Homemade Christmas Tree Decoration Ideas?

Hello again!

We have a new kitten, after having been cat-less for the past few years, and with the holidays approaching, I'm thinking about tree decorations.

Since we'll have to leave the fancy, fragile ornaments boxed up for at least this year and who knows how much longer, I thought we'd celebrate a fun family tradition in a new (and budget-friendly) way, by making our own cat-safe tree decorations and ornaments to put up instead.

So far my ideas are:

1) Dried orange slices.

...any other ideas?

Please and thank you!

1. Stitched fabric or felt ornaments are safe, and pretty easy to make.
2. You can get styrofoam shapes from craft stores. These can be covered with fabric or needle felted over, and are safe with cats. You can even add strips of sequins or glittery ribbon for a bit of bling.
3. Needle felted things are pretty safe, and fairly easy to make. You can felt over styrofoam, or work with the plain felting wool. You can get felted shape bases, too, to speed up the process.
4. Wooden ornaments are pretty sturdy. You can get 2D wood or MDF bases in craft stores, and you can paint them or cover in layers of festive paper and PVA glue.
5. If you like sewing, cross stitched or embroidered ornaments are very effective. You can get perforated paper for cross stitch to make stiffer 2D ornaments, or use regular fabric aida to stitch on to use in hand stitched/stuffed 3D ornaments (like in #1).
6. Pine cones are pretty cat safe, and are easy to jazz up with spray paint, flocking or glitter glue.
7. Paperchains are cat safe and cheap to make.
8. Mini Christmas crackers are fairly cheap, and can look very effective nestled among the tree branches.
9. If you can crochet or knit, that can work pretty well for decorations, especially amigurumi style things.

I'm sure there are lots more, but those are the ones that spring to mind There are tons of free patterns and ornament ideas online. Pinterest is wonderful for this, but googling a particular style (eg needle felted stars) is great too. There are also a ton of video tutorials on YouTube

Happy crafting


ETA - these might help too:
11 Must-know Tips To Keep Cats Safe During The Holidays
Cats And Christmas - Tips For Cat Owners
Cats And Christmas Trees

Columbine, thank you for all the wonderful ideas!

I have a set of decoupage Christmas ornaments. They are just Styrofoam balls covered with victorian christmas scenes.
My aunt gave me a lamp that she decoupaged the lampshade with old family photos she had printed on thin paper. Maybe you could combine those ideas and make an ornament covered with photos of your new kitten to commemorate it's first Christmas?

I like that idea, weebeasties. Thank you!

Medallions made of cardboard cover with wrapping paper, foil, plain paper, paste on pictures. Don't use metal hooks on the tree. With the cardboard you can punch a hole in the top of the medallion and push it onto the smaller branches or tie with ribbon/string unless your guy is a string fiend.

Do not string popcorn, some cats love popcorn.

Not overly creative but easy to make ornaments with popsicle sticks - you can buy them at any craft store and decorate by gluing sparkles, buttons, foam cutouts, self-adhesive jewels, cotton balls for snowmen, etc.
Also fun and easy to make snowflake designs by folding any colored paper into triangles then cut edges and center and open up, voila! Here is a better example:
How to Make 6-Pointed Paper Snowflakes

How about using cookie cutters tied with ribbon? They are inexpensive and even come in colors now. I did that one year for a second tree we put in the living room while the main tree was in the family room traditionally decorated.

Here's a good article:

45+ DIY Homemade Christmas Decorations - Christmas Decor You Can Make

Thank you for all the ideas!

Since this is the first tree, and you don't say whether it's live or not, it occurred to me, perhaps way too late... sorry, I'll start another sentence.

someone mentioned a Christmas tree defender, perhaps Furballsmom to keep the cats out of the tree. It had rather large holds in the plastic easy to get entangled in and pull the tree over. And the plastic looked chewable. However, since the motivation to drink the nasty tree water is less than that to climb the tree, I thought it might work to keep the cats from drinking the tree water.

The reason I'm posting it today, is that I just thought of that. Remember, I'm a member in good standing of the delayed thinking club.

Kflowers said:

I'm a member in good standing of the delayed thinking club.

Click to expand...

Seriously, though, that wasn't me but thank you for giving me credit

Christmas Tree Defender

Now a member of the misfiled information club. So many clubs, more than enough time. Probably because long ago, I joined the lost watch club.

Since this thread was started, @Anne has added a new article to the site:

17+ Ideas For Cat-safe Holiday Decoration (an Illustrated Guide) written by our very own Columbine

great stuff