You probably have guessed my fondness for making homemade ornaments by now. In fact I just decorated our small retro white Christmas tree and realized that 90% of the ornaments on it were made by me and the kids! So of course I jumped at the chance to join forces with 70+ bloggers in participating in 10 DAYS OF A KID-MADE CHRISTMAS: Kid made-Ornaments inspired by Christmas books. Our entry into the foray is based on my favorite holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Now I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that while I love the book, I luuuuuuurve the 1966 animated version of it. It’s my favorite holiday flick, period. The COLOR! The MUSIC! Boris Karloff narrating? Tony the Tiger singing? Can it get ANY better? Since the book is read in its entirety in the special and because Theodore Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss had a huge hand in the movie I’m feel okay that our ornaments take their cue from both the book and the film.

This post contains affiliate links.

Homemade Ornaments

Inspired by How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Materials

Fun Foam
Steel Wire- we used this gauge so that is was stiff but still workable
Big, Bright, Beads- this is our favorite bead ever, we also used a handful of these GIANT Beads as well
Small bells
Scissors

Instructions

Step One Cut your fun foam into strips. Cut your wire into roughly 10” lengths.
Step Two Thread one large bead onto the wire and bend the wire so that the bead doesn’t slide off the end.
Step Three Give your child the wire and show them how to poke and fold the fun foam through the end of the wire. DON’T push the foam down until the whole section of foam has been threaded. It may take a moment for kids to get the hang of the fold and poke, fold and poke method of threading the foam onto the wire.
Step Four Place a bead or bell between each section of foam. Repeat threading 3-4 sections of foam and 3-4 beads/bells total.
Step Five When your child is done, thread the end of the wire back through the starting bead and form a simple “hook” shape out of the wire. Bend the wire as necessary to make a circular “wreath.” Alternatively you can simply hang the foam in a long dangling style ornament.

You’re done! Hang ‘em on the tree! It could be extra fun to make a giant wreath using this method, with larger foam strips and a long sturdy wire……but I’ll save that project for another day.

Looks Like

I’ve covered my love for Dr. Seuss in this post so I’m going to focus today ‘s Looks Like section on Chuck Jones, the animator for the 1966 film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Jones was a top animator at Warner Brother Studios from the 1930’s to the 1960’s and created the characters Paper Le Pew, Marvin the Martian and Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner. He first collaborated with Theodore Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss in the Private Snafu secret cartoon series made for Army educational purposes, circa the 1940’s. How the Grinch Stole Christmas TV special was the first time Dr. Seuss’ book characters were brought to life on film and he called back his old friend Chuck Jones to animate the movie. Dr. Seuss even chided Chuck Jones that the TV version of the Grinch looks a heck of a lot like Chuck Jones! You can see Mr. Jones here. What do you think?

More Kid-Made Ornaments Inspired by Children’s Books

As a designer I love finding inspiration in things around me, like nature, books, poetry, etc. For our ornaments I used the squiggly lines and free flowing whimsy of Dr. Seuss’ illustration style to make wild, colorful, and wacky looking “wreath ornaments.”

Are you ready to see loads more Christmas Ornaments inspired by children’s book? Start with my fellow bloggers posting ornaments TODAY:

SWEDISH WOVEN HEART from What Do We Do All Day?

CHALKBOARD ORNAMENT from The Educator’s Spin on It

GINGERBREAD THEMED ORNAMENTS from Artsy Momma

LITERATURE BASED ORNAMENTS from The Natural Homeschool

SNOWMAN CRAFT from Here Come the Girls

SWEET SMELL OF CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT from Bambini Travel

STRIPED TREE COLLAGE ORNAMENTS from Nouveau Soccer Mom

then go here: