Christmas Tree Shape Craft {with printable template}
There are so many fun Christmas tree crafts you can do with your kids!
I love this one since it’s low prep and simple enough for younger toddlers, but preschool and kindergarten age kids could enjoy it as well. Just make slight adaptations for each level.
It’s also perfect for creating a learn through play experience talking about shapes, colors, sizes, etc.
All it uses is paper, scissors, and a glue stick so it’s not too messy either! And that’s always a parenting win!
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This Christmas craft is super low prep. Depending on the age you may need to cut out shapes ahead of time, this should take you no more than a few minutes.
For older kids, they can cut the shapes themselves so all you need to do is gather the supplies!
I first did it with my daughter when she was almost 2. She liked looking for the shapes and colors although her final product looked like a Picasso inspired piece of art.
The next year it looked much closer to mine. Just make sure you have realistic expectations for their final product.
Christmas Tree Craft Supplies
- Colored construction paper – green, red white, and other colors of your choice.
- Printable shape template (print below)
- Pencil or pen – for tracing the template
- Scissors
- Craft glue or glue stick
- Optional: Christmas present stickers
How to build your Christmas tree craft
1 – Print and cut out the shapes from the template. Trace the shapes on colored construction paper of your choice. Use your scissors to cut out the traced shapes.
The template includes 3 triangles for the tree, 1 star, circle patterns of 2 different sizes, 2 squares of different sizes.
A hole punch could also be used to punch out the small circle ornaments.
2 – Grab a white piece of paper or cardstock to use for your backdrop.
You could also fold a piece of paper in half and use your final creation as a Christmas card.
3 – Glue the large triangle, about one inch above the bottom edge of the paper.
4 – Take the medium size triangle and glue it on the top of the previous triangle by slightly overlapping it.
5 – Last, take the small size triangle and glue it on the top of the medium triangle. Again, slightly overlap the medium triangle with the small triangle.
6 – Add the star on the top end of the small triangle.
Glue the square piece on the bottom side of the large triangle and also the rectangle. The square is the trunk and the rectangle is the pot or stand.
7 – Finally, add the round ornaments on the tree however you want. Allow it to dry completely before displaying it.
8 – Optional: To jazz it up kids can add pom poms or sparkles to the tree as ornaments instead of, or in addition to the paper ornaments. They can also add presents made with paper or grab some simple present stickers.
Learning Opportunities
Shapes
The most obviously learning opportunity with this craft is to practice shapes.
You use different shapes to build your Christmas tree so it’s the perfect opportunity to talk about what each shape is. You could also talk about how many sides each one has.
Colors
You can use whatever combination of colors you like for this craft. You’ll want several colors for those tree ornaments so it’s a great opportunity to practice color recognition if that’s something you’re still working on.
Size Sorting
The triangles that form the tree come in different sizes. Which one is the biggest? Which one is the smallest? Try asking your child to put them in order from smallest to largest.
For preschool age and older, they can also practice their cutting skills with the simple shapes.
Printable Christmas Tree Shapes Template
This template prints on one 8.5×11″ piece of paper. The file itself is a PDF. It contains all the shapes you’ll need to make this Christmas tree craft with your kids.
You may want to prep the pieces before you sit down to complete the tree with your kids if they’re young and impatient.
Printables are for personal use only. All printables on Tot School Resources website are the property of totschoolresources.com and may not be sold, used for commercial purposes, or given away for free on your own website.
Have a great time creating your own Christmas tree creation!
Visit the Christmas page for more fun holiday crafts & activities!
