Paper Christmas Decorations
{Free Template & Instructions}

These 3D paper Christmas decorations will look fabulous hanging from your tree! Easy to assemble, and we've made shaped templates for stars, hearts, round baubles, trees and more!

paper christmas ornament tree

I love these paper ornaments, they are so simple to assemble and look fabulous hanging on the tree or around the home.

The tree design sits flat so makes a good mantle or table decoration too.

I think the finished decorations look lovely, and you can really alter the feel depending upon the paper that you use.

If you're into a more modern design, use some bright colors, or for a more vintage feel use recycled paper from old books, magazines or music scores.

Materials to Make Paper Christmas Decoration

To make these decorations, all you need is:

  • decorative paper. I've used Christmas scrapbooking paper, but you can also use recycled christmas cards, pages from books or magazines or any pretty wrapping paper that you have.
  • Paper glue
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Shape template
  • Short length of thread, embroidery floss or thin ribbon to hang your decoration
  • Optional: you could also use a craft punch to cut out your shapes rather than our template.

paper christmas decorations materials

Download a Free Template

Download my paper Christmas decoration templates (pdf):

stars heart and circle templates for paper christmas decorations Star, heart, & circle templates for Paper Christmas Decorations

bauble templates for paper christmas decorations Download bauble templates

tree templates for paper christmas decorations Download tree templates

Take your pick of round, bauble, star, heart, or tree-shaped ornaments.

Print and cut out the template for the type of decoration that you would like to make (it helps to trace onto cardboard (eg. cereal box) so your template is sturdy).

How to Make Christmas Decorations

Step 1

Trace around the template onto the reverse side of your decorative paper.

paper christmas decorations - tracing the template

Cut out 8 copies of the template.

paper christmas decorations cut circles

Step 2

Fold each piece in half down it's vertical center-line.

So for the tree this would be from the pointed tip through the center of the base, for the heart through the pointed base etc.

paper christmas decorations - folding

Take two of your cut pieces and glue half of one to half of the other.

paper christmas decorations gluing

Continue gluing together until you have glued 4 pieces. Then repeat, so that you end up with two half-ornaments. Each will have 4 pieces of paper glued together.

paper christmas decorations gluing

Step 3

Now it's time to attach the string and glue your ornament together.

Cover one surface of the decoration with paper glue and place the ends of the string in the center crease. Cover with some more glue and then press the second half of the decoration down firmly. You can put the decoration in a book at this stage to dry flat.

paper christmas decorations attaching string

Once the glue is dried, fan out the panels of the decoration into a 3D shape like this.

paper christmas decorations finished

Such a simple design and so beautiful!

paper christmas ornament round

How did your ornament turn out? If you have any questions or comments, or just want to see hi, please leave a comment below .

More Christmas Decorations to Make...

I hope you enjoyed making these paper Christmas decorations! If you feel like making more ornaments, do look at our gallery of DIY ornament projects:

homemade christmas ornaments

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