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If you’ve ever had a Christmas tree with a toddler, you know just how tempting all the shiny things can be for their little hands. We already have a nice little bare spot on our tree without ornaments (yes, in the first week of December) because Little loves to play with them so much. Fortunately, when the tree is lit, it’s not noticeable so I don’t fuss about it. It’s the season we’re in.
Even still, I have enjoyed letting Little help decorate. To help with that, I made him his very own little felt Christmas tree and hung it in our hallway. (Actually, I made the tree last year, but added to the decorations this year.)
Like the other felt projects I’ve shared, this one is perfect for little ones. It’s cheap, simple, easy to clean up, easy to store for next year, and can’t break. There are a ton of great benefits to using felt with your kids and lots of learning activities, too!
Why Felt?
I’ve talked about this before, but there are lots of great benefits to using felt with kids. It’s a great visual learning tool that helps with shape and color recognition. It encourages fine motor skills and spatial awareness since kids have the freedom to pick up and move the pieces around as they wish, and it’s safe – it’s not going to break and isn’t a choking hazard. So even the youngest kids can play with it.
Are you convinced yet? Yeah? Great; now let’s get started.
RELATED: MINI FELT CHRISTMAS TREE BUSY BAGS FOR TODDLERS & PRESCHOOLERS
Supplies
- Green Felt
- I got 1 yard of this from a local fabric store and ended up with a lot left over. I think 1/2 a yard would do. That said, I’ve used the leftovers for other projects, so it doesn’t hurt to get extra.
- Colored Felt for Ornaments
- I recommend this felt pack from Amazon. There are 42 different pieces of felt so you’ll be set for the tree and any future felt projects.
- Scissors
- Hot Glue Gun, optional
Directions
- Fold the green felt in half and draw the shape of the tree. I used chalk to draw the tree so I could see what I was doing.
- Keeping it folded, cut the tree out.
- Cut out your ornaments. I traced the lid of a jar for the big circle ornaments, and used scraps for the “decorations” on them. For the smaller circles, I just free handed it with scissors. The good thing about this project is that it really does not have to be perfect to be fun.
- If you want to add embellishments to your ornaments, you’ll need to use a hot glue gun to do that. If you just want simple shapes, you should be all set.
- Cut out and add your tree topper if you wish.
- I made a simple star and used hot glue to stick it on the top of the tree.
- Use command strips to hang tree on the wall.
- Or just spread it out on the floor. We hung ours on the wall, but it’s since been pulled down so we spend most of the time decorating it on the floor.
Additional Learning Activities with the Felt Tree
If you want to incorporate some learning with your tree, you could:
- Count the ornaments that are on the tree.
- Sort and count them by shape and color.
- Create patterns with your ornaments as you put them on the tree.
Of course, play is the best way to learn, so if you want to spend your time just moving the ornaments around, that’s also totally fine (and often preferred to be honest)!
I love that we will get to use this tree for years to come as our family continues to grow. And it takes up so little space in our Christmas decoration boxes that it is so easy to store!
What tips to you have to keep your little ones from pulling ornaments off of the Christmas tree? Any fun craft projects you’re planning this year? Tell me in the comments below; I love to hear from you!
Be sure to also check out our mini felt Christmas tree busy bags, too! A great way to take your felt tree on the go! Perfect for the car or restaurants – or even just a quiet activity during the holidays!
Stay tuned for our next post where I’ll round up some of my favorite kid-friendly Christmas crafts – many of which are on my list to do with Little this year! You don’t want to miss it!
If you liked this felt project you might also enjoy these:
Itsy Bitsy Spider Felt Board Story Set + Free Printables
I’m thinking this would be wonderful for my grandson – or anyone’s grandchildren!! Thanks for sharing with us at Fiesta Friday!
Mollie
This is absolutely adorable! It might work in the background of my online classroom!!! THANK YOU for sharing. (Visiting from .oakhillhomestead.com’s Bloghop)
My kids aren’t toddlers any more and I think they will still love this.
Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link Party. Pinned!
Not sure this would keep my little ones’ hands off the real Christmas tree, but it would definitely be a fun activity that I can see occupying them for a long time! Maybe they’d spend less time reorganizing the ornaments on my tree if they had one of their own…
#happynowlinkup
Definitely a fun craft for little ones. Thanks so much for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
Thank you so much; we have really enjoyed it!
Great idea! We don’t have a Christmas tree this year, so I might just be pursuing this with my children! Question, (I don’t work with felt often)- how do you get the ornaments to stick to the tree if you don’t use a hot glue gun? And I hopped on over here to your posts from Trekking Thru link up. 🙂
Oh, this would be super fun in place of a tree for the season! Felt sticks to felt, so the ornaments stick by themselves – and the kids can easily rearrange them without any trouble! That’s one of the reasons we love felt so much!
This is a wonderful idea for kids! Thanks for participating in our Party in Your PJs link party!
Thank you so much! I appreciate you stopping by!
I admit, when I saw the title of your post I wasn’t psyched. I’m not one that likes cheesy decorations or random knickknacks in the house, lol. But as I read through, I realized this is a GENIUS idea! Such a fun way for toddlers to get involved in decorating. You could even do some felt letters or something to add learning to it. Thank you so much!!
Ha! I totally get that! It is a fun way to keep the little ones involved and make them feel like they have their own tree!
This really is the perfect solution to the whole Christmas tree ornament problem! I may have to make one of these for next year when we have our new little one in the house. 🙂
Yes! It’s so easy – I’m sure you could make it in an afternoon and we have a lot of fun with it!
I love this! Actually I have one that I made for my boys several years ago and they still love it today!
Danielle
momwifefoodie.com
That is really good to hear! We love felt projects here and I’m hoping to be able to use this one for a while!
This is a great idea for young children to get involved with and it looks really effective too. Su #bloggersbest
Thanks! It is perfect for really young kids!
This is so fun! My daughter would love it. I think a trip to the fabric store is in our future!
Yes – do it! It is really fun and I bet she would love it!
This is such a great activity for kids! Will keep them occupied for hours
It really can! We love felt projects around here!
I love this idea but I don’t know if I missing a step?? How do you get the Ornaments to stick to the tree so they can move them around?
Felt sticks to felt! So the ornaments will stick – but they can easily be moved around by little ones, too!
This is a cute idea! We use felt boards in my preschool classroom for retelling stories! It’s such an easy and cheap material to use!
I totally agree! So cheap and easy and really versatile! We love using it!
I’ve thought about making one of these so many times, I know my kids would just love it!
You totally should! Your littlest will be the perfect age for it next year, too!
I need to make one of these for my daughter. she loves taking ornaments off and putting them back on!
I bet she would love it! And you can totally make this in an afternoon!
Such a cute activity for the kids!
It is really fun and simple to make!
It is really fun and simple to make!
Thanks – it is really great for the little ones!
I love this idea! I’ve been meaning to do it with my girls this year. Such a fun way to explore shapes and get into the holiday spirit!
You should do it! You can definitely do it in an afternoon and you’ll be able to reuse it next year, too! It’s a great way to explore shapes and colors!
This would be a good craft for teachers! A way to decorate the classroom 🙂
I totally agree! And it’s really cheap and simple, too – a great decoration!
Every year I say Im gonna make one of these! So cute!
You should totally make it! You can definitely do it in an afternoon!
I made one of these for my kids a couple of years ago. Maybe I need to get more elaborate with the decorations because neither of mine play with it much. 🙁 Thanks for sharing yours on This is How We Roll link up.
I think it’s hit or miss sometimes with kids. We like ours, but our son doesn’t play with it everyday. Some days he’s really into it and other days not as much.
Sometimes the simplest projects are the best! I made something similar one time for my preschool class and it was a success!
Fun! Preschool is a fun age for something like this!
We have one and Izzy LOVES it!
They are so much fun!
This is SO FUN! I would love to do this with some of the kids that I babysit for! What a fun winter craft to do with kids! Thanks for taking the time to share this!
It’s so simple to make, too! I bet the kids would love it!
Cute idea! Liz
Thank you so much; I appreciate you stopping by!
This tree is adorable! Such a fun way to get creative during the holidays 🙂
-xo, Azanique | http://www.lotsofsass.com
Thank you so much; we like it, too!
What cute tree and idea. I can just imagine the fun that your little one is having with this. Plus it helps with fine motor skills.
Yes! Definitely good for motor skills also! We try to incorporate play with all sorts of developmental skills around here!
I love this idea, and I love your mentality… that the outcome doesn’t have to be perfect! I have a toddler at home too. Now would be a good time to start some fun crafts!
Yes – the outcome definitely doesn’t have to be perfect! We make the memories in the process! The toddler stage is so much fun to me!
So very cute! I used to make felt boards for the daycare where I worked. Thanks for sharing with us at the Virtual Refrigerator. Pinned.
We love them! They are really versatile and great teaching tools for little ones!
Totally want to do a felt tree when our daughter is older!
You totally should! It was really simple and fun!
What a cute idea! I think my nieces and nephew would really enjoy those, though the older two are pretty good with leaving the tree alone. Still, it’s fun to have your “own” tree!!
-Lauren
The older two could maybe even help make the ornaments, or draw shapes for you to cut out for the ornaments, depending how old they are. That could be a good way to get them involved!
I’ve always wanted to do a felt tree too! This looks so doable…not sure why I’ve waited so long! This is a great activity for the kids while I’m making dinner!
Oh, it would be great for keeping the kids occupied while you work on dinner. You should totally make one – they’re cheap and really simple to put together! (And you can even buy felt shapes if you don’t want to make them – the candy canes on our tree came from Target last year after Christmas. They were originally in the dollar section, but we got them on clearance for just $0.10!)
I made one of these for my two daughters and they still love it almost 3 years later.
That is really good to hear! Hopefully we’ll be able to use ours for a long time!
Do you need velcro tabs on the ornaments to stick to the tree? I got lazy and bought one premade. Hope it arrives soon. But it looks fun to DIY!
Nope! We used velcro command strips to keep it on the wall, but felt sticks to felt, so you don’t need anything extra to stick the ornaments on! That’s one of the reasons we love felt so much! Hopefully you’ll love the tree you got!
This is awesome! I’m going to have to do this with my Little Farmers!
You totally should! It’s lots of fun!
This is a cute and fun way for the little one to get hands-on with Christmas decor without running the risk of broken ornaments 🙂 And regarding the bare spot on the real tree – haha I’m sure no one will notice or mind! Especially if the bare spot isn’t noticeable when the tree is lit. Happy holidays to you!
It is really fun – though, he is so curious, he has learned to take apart some of the real ornaments…
You really don’t notice the bare spot with the lights on, so we don’t worry about it one little bit. 🙂
This is my favorite Christmas idea! We got a store bought kit a few years ago, but the ornaments really never stuck to the tree. I think doing it yourself is really the way to go!
Totally do it yourself – so simple! You should give it another shot!
I’ve always wanted to do one of these for miss A! So fun and cute!
Do it! It’s so much fun and you could totally make it in an afternoon!