Every year I like to personalize a handmade ornament to give to family and for the last few years I have wanted to do it in a way that it could come from my toddler daughter. Giving a personalized ornament or Christmas decoration is a great way to show someone you’ve thought about them while not adding too much clutter or stress to either the giver or receiver. These suggestions are aimed at toddlers and young children but can easily be applied to any age group. In these season of life with a two-year-old and almost one year old I had to choose what I could manage this season. I can “have the time” for anything but at the expense of other things.
This year I chose to cut out fully hand-made ornaments. I love doing them but it is a lot of mental energy plus however much time it takes to make the craft. However, I did not want to give up the idea of giving ornaments to family members, I just knew that I couldn’t come up with it from scratch. I also knew that I did not want to just buy an ornament and hand it over, I wanted it to have some sort of personal touch from my family.
Last month I went to a discount store and bought some cute ornament craft kits and small wooden houses. Each one was $1.25 or less. I didn’t have any specific alterations in mind, but I knew that I could figure out a way to help my daughter change these enough with her own personality that they could be meaningful to those we were going to give gifts to.
Here are my top 6 ways to personalize a store-bought ornament:
Add the name of the giver or receiver and the year (or their age).
This is probably the most obvious way to personalize it, if you’re not sure how you want it to look, do a quick Google or Pinterest search for fonts or personalized ornaments. Use a pen, sharpie, paint, or whatever you have on hand. You could even use stencils. It doesn’t just need to be a name either, it could be a symbol or a pet that means something to either the giver or receiver. Check out our Personalized Pet Art project for a meaningful gift you could make this year.
For us, we are giving an ornament to each set of grandparents, so I knew that it would be the most meaningful with her name and the year on it.
Color it, even if it doesn’t look like it’s supposed to be colored.
This one is hard for me to let go of sometimes. I like the aesthetic of simple, neutral colors. I picked up one ornament that was just wood tones with some white and green. Instead of assembling the ornament just the way it was supposed to be, first I let Ellanor paint the base of the ornament and the wooden inserts. She chose colors that worked with the decor, but I had to be okay with whatever she chose because I had told her ahead of time that she was making it as a gift for her grandparents so she should choose the color that she thought they would like the most.
If I was giving this ornament from myself, I would have sat with a detail marker and paint and colored and accented each piece as carefully as I could. I would take the time to personalize it with colors that meant something to me or the receiver.
Write their story.
On nice stationary, write down what your child is talking about as they work on the ornament. Or prompt them with questions about the receiver and write it down. Frame it and include that in the packaging with the ornament. If you don’t want to give this to them, you can always just record their conversation in a note app on your phone and tell the receiver when they open the gift.
If I’m giving the ornament as a gift from me, I will try to express why I chose that piece and the thoughts that went into the personalization.
Family Forging Tip: Never let an opportunity to casually converse with your toddler go by. When you’re doing ornaments or crafts, ask why they made certain decisions or what they are thinking about as they work.
Add personal extras such as stickers, cutouts, or sentimental pieces.
Add fun stickers or pieces of paper that you or your toddler colored. We used a snowflake cut out on a page Ellanor had colored and added the snowflakes into the fluff in the ornaments.
Add shreddings or pieces of concert tickets, letters, invitations, etc to the ornament in a way that it almost blends in with the ornament itself so that it is almost like an inside joke or a secret meaning that only the receiver can fully understand.
For both sets of grandparents, I filled a glass ornament with a small clipping of their grandchild’s first hat from the hospital, a copy of a footprint, and one of the identifying bands that were on the baby and me. It was a beautiful, sentimental ornament and the only cost was the ornament itself, which I happened to have from a prior project.
Add embellishments
Using a hot glue gun, I helped Ellanor place beads and buttons on the houses that she had painted. She also could have added a few to the round ornaments but she was getting bored by that time.
I could have also added ribbons, sequins, fabric, glitter, braided yarn, braids, shells, or any assortment of small knickknacks to personalize each of these little houses if I had wanted to gift these to people. Personalize the decor so that it tells a story about you or the receiver.
Let the wrapping tell a story.
I think that the way a gift looks when it is presented says as much about your intention as the gift itself. Wrapping presents and making them a part of the holiday decor is one of the things that I look forward to the most each holiday season. It feels as though the way that I make each decision to present the gift perfectly reflects how much I care for the recipient.
Carefully wrap the gift with beautiful paper, or in a beautiful bag. Add embellishments here as well, this includes ribbons, curls, bows, tags, and tissue paper.
All of that being said, it does not come naturally to me to let others wrap presents but I told Ellanor it would be her job to wrap and she was so excited. It is not the neatest present, but I know her grandparents will treasure the gift even more because she put extra effort into it. She chose the wrapping paper, taped it (with maybe too much tape), picked out and placed the bows, and signed each of the gift tags.
These are six ways that you can personalize any ornament, or even home decor to give as a gift. Hopefully, they inspired you to add a personal touch to some of the things you’re hoping to gift this season. Let me know if you have used any of these ideas and if you have any I forgot.
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