Personalized Christmas Ornaments

When it comes to celebrating Christmas, it is not just the believers in us that stir; it is also the fun-lovers in us which are on the go. In a lifestyle marred with constant work pressure, negligible personal life and increasing distances, Christmas has a different role to play altogether than the past. It now means a break from the mundane work-life to spend some fun and quality time with people who matter most to us - our families. It is that time of the year when childhood snow fights coupled with the adult frenzy of Christmas preparations gives an entirely new meaning to life and carries you to a place where everything makes sense again. The idea on Christmas these days is to spend as much time as possible with friends and family which is probably why, despite the limitless decoratives available in the markets, people around the world are taking lots of interest in homemade decorations. Following are some ideas for homemade Christmas ornaments for those who want to spend a fun-filled time with their families this Christmas.

Personalized Ornaments For Christmas

Shell Angel
Take a 3/4 inch pearly white button and make eyes, mouth, and a stroke of hair using golden paint in a way that it looks like an angel's face. Hot glue 2 ½ - 3 inches gold string behind the button's face to make its hands. Hot glue the button on a large round sea-shell. Glue one of the hands in a semi-circular way over the seashell and hot glue a mini ornament (like harp) over it. Glue the other hand over the mini ornament. Glue a golden bow behind the button to make wings and hot glue about 6 inches of gold string at the back of the shell to make a hangar.

Golden White ornament
Take a 3'' Styrofoam ball and straight pin one end of a golden white spool to it. Wrap the entire ball in the spool by gluing it every 1 inch so that it stays. Cut the pool and straight pin & glue the end of the spool in the ball when done. Pin a golden bow to the ball and decorate the ball with the remains of any Christmas pick (esp., holly leaves, pinecones & pine stems etc). When satisfied, cut an 8'' long gold ribbon and pin both ends to the ball behind the bow to make a hangar.

Rosette Ball
Pick a Styrofoam ball, tie a ribbon around its middle, and make a big bow on top. Using the wired stems of same-coloured rosettes, pierce them close together in the ball. Paint the foam ball with glue to ensure a firm grip of the rosettes. Hang the ornament using the bow as hangar.

Photo Ornament
Take a picture of your close ones and roll it inwards. Insert this roll into 9'' clear ornament such that, once inside, it unfolds itself. Use tweezers to flatten out the picture, if required. You can now write the year on the ornament using black marker or draw stars and other shapes on it using a silver one.

Golden Buttons
Take three 2'' Styrofoam balls and about 50 gold toned buttons of varying designs & sizes. Place each ball on 6-7 toothpicks so that they can stand easily on any angle, spray gold paint from all sides and let them dry. Hot glue the gold buttons all over the ball, pushing their stems hard into it, except for a little bald patch. Pin and hot glue gold wire to make a hangar and make repeated hoops of gold ribbon to secure the wire.

Fortune Walnuts
Take perfect-cut walnut shells, paint them golden and let them dry. Write whishes for the coming year like "love", "happiness" etc on small strips of paper, scroll them and tie with ribbon or wire. Cut 5'' of red ribbon and glue its both ends to one half of the shell, place the scroll in it and glue the 2nd half of the shell using a thin bead of glue. The fortune shell is ready.

Gourd Guards
Take dry gourds, paint them with acrylic colours, and let them dry. Use silver paint to make snowflakes on them. Drill 2 holes near the top of the gourd and place the top part of a discarded ornament on it. Run a gold wire through the holes & the ornament holder and twist the wire on top.

Kid Factory
Make dough of flour, water, and salt and ask your kids to cut out Christmas shapes using Holiday-shaped cookie cutters. Poke a hole at the top of these ornaments with a straw and bake them. Now ask your kids to decorate them with paint and glitter. Put a wire through the baked ornaments and spray acrylic over the ornament to ensure long life.

Pine Ornament
Roll pinecones in glue and sprinkle glitter all over them. You can also use paint for a shiny look. Now roll a wire around the base of the cone and twist the ends of the wire. Hang the cone upside down.

Snow Garland
Cut a yard long fishing line, needle it on one side and triple knot it on the other. Poke the needle through the centre of cool pre-cooked popcorn gently pushing them to the end of the line. Repeat till the line is full then tie off the end and hang on Christmas tree or banisters.

Candies
Take a skein each of red and white pearl cotton and tie them together. Tie this bunch on an end of a pipe cleaner, roll it tightly over the pipe, creating red and white stripes, and secure it with another knot at the other end. Cut the extra pipe and cotton and your candy is ready.