A–Z Christmas Ornament Craft for Preschoolers

I love a good holiday tradition, and I love it even more if it’s easy and free! One of my favorite Christmas traditions we started when my oldest daughter was three was creating these little alphabet-themed paper Christmas ornament crafts.

 Instead of doing it all in one sitting, I decided to make it part of our Advent activities. Each day, she opened a new printable ornament, along with a piece of candy, tucked into our Advent calendar.

It became such a sweet rhythm in our December days — pulling out the ornament together, reading the letter, talking about what it stood for, and then decorating the ornament. By the end of the month, we had a full set of hand-painted ornaments that we glued onto a fork-painted Christmas tree we made ourselves!

This printable set from my Teachers Pay Teachers shop made it easy to blend faith, literacy, and creativity into our holiday countdown.

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Why We Loved This Activity

This activity quickly became one of our favorite Advent traditions because it was:

• Faith-centered – The ornaments are a fun combination of secular-themed Christmas words (like R is for Reindeer) and words that teach the true meaning of Christmas (J is for Jesus, K is for King, M is for Manger).
  
• Educational – It helped little Ella practice letter recognition in a fun, hands-on way.
  
• Creative and tactile – Painting, decorating, and gluing gave her plenty of chances to explore textures and colors.
  
• Simple to prep – I printed all the ornaments ahead of time and tucked them into our Advent calendar, along with a piece of candy for each day (psst… I used leftover Halloween candy here!).
  

Materials We Used

Here’s what we used to create our month-long A–Z ornament tree:

• Christmas Ornaments A–Z Printable Craft (get it here)
  
• White cardstock or printer paper
  
• Scissors and glue
  
• Washable paint and/or paint sticks in red, green, and white
  
• A fork for painting the Christmas tree background
  
• Large roll of white paper for the tree
  
• Optional: stickers, glitter glue, or dot markers for extra fun
  
• Optional: Advent calendar (to hold each ornament)
  

(If you feel like you need to stock up, here’s a list of toddler art supplies we always keep on hand for projects like this.)

How We Made It

Step 1: Print and prep the ornaments
I printed all 26 ornaments and cut them apart. Then I tucked one ornament into each day’s Advent calendar cubby. This made it so easy to add a little learning and creativity into our daily countdown without any stress.

Step 2: Open one ornament each day
Each morning, we pulled out the ornament together and found out which letter we’d be working on. We’d say the letter, talk about the word it stood for, and look for that letter throughout the day (like finding “N” on a Nutcracker decoration or “O” on an ornament).

Step 3: Paint and decorate
This is where you have a chance to be creative.  We tried different ways of decorating the ornaments throughout the month: we used dot markers, pom poms dipped in paint, finger paint, markers, crayons, and stickers. It doesn’t have to be perfect — the joy is in the process!

Step 4: Fork-painted Christmas tree background
At the beginning of the month, we made a big green Christmas tree.  I drew a large Christmas tree outline on big white paper (we like this roll), and dipped a fork into green paint and pressed the fork onto a sheet of white paper, over and over again. The texture looked just like pine needles!

Step 5: Assemble the final project
Each day, after we completed an ornament, we glued it onto our paper tree.  We added a star at the top and I hung the tree up in my office.  It made such a festive decoration!

You could also put your ornaments on a real tree.  A small tree dedicated to handmade ornaments would look so sweet!

Learning Connections

This simple project was full of meaningful learning opportunities:

• Letter recognition: Matching letters to words and sounds
  
• Fine motor skills: Cutting, gluing, and painting
  
• Faith conversations: Talking about Jesus, the manger, and the meaning of Christmas – I love weaving faith into everyday moments like this!
  

Our Finished Craft

Here’s a peek at our completed Christmas tree!

By Christmas Eve, my daughter could proudly name most of the letters we’d worked on, and our wall was decorated with a colorful reminder of the season. It wasn’t just a craft — it became a memory-making Advent tradition we’ll definitely do again.

Get the Printable

You can grab the Christmas Ornaments A–Z Printable Literacy Craft here on Teachers Pay Teachers. It’s a low-prep, easy-to-use activity that works beautifully for home, homeschool, or classroom Advent celebrations.

You Might Also Like…

If you’re looking for more fun Christmas crafts and activities, you’ll love these:

• How to Make Salt Dough Christmas Tree Ornaments
• How to Make Gingerbread Scented Play Dough
• Fun and Easy Magnetic Tile Christmas Trees
• The Best Christian Christmas Crafts for Kids
• Easy Hot Cocoa Sensory Bin

Final Thoughts

Advent is such a special time to slow down and focus on Jesus together. This ornament craft was the perfect way to weave in both learning and faith while keeping the joy of the season front and center. Whether you make one ornament a day or complete a few at a time, your child will love watching their Christmas tree fill up with colorful reminders of God’s love.