9 Christmas Clay Ornaments To Make This Year!

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Last Updated on November 7, 2022 by Katherine

Handmade clay Christmas ornaments are a super cool idea for gifts this year. High inflation can frustrate you because your dollar does not go as far as it once did. The answer is to hand make a lot of your gifts as you often source cheaper materials. This year, you can make an entire army of polymer clay Christmas ornaments for around $40 or less.

In fact, this kit at Amazon will cost you $35.99 plus shipping and any taxes (if you have a Prime account, you can usually find free shipping). Amazon also has loads of other clay kits of varying sizes and types available, to fit a variety of budgets. I like this kit because it comes with tools, though I recommend finding a rolling pin (plastic or acrylic is best). If you find that you thoroughly enjoy working with polymer clay, you can always upgrade those tools down the road when your budget allows, but these plastic tools will get the job done for you, no problem.

Once you've formed your ornaments, insert your clay into the oven for curing. Your clay package will have clear instructions for that!

Handmade clay Christmas ornaments actually don’t take a lot of your time to make, in fact I made the 9 ornaments featured in this post in about 2 hours total time (maybe longer for the curing portion, but you can go back to binging your Netflix show while you wait for them to cure in the oven!). Polymer clay is the ideal medium for these ornaments because the oven curing will make them super durable so they’ll last years.

The best part about creating handmade gifts is that you can customize each one to suit the person you intend to gift it to. There’s just something so nice about having something in your possession that nobody ever will have unless you somehow agree to give it to them! Right?

Ready to make some clay ornaments? Let’s Get Started!

What You’ll Need:

Any kind of ribbon will work for hanging your clay christmas ornaments, offray galena is a fairly common type! I picked the smallest width possible.

To get started with clay Christmas ornaments, I recommend the following things:

An assortment of oven baked polymer clay (I recommend this kit from Amazon).
Clay tools (At least a cutter and a scoring tool)
Acrylic Rolling Pin.
Ribbon for hanging the ornaments.

The Gnome

Gnomes are rapidly growing into a popular christmas decor item, turns out they are pretty easy to make into an ornament too!

The gnome was by far the least detailed of the group of ornaments I did, but ‌it’s my favorite. I don’t know why, but I find it really cute. For the gnome, you need a small bit of pink and a slab of red and gray clay. The pink clay is for the nose. All you need to do there is roll it into a tiny ball. You can flatten it slightly to create a “nosey” look.

The hat I formed into its own hook, first making a conical shape and working the top around, so it created a loop so that I could fit the gold hanging ribbon through it. The gray “beard” was formed by creating a similar conical shape and then using a tool to create the “hair” by drawing lines up and down.

A Snowman

The snowman is formed with two balls of white clay and a carrot nose. Add black eyes and some brown branches for arms too!

Create a snowman with a series of balls, along with brown ropes that formed the “stick arms”. A small orange cone created the infamous carrot nose as well. For the snowman, I used a screw hook on the top to connect the hanging ribbon to it.

An Angel

I was running low on white clay (oops), so the angel was more of a red and gold-colored creation. Form the red dress and the golden wings by working the clay into a recognizable shape. Go slowly and if you find it useful, I recommend having a picture of an angel available just to keep it visual in your head. Finish your angel off with a pink ball for the head and some brown clay forming the hair (use a tool to mark the clay in a hair pattern).

Blue & White

Blue and white styled ornaments are popular, I picked a lovely house, but you can choose whatever you like!

The blue & white pattern ornament is cool, you just need blue and white clay. All you need for the blue portion is a disk shape formed from blue clay. The white clay can form any “Christmasy” pattern your heart desires. For me, I chose a simple house, but other ideas to consider are:

Snowman
Angel
Santa
Gingerbread man
Snowflake
And SOOOO much more.

Simply place your pretty white image on your blue disk. Push it into the disk gently so they connect nicely before throwing them into the oven to cure. Take your circular tool and pierce a hole into the top so you can loop your hanging ribbon into there.

The Candy Cane

Instead of a traditional red and white candy cane, I chose a neon red and yellow one!

The Candy Cane can be as complex or as simple as you like. I switched up the traditional red and white look with neon red and neon yellow clay. All you need to do is form two color ropes and then twist them together. Pick an end and form a “hook” and you’re done!

I also recommend piercing a hole in the top, but it’s optional as you can simply hang the candy cane on the tree easily enough!

Santa Head

To make a santa out of clay, you will need a ball of skin colored clay and red and white to form the hat and beard!

I built the Santa head with a base of a pink ball to form the head, then using red clay to form a hat on the top. Use white clay to create a beard and the pompom of the hat and even a “furry trim” for that hat. If you’re feeling super creative, add some golden yellow clay “spectacles” to your Santa!

As with the snowman, you’ll want a screw hook worked into the top of Santa’s head so you can loop the ribbon on it.

Poinsettia

The pointsettia is formed with 10 petals and four golden balls in the center.

To make a poinsettia, you’ll need a good chunk of red clay (you can also pick another common color like pink or white if you prefer) to form the leaves. I made roughly 10 petals of varying sizes. Most poinsettias have a larger set of petals and a smaller set. So five petals of each size works perfectly.

With each petal, take a clay scoring tool and mark out the “leafy pattern” on each petal and connect them together.

I used gold clay to form the central portion of the flower as well. Create the look with a few balls of gold clay placed in the center of your flower.

Finish by piercing the topmost petal for your hanging ribbon.

A Christmas Tree

Once you have a green tree shape, you'll want to decorate your clay ornament with a star topper and some garlands and ornament balls!

A Christmas tree can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it. I went with simple (I’m a huge fan of not overcomplicating my life). Take a slab of green clay and roll it flat and then cut out your tree shape. To save yourself even more time, if you have a cookie cutter in a tree shape, use that, otherwise, you can hack it with just viewing a Christmas tree shape or making a stencil to make your shape.

I then use different colored clay to create things like “garland” or ball ornaments. Don’t forget a yellow star for the top! I pierced a hole in the star to use for my hanging ribbon.

A Wreath

Once you've formed your wreath, a jaunty red bow is all you need to finish things up.

With your Christmas wreath, you’ll want another slab of green. Start by creating a rope of green and then form a circle. A scoring tool will allow you to create a more “leafy” look to that simple circle.

Finish things off with a pretty red bow. I simply wrapped my ribbon around the top, but you can also use a screw hook on the top if you prefer.

Final Thoughts on Clay Christmas Ornaments

Polymer clay is a durable medium for crafting. Once it’s cured in the oven, your ornaments essentially become plastic and will last nearly forever. They are a load of fun to make and you can easily throw together an entire army of handmade clay Christmas ornaments in a few hours.

These ornaments make perfect little gifts for those on your list and because you’re making them, you can customize them to suit that special person on your list.

While I’ve only shared 9 clever ideas, there are loads of other brilliant and festive ideas you can try, perhaps consider:

A Grinch
A reindeer
A snowflake
Santa in his sleigh
Presents

If you’re stuck for ideas, pop over to Pinterest and get inspired. Don’t forget to pin this post to Pinterest so you can review it later. If you aren’t a Pinterest person, share it on your other favorite social media platform instead!