Looking for Christmas ornaments to make and sell this season? Here are handmade ornament ideas, pricing tips, and where to sell them — perfect for beginners and seasoned crafters alike.
There’s a particular kind of chaos that hits every October in my house. Pumpkins are still on the porch, but my kitchen table is already buried under hot glue sticks, twine, and little jars of glitter I swear multiply on their own. That’s the tell-tale sign that ornament season has started.
If you sell handmade goods — or you’ve been thinking about starting — Christmas ornaments are one of the smartest places to put your energy. They’re small, they’re light to ship, they don’t take a week to finish, and people buy them again and again because, let’s be honest, nobody ever has “enough” ornaments. New house, new baby, new pet, new hobby — there’s always a reason to buy one more.
Below is a list of ornament ideas I keep coming back to, either because I’ve made them myself, watched them sell out at a local market, or seen them do ridiculously well on Etsy. I’ve also thrown in some real talk about pricing and selling toward the end, so stick around for that.
Why Ornaments Are a Smart Product to Sell
Before we get into the ideas, it’s worth saying why ornaments specifically work so well for a small craft business:
- Low material cost, high perceived value. A few dollars of supplies can become a $15–$30 ornament once it’s personalized or well-finished.
- Fast to produce in batches. Once you’ve built a template or a process, making twenty of the same design takes a fraction of the time the first one did.
- Built-in gifting demand. Ornaments double as gifts, so buyers often purchase multiples at once — for grandparents, teachers, coworkers, you name it.
- Easy to ship. Compared to bulkier decor, ornaments are cheap and simple to package safely.
Okay, let’s get into the ideas.
1. Personalized Name or Family Ornaments
This one is close to evergreen. Parents want an ornament with their kid’s name and birth year. Couples want one with their wedding date. Pet owners want one shaped like their dog.
If you can hand-letter, wood-burn, or engrave, personalization is where the real repeat business lives — because every family member is a potential new customer once one person sees it on the tree.
2. Salt Dough Ornaments
Salt dough is flour, salt, and water rolled out and cut like sugar cookies, then baked until firm. It’s ridiculously cheap and forgiving, which makes it a great starting point if you’re new to selling.
Mittens, stars, gingerbread shapes, and little houses all look charming once painted and sealed. The slightly uneven, handmade texture is actually part of the appeal — buyers are looking for “made by a person,” not factory-perfect.
3. Hand-Painted Glass Ball Ornaments
Plain glass or plastic ball ornaments are inexpensive to buy in bulk, and a coat of acrylic paint plus a simple design — swirls, dots, a hand-lettered phrase, a tiny landscape — turns them into something a shopper will pay a premium for.
These are great if you want a product line that scales, since the base ornament stays the same and only the design changes.
4. Wood Slice Ornaments
A thin slice of birch or pine, sanded smooth, with a painted design or a burned illustration in the center. These lean into the cozy, farmhouse aesthetic that’s stayed popular for years, and they photograph beautifully for an online shop.
If you have access to a local sawmill or fallen branches, your material cost is close to nothing.
5. Felt Ornaments
Felt doesn’t fray, it’s cheap, and it comes in every color imaginable — which makes it forgiving for anyone who isn’t confident with a sewing machine yet. Simple shapes like gingerbread men, mini stockings, or stars can be hand-stitched with a blanket stitch and stuffed lightly for a bit of dimension.
6. Beaded Wreath Ornaments
Pipe cleaners bent into circles and threaded with small pony beads make surprisingly convincing mini wreaths. This is one of the fastest ornaments on this list to produce, which makes it a great filler product for a craft fair table where you want a lower price point next to your bigger pieces.
7. Embroidery Hoop Ornaments
A small embroidery hoop, a scrap of fabric, and a simple stitched design — a cat, a tree, a snowflake — turn into a genuinely lovely little ornament. These tend to appeal to a slightly different crowd than the glittery, kid-friendly stuff, so they’re worth having if you want your shop to feel a little more design-forward.
8. Mason Jar Lid Ornaments
The rings from canning jar lids, painted or wrapped in twine and glued into a wreath shape, make a rustic ornament almost anyone can produce with dollar-store supplies.
It’s a good option if you want to advertise your shop as using upcycled or repurposed materials, which is a genuine selling point for a chunk of holiday shoppers.
9. Paper Honeycomb Ornaments
These are the ones that look far more impressive than the effort they actually take. Layers of tissue or cardstock, folded accordion-style and fanned into a honeycomb shape, catch the light in a way that photographs beautifully for Instagram or Pinterest. If your marketing leans visual, this ornament earns its keep in photos alone.
10. Book Page or Sheet Music Ornaments
Cutting shapes from old book pages, sheet music, or maps and coating them in a decoupage sealant gives you an ornament with a story attached — and buyers love a story. Market these toward book lovers, musicians, or anyone who wants a “sentimental but not sappy” gift.
11. Character and Holiday-Movie-Inspired Ornaments
Grinch green, gnome hats, reindeer faces — playful, character-driven ornaments sell fast because they’re fun rather than fancy, and they appeal directly to parents shopping for their kids’ first ornaments or filling out a themed tree.
Just be careful with anything based on copyrighted characters or franchises if you’re selling commercially; stick to your own original take on a “grumpy green holiday guy” rather than reproducing a studio’s exact artwork.
12. Mini Snow Globe Ornaments
A small clear ornament ball filled with faux snow, a pinch of greenery, and a tiny bead or charm creates something that genuinely looks like a miniature snow globe once it’s sealed. These tend to sit at a higher price point than most ornaments on this list, so they’re worth including if you want a “hero product” for your shop.
13. Dessert-Themed Ornaments
Ornaments shaped like gingerbread cookies, candy canes, or a s’more make people smile the second they spot them, and they’re a fun, low-stakes gift for coworkers or teachers. Clay, felt, or salt dough all work well here — just make it very clear (a small tag helps) that they’re decorative and not for eating.
14. Photo Frame Ornaments
A salt dough or wood ornament with a small cutout in the middle turns into a mini photo frame once it’s baked or sealed. Buyers can slide in a picture of a new baby, a pet, or a family photo from that year, which makes it one of the more sentimental — and repeat-purchase-friendly — items on this list.
Tips for Actually Selling These
A good ornament idea is only half the equation. A few things that make a real difference once you start selling:
- Price for your time, not just materials. If a $2 ornament takes you 25 minutes to make, that’s not a $2 product — factor your hourly rate in, even loosely.
- Batch your production. Cut, paint, and assemble in stages across multiple ornaments at once rather than finishing one at a time.
- Photograph on a tree or greenery, not a blank table. Buyers want to picture it hanging up, not sitting flat.
- Offer a small personalization option. Even a simple initial or date can justify a higher price and make an item feel one-of-a-kind.
- Start selling earlier than feels natural. Serious ornament shoppers start browsing in September and October, well before most people are in “Christmas mode.”
Where to Sell Handmade Ornaments
- Etsy and other handmade marketplaces
- Local craft fairs and holiday markets
- A Facebook or Instagram shop, especially if you already have local followers
- Pop-up tables at farmers markets in November
- Wholesale to small local boutiques, if you can produce in volume
Final Thoughts
You don’t need a garage full of equipment to start selling ornaments — most of these ideas can be made at a kitchen table with supplies from a craft store or even a dollar store.
Pick two or three designs that genuinely feel fun to make (that part matters more than people admit), get comfortable with your process, and let the rest build from there.
The best-selling shops usually aren’t the ones with the most variety — they’re the ones with a handful of designs made really, really well.
Happy crafting, and good luck with your holiday season!
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