Design an ornament gift bags for kids to hand out to their friends at Christmas.

In keeping with our November focus on easy handmade gift ideas, here is something little you can put together which would be perfect for kids to hand out to their school friends instead of candy canes or chocolate Santas.

Not all kids can eat chocolate and sugary treats because of food allergies and other medical reasons, and sometimes the sugary overload at this time of year is just a bit much. Of course I don’t mind my girls having the occasional chocolate or candy cane in keeping with the season (Christmas is a celebration after all), but when it’s 30 candy canes and chocolates it’s a different story.

Who’s with me here?

These Design an Ornament gift bags were something I put together for my girls’ friends a few years back. They are quick and easy to make and the kids receive a fun activity and a cute handmade keepsake to hang on their Christmas tree in one. In my experience kids love anything to do with sparkles and glitter, and these were well received!

Personally, I adore having a tree filled with handmade memories, even if it’s not as flashy as the colour-themed designer trees that many people have these days. My kids feel a huge sense of pride when they see the ornaments they’ve made themselves hanging up, and they also love looking at the things they made years ago when they were so much smaller.

I’ve used craft foam as the base for the Christmas shapes in the kits, but for a more environmentally friendly version you could use recycled cardboard or felt. If you choose to use felt you will need to include some craft or fabric glue in the kits as well (or instead of) the glitter glue pens because they won’t be strong enough to glue sequins and plastic gems to felt.

How to make Design an Ornament gift bags

You will need:

• Craft foam
• A hole punch
• Sequins
• A bulk pack of glitter glue pens
• Clear small cello treat bags 100mm (4 inches) wide (I bought these ones from the party section in Kmart)
• A stapler
• String or thin ribbon
• The printable template below (delivered to your inbox when you enter your details below)

How to:

Use the Christmas shapes on the second page of the template to create craft foam Christmas shapes. You can do this by cutting the shape out and tracing around it for as many shapes as you need, then cut them out
Cut the string or thin ribbon into as many small lengths of string as you need
Punch a hole in the top of each Christmas shape
Place one shape, one glitter glue pen, one length of string and a hand full of sequins into each cello bag.
Print out as many bag toppers as you need (there are two on each page). Cut them out, fold in half and staple to the top of the cello bags to seal them shut.
Get your child to write their name in the “Happy Christmas From” box on the back of the bag topper.
Hand them out!

So quick easy and fun!

More handmade gift ideas for friends:

• These kidmade necklaces from glue and paint are so much fun to make
• These Fingerknit knit friendship necklaces were designed and made by my daughter (to give only to her very best friends)
• Shrink art charms would make a sweet handmade gift kids could give to their friends
• A hand sewn flower bag would be a beautiful gift for a special friend
• Individually wrapped DIY fortune cookies would make a great gift for friends
• Pebble love bugs would be perfect to hand out with Christmas cards as pet rocks