Christmas decorations made of paper

Christmas decorations needn’t be bad for the environment.  Say goodbye to the plastic this year and instead invest some time to make your own beautiful, recyclable, easy-to-make paper decorations.

 The classic Christmas paper garland

The classic Christmas paper garland is the very simplest origami you can imagine.  All you need are some wide strips of colorful paper and some glue.  The simple, repetitive nature of this task makes it ideal for little ones to join in with your crafting and it’s an incredibly soothing and peaceful craft activity.

Make your own strips by simply cutting paper or card to 3cm widths and around 10cm to 15cm long.  Simply create the first loop by gluing the ends of the strip together.  Then create additional loops by feeding each strip through the previous loop to make a decorative chain.

Cheat’s tip: buy your own strips ready-made.

The classic Christmas snowflake

This is another child-friendly craft project, ideal for decorating walls and windows in pretty paper snowflakes.  The best bit?  You can use regular office paper for this craft project!

Cut the paper into a square of paper.  Fold it in half on the diagonal.  Do this several times, keeping the centre of the paper between your thumbs.  When you’re left with a long triangle shape, it’s time to start cutting.  Snip shapes from either side of the triangle.  When you’re happy with your cutting simply unfold to reveal your snowflake.

Up your game with this advanced paper snowflake tutorial.

Cheat’s tip: you can buy ready-made paper snowflakes.

The five-pointed paper Christmas star

What could be more Christmassy than a chain of stars suspended from the window or across the wall?  Make this lovely paper star using standard office paper.  Once you have a few made, thread them together using cotton to create a beautiful garland which you can then decorate with gold or silver paint.

Follow the online instructions here.

Alternatively, you can make tiny paper stars out of paper strips.  These make an equally nice paper Christmas star garland once you thread them together.

Follow the instructions to make a star from a paper strip here.

Cheat’s tip: buy your pretty paper stars ready-made.

The paper Christmas tree

Another surprisingly simple Christmas-themed paper craft project is to make your own folded paper trees.  Using standard office paper, or green-coloured paper, you can simply snip and fold your way to a series of beautiful Christmas tree decorations.

They’re perfect as hanging decorations or beautiful as festive table decorations.

Cheat’s tip: buy ready-made paper Christmas trees.