3D Christmas Ornaments

As Christmas approaches and your kids go on school holidays, you are proably looking for something to keep them occupied and in the Christmas spirit. What better way to do this than to have them make three-dimensional (3D) Christmas ornaments that they can decorate the house and the tree with.

What You Will Need:

  • Christmas shaped stencils
  • Colored Cardboard
  • Safety Scissors
  • Colored pencils, crayons, and markers
  • Stickers
  • Glue and sparkles
  • String
Start by tracing any Christmas stencils you like onto your colored cardboard to make two-dimensional (2D) shapes. The 2D shapes you make can be Christmas trees, angels, starts, bells, etc., as long as they are vertically symmetrical shapes. This means that you should be able to fold them in half along the up-and-down axis and both sides (left and right) will be the same but inverted (backwards). Your 2D shapes need to be symmetrical so you can make them 3D later. For every 3D ornament you make, you will need two identical 2D shapes. Together, these will be the basis or your ornament.

After tracing out your two identical 2D shapes on the colored cardboard, cut them out.

Next, decorate your 2D shapes in any way you choose. Get creative - use stickers, sparkles, markers, crayons, and even colored tissue paper to decorate the shapes. Make sure and decorate the front and back of you 2D shapes since when you make the 3D structure both sides will be seen.

Now comes the exciting part - combining your 2D shapes into a 3D ornament! Find the vertical (up and down) and horizontal (side to side) midpoint of both your 2D shapes and mark it with a small dot. Draw a line down the vertical center of both shapes.

On one of the 2D shapes, cut down the vertical line half way from the top, stopping at the dot you made at the midpoint. On the other 2D shape, cut up the vertical line half way from the bottom, stopping at the dot you made at the midpoint. One of your shapes should be cut down the center half way from the top, and the other half way from the bottom. These cuts will act like slots.

Finally, fit the two 2D shapes together to make one 3D shape by sliding them together through the slots. Holding the shape with the slot at the top upright and facing you, and using your other hand, hold the shape with the slot at the bottom over it so that when viewed from above the shapes make an X (perpendicular). Slide the shape with the slot at the bottom down over the shape with the slot at the top until they fit together to make one 3D shape.

Make a hole in the top of the shape and string the string through it if you want your ornament to hang on the tree. Or, you can leave the string off the ornament and it can be used for decoration on a table or mantle.

The Christmas ornaments can be folded flat when Christmas is over for easy storage until next year.