This is an easy pipe cleaner Christmas craft that even young kids can make. They are great for fine motor skill practise. These pipe cleaner candy canes look great when hung on a Christmas tree and the ones with the clear beads catch the light so beautifully.
Making candy cane ornaments out of pipe cleaners and beads is certainly not a new concept. I remember making similar ones when I was young. They really are a classic Christmas craft and there are so many variations you can make.
Materials needed:
- tri-beads in clear, red and green
- clear faceted beads
- clear pony beads
- silver, red and green pipe cleaners
- scissors or wire cutters
For all types of candy cane ornaments, begin by cutting the pipe cleaners in half. This is a step that should be done by an adult or older children.
String clear, red and green tri-beads on a silver pipe cleaner. Another option for this is to string red tri-beads onto a green pipe cleaner and leave spaces in between or to string green tri-beads onto a red pipe cleaner.
We made two other types. For the pony bead one, twist a red and green pipe cleaner together and then string clear pony beads onto it.
The last one is my favourite. It requires crystal looking faceted beads. Thread faceted beads onto silver pipe cleaners and bend into a candy cane shape. These ones look so pretty when the tree is lit up and they catch the light nicely.
If you are doing this craft with very small children, adult supervision is required because the beads could be a choking hazard. Bend in the ends of the pipe cleaners so that there aren’t sharp edges.
My kids completely LOVED making these. We chose pictures of them from a few years ago because I had copies of those on hand and they went on and on about how cute they were. I was using older pictures for convenience reasons, but it ended up having a positive effect because the kids felt freer to comment on how cute they were. I saw them light up about the compliments they were getting from each other. I feel like it actually was a good self-esteem builder.
Materials needed:
These photo ornaments are easy enough for even young children to make on their own (though they may need some help with the cutting) and make perfect grandparent gifts. They look so pretty on a lit-up Christmas tree!
The process was simple but it lent itself to all kinds of variations. I love projects that let the kids explore their creativity and put their own spin on things. I set out both white and coloured chalks for this purpose.
Regardless of which style they chose, all of them were absolutely beautiful! One of the kids wrote the word “Jesus” in chalk to his and added some embellishments to the star. I had to cut those out in the pictures because in them he had also written his full name. My kids of course don’t sign their artwork with their blog pseudonyms!