13 of the Best Christmas Tree Ideas for Kids

Anyone would agree that selecting and decorating the Christmas tree is an annual holiday tradition that families enjoy most. Watch a child's eyes light up as she unpacks an ornament she has made herself and hangs it on the tree and you'll quickly agree that there are few happier moments all year.

Martha herself brings home an extra tree just for the kids to enjoy—pictured here is the tree our founder created to stimulate the curiosity of her toddler grandchildren, Jude and Truman. She used a playful palette of fresh, kid-friendly colors. The crisp graphics of homemade alphabet flashcard ornaments play off the shapes and textures of letter cookies that sparkle with colorful sanding sugar. (You can also use the flash cards as personalized gift tags or spell out names with cookies.) The sides of plain wooden blocks were painted in a range of contrasting colors and made into simple, Montessori-inspired ornaments. Silvertip firs (like the one you see here) tend to be symmetrical and have plenty of space between branches to hang large ornaments. This kind of tree is fairly lightweight; here, it's anchored in a bucket filled with rocks and water, which is placed inside a wooden crate painted to match the ornaments. She rounded out the look with classic metallic ball ornaments—shatterproof, so they're safe around the kids.

Imagine a tree covered entirely in your child's handiwork. When all the pieces are made of the same materials, the result is both beautiful and sentimental. With the right amount of snipping, twisting, knotting, and gluing, ordinary household items can be transformed into delightfully clever ornaments and instant keepsakes. Ornament-making is a craft project that will keep kids busy for hours—a great way to spend a snowy day. We've festooned our trees with ingenuity, using yarn, cotton balls, tinfoil, and office supplies. Follow along for even more inspiration from our founder and editors as we recount our very best Christmas tree ideas for kids.

Let kids follow Charlie Brown's lead and tend to their own little tannenbaum. Set up a feathered sapling in their room, and hang baubles you can make together. Add "candy canes"—essentially two colors of pipe cleaners twisted together, cut in half, and bent at the tips. For shatterproof balls, feed a pipe cleaner through the center of a pom-pom, fold the end into a tiny loop to hold it in place, and create a large top loop. Or affix eye-hook screws to wooden figures they can paint—trees, mushrooms, gnomes—for kid-friendly ornaments in a pretty and (shhh!) parent-friendly palette.

Shop Now: Dennis Bauer Feather Christmas Tree (similar to shown), 42", $366, hometraditions.com; Nuobesty Wooden Gnome Peg-Doll Set, $9.99, amazon.com; Juvale Natural Blank Wooden Ornaments, $10.99 for 48, amazon.com; Lranfow Natural Wooden-Mushroom Set, $13 for 16, amazon.com; Pllieay Very Large Assorted Pom-Poms, 2", $15.99, amazon.com; and Yomeste Chenille Pipe Cleaners, 12", $21.77 for 1,000, amazon.com.

This modern wooden dowel tree is perennial and practical—you can reassemble it each year. Fill it with honeycomb balls that pack flat post-holiday, and parlay a layered tinsel fringe garland into a shimmery tree skirt by wrapping it around the tree base, cutting it to fit, and hot-gluing the ends of the band together.

Curious about what to do with the garland left over from your tree skirt? Twirl it into tassels. Cut the excess into six-inch lengths and roll each up along the band, securing every rotation with hot glue. Then top them with ornament caps to hang (we mixed them with shorter, store-bought tassels.)

Shop Now: Welcome to the Woodshop Beaded Heirloom Tree, $185 for 5 ft., welcometothewoodshop.etsy.com; Meri Meri Tinsel Fringe Garland, $20, merimeri.com; Oh Happy Day Honey-Comb Mini Balls, 2", $7 for 10; and Folk Paper Tassels, $18 for 6, shop.ohhappyday.com; Just Artifacts Honey-Comb Balls, 4", $1 each, justartifacts.net. On gifts: Kierkegaard Design Studio Pale Millennial Blush Pink Wrapping Paper, $17 for 5 sheets, society6.com; Carte Fini Crepe Paper, 90 g, in Peach (similar to shown), $6 for 50 cm by 150 cm, cartefini.com; Outus Round Tissue Confetti, 1", $10 for 10,000 pieces, amazon.com; Party City Orange Polka-Dot Streamer, $2 for 8 ft., partycity.com; Ooh La La Party Paperie Ruffled Crepe-Paper Streamers (similar to shown), $3 for 12 ft., oohlalapartypaperie.etsy.com.

These felt animals are so adorable, you and your kids will be tempted to make a whole stampede for your tree. Begin by printing this template, then cut out two versions of each template; one following the outline and the other omitting the black details (use fine-tip scissors for the interior cutouts). On top of light-colored felt, such as cream or eggshell, pin the outline template, and trace it with a disappearing-ink pen. Remove the template, and cut it out. On a colored piece of felt, pin and trace the detailed template twice. Cut out: Use fine-tip scissors for interior cutouts and a Japanese hole punch to create the eyes and the hole for hanging.

Shop Now: Fiskars 5" Micro-Tip Sewing Scissors, $5, target.com; Creatology Basic Felt, 36" x 36", $4, michaels.com.

At Martha's Bedford home, a few motifs come together on this tree for Jude, with forest animals, mushrooms, and bristle ornaments. The felt ornaments mix the natural and the fantastical, with silhouettes of bears carrying presents or proffering candy canes. There's a lot of luscious texture, too, since details such as toadstool caps, bobtails, and undercoats are made from wool roving.

Shop Now: Anthropologie Felted Mushroom Ornament in Red, $5 each, anthropologie.com; Oriental Trading Company Die Cut Moose & Deer Christmas Ornaments, $10, orientaltrading.com; Ditz Designs Black Bear Standing Stuffed Animal, $399, wildlifewonders.com. 

A living Christmas tree offers so much more than a mound of mulch at the end of the season. But how to cover its not-so-pretty pot during its indoor tour of duty? Have your kids round up a squirrel's cache of nuts or acorns, and pour them on. The nuts' simple beauty and warm palette complement a tree done up in woody neutrals.

Shop Now: Texas Basket Bushel Basket, $3.60, texasbasket.com; Nuts.com Mixed In-Shell Nuts, $7 per pound, nuts.com.

Is there any child who can resist the Christmas scent of warm-from-the-oven gingerbread? An entire village of gingerbread houses adorns this tree, creating tempting trimmings. The windows and doors have been crafted from dough that is different from the façade's—the lighter one is sweetened with honey, the darker with molasses—to provide contrast. Invite your whole family to decorate the ornaments and you'll find that suddenly everyone wants to be an architect.

The elf's presence (and it's daily debut from a new spot of the house) serves as a gentle reminder to small children to stay on Santa's nice list in the days leading up to Christmas. And where is that elf hiding this year? Your Christmas tree! Here's a new twist on the holiday tradition that is sure to surprise and delight the whole family. Re-envision your Christmas tree as a larger-than-life advent calendar, starring your adopted scout elf. Every morning, the elf moves to a new numbered ornament (and a day closer to December 25) only to be found in a fun new set of shenanigans.

Shop Now: The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition, $30, amazon.com; Elf on the Shelf Scout Elves at Play Kit, $27, amazon.com; ArtMinds Mini Numbers Set, $6, michaels.com.

Designer Jenni Kayne hosted a holiday crafting retreat for her family to enjoy in Lake Tahoe. While there, the family settled on an "earthy but still festive" look for this five-foot tree, and Kayne's little ones—her son, Tanner, 7, and her daughter, Ripley, 4—crafted ornaments to adorn it. Yarn and bakers' twine turned pinecones and bright-white dough into ornaments. Inspired by twigs in vases she'd seen online, Kayne used a bell jar as a giant tree stand.

Shop Now: Pottery Barn Shouldered Clear Glass Vase, $59, potterybarn.com; Diamond Woodcomua Embossing Rolling Pins, $23 for 3, etsy.com; Williams-Sonoma Holiday Cookie Cutters, $9 for 4, williams-sonoma.com; Jeffrey Large Pine Cones, $60 for 20, drieddecor.com.

This tree twinkles with a dusting of paper snowflakes. Help kids iron their cut-out designs flat to smooth out the folds. Just hang with a paper clip bent open to form an "S." The beauty of paper snowflakes is that, even with slight imperfections, when they are massed together, they're breathtaking to behold.

With a few bags of cotton balls, you can blanket a tree with the softest snow. Start by threading a needle with fifteen inches of fishing line and sew through two or three cotton balls, leaving gaps between (dab white glue next to each ball so it won't slide); make a loop for hanging. It's optional, but you can also fill a sieve with cornstarch to dust the tree's branches and add basting for a skirt for a full winter wonderland look.

Shop Now: Blick Jumbo White Craft Fluffs, $4 for 100, dickblick.com; Beadalon Supplemax Monofilament Illusion Cord, $4, michaels.com; Warm Company Cotton Batting, in Twin, $15.09, amazon.com.

Pom-poms, tassels, and snowflakes made of vibrant yarn create a cozy, crafty theme for a tree. Form fluffy baubles in any color under the sun with a pom-pom maker (at crafts stores). For garlands, just knot lengths of yarn. The yarn star, a classic camp craft, stands watch at the top. A sewing basket is a fitting container (the tree sits in a separate pot surrounded by gravel); the gifts are wound with yarn.

Shop Now: Bead Landing Thread Tassels, $7, michaels.com; World Market Multicolor Felt Garland, $8, worldmarket.com; Clover Pom-Pom Maker, $8, amazon.com; Purl Soho Posy Wool, $29,  purlsoho.com.

This tree gets its shimmer from aluminum foil. Sheets of foil are twisted and scrunched into stars, balls, and canes, all hung with yarn. Turn cupcake liners inside out; stack, and then glue back-to-back; tie on yarn to hang. Poke string lights through small liners for a radiant glow. More liners decorate a foil-covered cardboard star (with a toilet-paper tube back). A silver mouse sits atop shining gifts.

Shop Now: GE String-a-Long Miniature Lights, $7, michaels.com; Celebrate It Standard Foil Baking Cups in Gold and Silver, $2 each, michaels.com.

Office-supply stores have all the trimmings for a tree that belies its workaday origins. Key tags decorated with stickers, ornaments cut from file folders, and paper-clip chains dangle from the branches. A bubble-packaging tree skirt and presents dressed up in graph paper, stickers, and rubber bands circle the base.

Shop Now: Staples 5/16" Bubble Roll, $8, staples.com; Staples Smooth Paper Clips, $2 for 100, staples.com; HoneyWell Colored Key Tags, $10 for 20, staples.com.