Cinnamon Christmas Trees

Sometimes a quick craft is just the thing to get you in a festive mood. I wanted to add something new to our Christmas tree this year, and stumbled across a few different ideas for using cinnamon sticks (of which I have a lot) to make Christmas ornaments. While my first few attempts resulted in utter failure (apparently I am not particularly good at cutting cinnamon sticks without breaking them... nor at making a star that looks star-shaped), I finally found a triangle ornament by Tag & Tibby that I thought was simple and charming.

As soon as I glued my first cinnamon sticks into the triangle shape... my eye fell onto the remnants of my failed attempts to cut cinnamon sticks into tiers, and INSPIRATION struck! All my triangle needed was a "trunk", and it was a perfect Christmas tree.

I felt like a kid on Christmas morning (and may have even done a little jig in my kitchen) at how adorable these would be. Immediately I ran to the garage for some wire cutters... snipped off the tips of a few garland ends (no one will ever notice!) and ran downstairs to raid my button and ribbon boxes. Five minutes later, I was hanging my newest ornament on our tree. After a moment to admire it... I went to make more!

Seriously simple, cute and FAST, these would make lovely gift-toppers too!
(Don't have time right now? Be sure to Pin for later!)

Let's make some together!
First, gather your materials (getting everything together before you start saves running around your house like I did).

You will need:
- 4 cinnamon sticks (at least two of them should be the same length; the one along the bottom can be slightly shorter if you wish). You will cut just a small piece from one of these sticks so, really you only need a small piece for the fourth one, not the whole stick... but chances are you won't already have a small piece handy.
- a small piece of faux evergreen needles approximately 4cm [1.25"] long (snipped off from a garland or wreath).
- a couple small red buttons.
- length of faux suede cord or 1/8" wide ribbon, approximately 18cm [7"] long.
- hot glue and glue gun, and a hack saw (for cutting a small piece off one cinnamon stick).

Using hot glue, overlap and stick together three cinnamon sticks in a triangle shape. You may have to play around with the best way to stack the sticks as some of them will be twisted one direction or the other. See what you like best with which way the cinnamon bark is curled. Personally, I liked trying to place them so that each stick was over at one end and under at the other end.

From the remaining cinnamon stick, cut a piece off that is about 2cm [3/4"] long. I found that a hack saw worked best for this. A side benefit if you do this step inside the house is that there will be a lovely aroma of cinnamon as you are sawing away!
Glue this small piece on the bottom of the triangle to create the tree trunk.

Bend the piece of evergreen into a slight "U" shape. Glue this into one corner of your tree and then glue the red buttons on top.
To finish, string the length of cord/ribbon through the triangle, and tie the ends in a knot.

And just like that, your tree has a new cinnamon spicy ornament this season!

One of the things I liked best about this idea is how fast it is to make. If you have more time though and want an ornament that gets your hands on some fabric instead, check out the free patterns for Fleece Gingerbread Men or Patchwork Christmas Stars that I posted last year!

Merry Christmas!