Christmas tree ornaments to try:

Candy Ornaments

Candy ornaments are very easy to make. Simply wrap a piece of string or ribbon around a small piece of wrapped candy and hang it from the Christmas tree. You can also use red licorice shoestrings as garland for a candy themed tree.

Salt Dough Ornaments

Salt dough can be sculpted into many holiday shapes, but is especially good for miniature Christmas cookie ornaments. For color, you can add food dye directly to the dough or paint them with craft paint once they've cooled.

Felt Ornaments

Older kids can cut felt into Christmas shapes and sew on embellishments to make small felt ornaments.

Drawings and Coloring Pages

Have the kids draw tiny ornaments then cut them out, punch a hole through the top of each, and loop in a piece of string. You can also download coloring pages of your children's favorite characters, resize them to miniature proportions, and let the kids color them. Use holiday coloring pages when you can.