Simple DIY Christmas Place Cards that Double as Ornaments

Making Christmas place cards is easy--if you have a first grader with crafting ability and a pair of scissors. Sometimes you don't even need the pair of scissors. Often, you don't even need the first grader.

Find a Christmas Shape

The Christmas stocking, round Christmas ornaments and the Christmas tree-all of these have the potential to be the base for a Christmas place card at the dinner table. They can also double as ornaments. This saves you the trouble of having to throw them away at the end of the evening, because you'll be forcing everyone to take them home. Just put a small hole in the top and tie some string or fishing wire through them and you have an instant homemade paper ornament.

Christmas Stocking Place Card Materials Needed: construction paper or card stock or two contrasting colors, scissors, and a writing utensil. OR An actual stocking and puffy paint.

The Christmas stocking place card is too awkwardly shaped to serve as a coaster. For sizing, take a gander at the plate in your setting. Make sure it's no longer than the plate so you can place it there. Design for this varies widely. You can go wild with it. The most basic version is simply to cut out the stocking shape, and the cuff on the top in a contrasting color. Then, write the person's name on the cuff.

Or-you can buy actual tiny stockings from your local craft store. Do a good deed and buy a little lonely puffy paint, which has been on languishing on the shelves since the early 90s, and write the names on the cuff with it. Make sure no one has an adorably long name. If they do it may be difficult to render in puffy paint on such a small surface. This might be a good time to give such a person a nickname-like Pete. Just make sure they know their name is Pete now.

Round Ornament Place Card Materials Needed: wine, wine glass, construction paper or card stock, scissors, possibly tinfoil and a writing utensil.

Round ornament place cards are easy, and they can triple as a coaster for a wine glass and an actual ornament. First decide on the color scheme. Will everyone get a different color? Will there be two colors or will all the ornaments be red? Drawing the circle will be hard if you lack a first grader with crafting ability. So you'll want to take out a wine glass, pour yourself a glass of wine and drink it. Use the bottom of the empty glass as a guide for drawing the circle you'll cut.

Cut out circles of card stock or construction paper, with a little box at the top, representing the top of the ornament, the place where it hangs from the tree.

You can draw in that detail or just glue a bit of foil to area. Next, in pretty script, write the person's name. There you go. You're done. Make sure you spell their name right. Use spell check.

Christmas Tree Place Card Materials Needed: Colored paper and a writing utensil.

A basic Christmas tree shape is a fun place card, however, don't limit yourself to green! These can actually be any color and you don't need that brown trunk either. Just cut out the shape from one color. Write the name, and there you go-you've got your Christmas place card. Use a hole punch in the top of the tree, thread through some string and you've got a take home ornament your guests must take home. Make sure you inform them that anyone who leaves an ornament will be known to you because their name will be on the ornament.

Anything Goes

Place cards are anything you can place a name on that can fit nicely at you table. My inherent laziness is mixed with a deep urge to show people a home that looks like Martha Stewart lives there-so if I find a bunch of cheap ornaments to which I can affix a name, I buy them and get busy with a sharpie and a bottle of wine.