In an attempt to keep Owen away from our real Christmas tree, I decided to make him a felt Christmas tree. So I spent the better part of last Saturday night putting 20 year old Chelsea to shame and knocking out a baller felt Christmas tree– complete with ornaments and presents.
I should also add that I’m too much of a perfectionist to freehand ornaments, bows, and ornament designs with scissors so I created patterns, which I’m sharing with you at the end of the post.
In case you didn’t know, felt sticks to felt so the ornaments and presents can be placed and removed anywhere on the tree.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1.5 yards of green felt … found here or fabric store
different colors of felt … found here or a craft store
scissors … these are my favorite!
patterns … see at end of post
card stock
Sharpie
chalk
hot glue gun + glue
masking tape
I printed the patterns onto card stock, cut them out, traced them onto pieces of felt, and then cut them out. I should add that I traced the patterns onto the shinier, smoother side of the felt, leaving the fuzzier side facing out because I think the shinier side sticks to the fuzzier side better.
To make the tree, I folded the green felt in half with the shinier side on the outside and freehanded half of the tree with a piece of yellow chalk. Then, with it still folded, I cut it out so it would be symmetrical.
After cutting out the tree, I decided it was too tall so I cut off the bottom portion. But feel free to make the tree as tall or short as you’d like.
I initially mounted the tree to the wall with painters tape, but that didn’t hold so I went to masking tape, which has worked the best.
I wanted the ornaments to look similar to the glass ornaments I’ve been using for years so I went with blue, purple, green, yellow, hot pink, and I added some white to break things up a bit.
After I cut out all the ornaments, I created different designs to glue on top of the ornaments to jazz them up a bit.
I didn’t use a template for the presents and the ‘ribbon’. Instead, I just measured out squares and rectangles and cut them out. Then I cut strips of felt to make the ‘ribbons’. I used a template for the bows though.
A bucket is place next to the tree so we can store the ornaments and presents when they aren’t in use.
Owen was napping when I put up the tree, so when he woke up he was excited to see something new to play with. It seems that he enjoys taking the ornaments and presents off the tree and putting them in the bucket more than putting them on the tree. But I’ll take it.
FYI, Owen is 33 inches tall– just to give you an idea of the height of the tree.
Here’s the templates. Click on the names of the templates to open a new page and print or save them.
FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY
TEMPLATES FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY
Fingers crossed Owen loves his felt Christmas tree more than our big Christmas tree.
Have you made a felt Christmas tree for your kiddo(s)? Did they love it?
Love it! I did this for Noah the Christmas after he turned one and he loved it! Though my tree and ornaments were much more basic ;). Noah also preferred take the ornaments off rather than put them on. He then decided it was fun to take the tree off the wall too. I gave up putting it back up after the 50th time 🙂
Thanks! Hah! I don’t blame you. The other day I was working on something while Brad watched Owen and heard saying something to Owen and the next thing I see is Owen walking by my office with a large piece of green fabric trailing behind him. He had ripped the tree off the wall and was carrying it around the house. Haha!
How do the ornaments stick to the tree?
Just wondering why when I open template for ornaments
They are two big to print on one page
Love this! Thanks esp for the ornament printables 🙂
Also, where are those adorable pj’s from?!?
Thanks! No problem! I figured I’d help out others with lousy freehand scissor skills. 😉
They’re from Gymboree but they’re sold out. 🙁 I have a bunch of adorable Christmas pjs for the little ones in this post: https://www.twotwentyone.net/christmas-pajamas-galore/
The bows on the presents are such a pretty detail! They are almost as cute as Owen’s Christmas light pj’s 🙂 great idea!! Always nice to have toys that look good too!
I love the size of this! In the first few pictures, I thought it was much smaller. But this is so perfect!
This is very clever! I can see children in a nursery or grandkids really enjoying this. Thanks for sharing.
What a great idea! I would love to have you share at my new craft link party: http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2015/12/adult-coloring-book-review-craft-crafty.html
This is such a cool idea! If my school celebrated holidays, I would totally put this in the pretend play section of my classroom. 🙂
Live this!
How do you attach it to your wall?
Masking tape
The patterns printed over sized on three pages I couldn’t use them. I screen shot them and printed them that way though.
They aren’t set up to be printed from a screen shot, which is why I say to click over and print. If you took a screen shot on your phone then they aren’t going to print correctly. You need to save them and then print if you’re using your phone.
Should the felt be acrylic or polyester (and the same type for the tree and ornaments)? I’m a newbie when it comes to ANY type of craft but would love to do this!
WHere did you get your green felt? I’ve never seen any that large! Mind sharing your source? Plan to make this for my daughter this year!
Jo-Ann Fabric has the green felt by the bolt.
Love this! How much fabric did you buy of the other colors?
I bought the sheets so a few of each color.
was it the stiffer felt sheets or the thin and flimsy ones for the ornaments?
Thanks for sharing! I’m so excited to try this fir my girls this Christmas.
i would like to know what goes on the back of the ornaments to make them stick to the tree
i would like to do this for my son but unsure what to use ???
Felt magically sticks to itself so no tape or velcro is needed to decorate the tree! 😉
Thank you so much for these templates and patterns! Your tree is too adorable and cannot wait to have mine complete for our little ones!
Thank you so much for posting your pattern. I have wanted to make one for the last couple of years and when I found your post it inspired me to make this adorable little tree for my boys. I finished it yesterday and they love it. Another Christmas memory in the books. Merry Christmas!!
What do you use to adhere the felt to the wall? I’ve tried 3 different types of tape and it keeps falling off! I don’t want to glue it to the wall!
I would try the Command strips that look like velcro. We use those to hang everything in our house. As long as you use and remove them as directed they will not damage the walls.