Easter Tree Decorating for Kids
Today, let’s learn how to decorate and Easter Tree with kids. I remember gorgeous pussy willow Easter decorations as a child. The process for the Easter Tree Decorating is the same! You can replace our Easter Tree with painted twigs in a vase or gorgeous pussy willow branches or dogwood branches and then have lots of fun making DIY Easter tree ornaments! Easter Trees (or Ostereierbaum) are very popular in Germany, Sweden and Austria and are gaining in popularity across the United States!
Time for some Easter Craft Inspiration. I mentioned a few weeks back, that we went to a Hobbycraft craft morning… they had these wonderful Easter Trees for decorating and I have been eyeing them up ever since.
I WAS going to make one from branches we picked up on our walk (they have been sitting around our house for about 3 weeks now), when they said they would send me one of theirs! Squeal. It will come in handy later in the year to decorate with Christmas Tree ornaments too, don’t you think? In the meantime it will make a great centerpiece for the Easter brunch table!
Need to make your own DIY Easter Egg Tree…? Check out the next section!
How do you make an Easter Tree DIY?
It tutorial steps are brief and very simple:
1. Find a suitable container – e.g. a large vase or jug
2. Collect your branches – be it pussy willow, dogwood or other branches
As mentioned if using “ordinary” branches, you can paint them white. But why not stay eco friendly and leave them as is? Super pretty too!
3. Tidy your branches a little
You don’t want too many “small bits”, else your arrangement will be messy, but you do need some offshoots for hanging your Easter eggs from.
4. Please in your vase, with some rocks and if the branches needed it water. But normal twigs and pussy willow can manage without.
I think filling your vase with stones or rocks works best, but some people like to use floral foam or just water to weigh down the Easter tree.
5. Grab your tree decor and start decorating (see ideas below!)
This is where you can get as creative and decorative as you like and also match it with any Easter decorating themes that you may have this year!
My top tip for making authentic German Easter trees (Osterbaums)? Keep it as natural as possible.. avoid the need for paint, hot glue guns or glue dots. Keep it simple and pretty! Easter is all about spring, rebirth and nature afterall!
Supplies needed to decorate OUR Easter Tree
- 6 Blown out eggs
- Acrylic paint (acrylic best for our brown eggs, but if have white ones, any will do)
- Feathers
- Markers
- A little cardboard for the bird’s beaks
- A toothpick and twine (for hanging)
- A little glue
- Scissors
- Green & pink tissue paper
Anyway, the kids and I got to work. We love this as a Easter Preschool Craft too – a great together project for kids of all ages!
How to decorate an Easter Tree
Blow out your eggs to make Hollow Eggs for Decorating
I decided to blow our eggs out “from the side” rather than the top.. to make it more “bird like”. But you can do it the traditional way too!
Paint your eggs in pretty pastels
As the eggs in the UK are usually brown, I had to paint our eggs in pretty Easter colours with acrylics.
I did this by balancing the eggs on toothpicks stuck into an egg carton. I also “painted over” the top hole, to make it extra neat looking.
Decorating the pastel eggs with feathers and ribbon
The kids and I then added feathers, beaks (cut from card) and eyes to our egg birds. Can you tell who made which? A hint – Red Ted chose the googly eyes and Pip and I the pen.
We hung them on our tree… and then started decorating the tree to make it all Eastery and Spring like.
Hang on the Easter tree branches
First the tissue paper “blossom” –
I cut out tissue paper leaves that we literally just “skewered on”. I want to be able to remove them, so we can decorate again next year. For the petals, I cut out pink tissue paper squares. The kids scrunched them up and again we just “pierced” them onto the tree.
Red Ted REALLY got into this. And started talking about The Four Seasons.
Mummy, when it is Winter, can we make the leaves fall down.
And at Easter we will have to put a little basket with eggs in it at the bottom.
And we can add brown leaves before they all fall down.
Clearly our annual The Four Seasons projects are paying off!
And done!! I think it is SOOO pretty and we are so happy with it! Have you decorated an Easter Tree?
How about more Easter Craft Ideas:
Need more Egg Decorating ideas?