With the holidays fast approaching, nothing feels cozier than putting on a Christmas movie, making a cup of hot cocoa and making some zero waste Christmas decorations with your family and loved ones!
One of the biggest problems with the commercial Christmas holiday is that it’s overly plastic and obnoxious. With these DIYs I really wanted to get back to simplicity and filling our homes with nature and natural items that still bring the holiday spirit. And I think I’ve achieved just that!
These zero waste Christmas decorations can be made using natural items, reusing items, and craft supplies almost everyone has lying around. They’ll leave a minimal impact on the planet but a big impact in style!
Read: how to have a sustainable Christmas
Zero Waste Christmas Decorations:
1. DIY tassel ornaments
I’ve been seeing similar ornaments like these on Pinterest, so I dug around my old craft bin and found a few things to DIY it myself! The natural elements and neutral colours make them a boho Christmas dream. Of course, they could be substituted for red and green for the classic Christmas set up.
What you’ll need:
- Wooden beads
- Wooden circles
- Twine or string
The steps:
- Secure a short string to the first circle or bead leaving it long enough to slip over a tree branch.
- Attach a long string to the bottom circle.
- Pull the string from step two through the bead.
- Secure it to the first circle and cut off the excess string.
- To make the tassel simply wrap some yarn/string/or twine around something. I’m using my fingers but you could use a credit card or any other flat object.
- Slip the string off of the object being sure to still keep its shape.
- Using scissors, cut one end so you have a long line of strings.
- Slip the strings through the bottom circle.
- Secure with another string! You can trim up the bottle of the tassel so they’re even if needed and then hang on your tree!
2. Dried Orange garland
Dried oranges just scream Christmas and they’re super easy to make. In fact, we’ll be using them for the next three DIYs!
To make dried oranges simply slice up an orange or two and place on a baking sheet lined with reusable silicone baking mats or parchment paper and bake them at 200 degrees for 6 hours, turning every 2 hours.
Once they’re baked and cooled, they can be used for so many DIYs including this garland!
The beauty of this garland is you use whatever you have on hand to add to it like cranberries or popped corn! I’m using some pinecones and leftover wooden beads.
- Gather up supplies.
- Arrange your items how you’d like and put a string or a piece of yarn through the items.
- Hang up your garland!
3. Dried orange ornaments
The best part of all of these DIYs is that they’re all interchangeable and so so easy. All you need for this DIY is some more dried orange slices, some wooden beads and of course some string or twine!
Simply loop the string through the orange and attach the beads on top. Then secure it and hang it up!
4. Hanging Christmas display
I’m not even sure what to call this decoration. But it hangs so that’s what we’re going with!
For this DIY you can use any branch you find outside, though an evergreen tree branch would make it all the most festive. I don’t have access to a real Christmas tree but when we were setting up our Christmas tree this year a random branch fell off. So instead of letting it get thrown out, I decided to put it to use!
All I did for this DIY was attach some more dried oranges and pine cones at varying lengths to the branch and then hang it up! It can be as big or as small as you want, or as full or as minimal as you want! The customization is completely up to you!
5. Salt dough ornaments
We’re done with the orange slices, I promise. Now we’re onto another classic Christmas DIY ornament: the salt dough ornament. These are super easy to make and incredibly customizable.
What you’ll need:
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of salt
- Oven
- Baking sheet and parchment
- paper/silicone baking sheet
- Paint, twigs, leaves, branches, cookie cutters, etc. to decorate
The steps:
First, combine the flour, salt, and water together to make the dough. You may need to knead for a little bit. If
it’s too sticky, add a little bit more flour.
- Then roll out your dough and you can use a cookie cutter to cut out specific shapes or a Mason jar lid to
make circles. - Transfer your shapes to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and poke a hole at the top of the soon-to-be ornament so you’ll be able to hang it up later. This will
be almost impossible after it’s baked so do it before. - Now you can press leaves and flowers into the dough, or your baby’s foot/handprint, or using the
back of a pen, you can write out a word if you’d like. - Then bake at 200 degrees for 1-2 hours. Time will vary based on your oven and the thickness of the
dough so just check it after an hour to make sure it’s not burning. - After the ornaments have cooled you can string them up or you can paint and decorate them!
And there you have it! 5 all natural and zero waste Christmas decorations to adorn your home with this Holiday season!
Related reading:
Which decoration are you most excited to try out! Let me know below and don’t forget to share this post with all your family and friends! And follow me on Instagram for daily low waste living inspiration!
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