Start saving your jars, these magical Christmas lanterns are so fun and easy to make, you and your kids will love making these! They look absolutely stunning lit up with a candle inside and would make the perfect addition to any holiday decor.
This post is part of the Kid Made Christmas Decorations blog hop hosted by Jen at Mum in the Madhouse. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post for more amazing kid made Christmas decoration ideas!
Make your own magical Christmas lanterns
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Supplies
- Wide mouth glass jars, these don’t have to be mason jars, we used peanut butter jars 🙂
- Tissue paper in white, green or patterned for the trees and silver for the snowflakes (or you can use silver wrapping paper)
- Mod Podge
- Paintbrushes
- Candles
- Yarn in green and red
- Snowflake paper punch
- Cardboard template of a tree
Instructions
1. Make sure whatever jar you are using is clean and dry. Take your white tissue paper and cut it into strips or squares to make it easier to apply to your jar.
2. Cover your jar with Mod Podge and apply the white tissue paper all over your jar. It’s ok if your tissue paper overlaps. If some of your tissue paper tears, which does tend to happen, just add some more tissue paper on top of the tear.
Related: Mini Pallet Popsicle Stick Christmas Ornaments
3. Let your jar dry and get your trees ready. You can use plain green tissue paper or patterned tissue paper or even a combination of both would look good. Make your simple tree template and cut it out of cardboard. Use this template to make your tissue paper trees. We did 3 trees per jar.
4. Paint your Mod Podge onto your jar where you want your trees to go and then carefully place them on, pressing down gently.
Related: Snowflake Watercolor Winter Art
5. Next, it’s snowflake time! We used silver wrapping paper for the snowflakes, simply because that’s what we had and I love when I can use the supplies we already have on hand. But silver tissue paper works just as well. Take your snowflake punch and punch out your snowflakes. My kids loved this part, they love using paper punches!
6. Take your paintbrush and paint dots all over your jar, carefully add your snowflakes.
Related: Adorable Unicorn Christmas Cards
7. Do at least one final coat of Mod Podge around your entire jar, we did two coats just to make sure everything was sealed in. Make sure the top and bottom of where your white tissue paper is, gets a really good coat of Mod Podge to keep everything sealed nicely. Let your jar dry completely.
8. Add your yarn accents to the top of your jar and put your candle in.
Your Christmas lanterns are finished and ready to cast a magical glow around your room! These were so fun and easy to make, you and your kids will love making these as part of your holiday decorations!
Get more Christmas decoration ideas!
Check out all of the other awesome kid-made Christmas decorations here. There are so many great ideas to inspire your Christmas crafting. These Christmas stars from Cup of Toast are so cute!
If you are looking for more Christmas crafts these paper straw wreaths are so colorful and easy to make and these glitter snowflake ornaments with air dry clay are so sparkly and beautiful!
Follow me on Pinterest for more great project ideas!
Pin these lanterns for later
Oh yes! I’ll definitely start saving my jars! I love this one! Great idea, Angela!
Thanks Jen!
These lanterns are so beautiful! A great idea for decorations and gifts! Thank you so much for this and during the Cookie Baking Exchange I’m going to have to suggest that we do these as well!
Thank you Loren! I agree they would make beautiful gifts!
This is such a cute Christmas craft idea! My kids will love doing it with me.
Thank you Theresa!
Those are really cute. My kids love doing crafty things like this . . . and maybe I can direct them to this instead of baking more sweets that I don’t need around the house!
Thank you Karla! And I totally hear you on the sweets, my kids have been candy obsessed since Halloween.
You are not kidding! They look super easy and very adorable.
Thanks Michele! They are super easy for kids to make.
How fun! I have a ton of baby food jars that would be perfect for this craft! Do tea lights fit in baby food jars? I’ll check! : )
I think baby food jar lanterns would be adorable! I think tea lights would fit.
How fun is this! This is even a great craft idea for adults!
Yes, I agree!
What a lovely and simple holiday craft project. The kids will love making lanterns.
Thank you Shelah! My kids loved making their lanterns.
What an amazing idea! I love how beautiful they look, and cannot BELEVE how simple they are to make! Thank you for the fabulous tutorial, cannot wait to try these with my kids!!!
Thank you Flossie!
Oh my, these are just adorable. Thank you ever so much for joining in with this year’s kid made Christmas series.
Thanks so much for hosting Jen! I loved seeing all of the amazing ideas! 😉