This little accordion paper Christmas tree has to be the cutest little holiday project to make with your kids ever. It’s insanely easy to make and looks adorable. And we even have a craft template for it for you to print.
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We love the festive season, we love all the crafting that comes with it and all the memories that crafting together makes.
These little trees are great both as crafts or as a DIY decorations for your home of for your classroom. You can stick the paper straws into pots filled with soild, or you can hang the little DIY paper trees on a string to make a holiday garland.
These are great for younger kids to do as they will get their fair share of scissor skill practice and working with folding paper as there are quite a few accordion folds involved – great for fine motor and for folding confidence as they are easy to master. Did we mention these are adorable yet? They really are!
You can use the craft template as stencils to trace on colored paper, you can print them on colored paper or you can print them on white paper and have the kids color them in before they start Christmas crafting!
Ready? Print the template (you can get it at the end of the tutorial) and let’s craft!
Accordion Paper Christmas Tree
What you need
- our accordion paper Christmas tree template (you can grab it at the end of this tutorial)
- paper (white paper or colored paper, depending on how you will be setting this project up)
- scissors
- hole puncher (single hole puncher is best, more than one hole paper punches will be OK too)
- paper straw
- glue
Optional: pom poms, sequin, gemstones to use as additional decoration
Watch the Video Tutorial
Or Follow these step by Step Instructions
Print out our template. We recommend regular print paper as it’s best to craft with for this particular project.
You can print the tree on green paper as we did (we have a separate sheet with stars only to print on yellow paper to prep for classroom projects). You can also use a sheet of white paper and have the kids color in the template however they like!
Once you have your template ready, cut out all the pieces. If you need to trace them on colored paper now is the time. We printed ours on green print paper, so we will cut and trace the star on yellow paper as we move forward.
Take the tree part and start folding it (accordion fold) from one end to the other, the folds need to be about half an inch wide (give or take) – 1 cm-ish wide. They can be wider (easier for younger kids).
Make the folds crisp. You can help yourself with a craft stick (or anything really) and run it across the folds.
Once you have folded all folds, take the hole puncher and punch a hole in the middle, punching through all folds.
Take the paper straw, and push it through the hole. The straw might resist a little ;).
Slowly and carefully stretch the paper (unfold the folds) along the paper straw (you don’t need to stretch it across the whole length, leave some for the tree trunk).
Take the yellow star and glue it on top of the tree.
If you want, you can decorate the tree with little ornaments (pom poms, gemstones)…
Get the Accordion Paper Christmas Tree Craft Template Here
Click to open: Paper Tree on a Straw Craft Template
As always we would love to see your creations, if you’ll snap a photo and tag us on Instagram @easypeasyandfun or use #easypeasyandfun we would love to take a peak.
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I love these so easy to do. Our Guides are making a few to give to our visiting guides with a pencil through middle so they can all swap numbers at end of meeting. Thanks to all the people who put this site together. You are brilliant.