Paper Plate Christmas Tree Whirligig

It is paper plate twirler time again. You guys adore the fabulous Autumn Tree Twirlers (with it’s lovely falling leaves – great for adding Thankfulness messages to), that it is now time for a, yes you guessed it, Paper Plate Christmas Tree Whirligig. I my daughter says this is her favourite.. well, we ALL love Christmas, right? And this 3d Christmas Tree for Kids to make is just adorable and so so sooooo easy. Love everything about it. Just so fun. This Christmas Tree Twirlers make great kids’ room decorations or classroom decorations. I think that this would be a great collaborative project too – you can spend as little or as long as you want on the Paper Baubles hanging from the Paper Plate Tree – either cut some colourful circles (like we did) or use toddler paintings or get everyone to design one in detail. You can even hang “photo baubles” from your Christmas Whirligig!! One simple Paper Plate craft, so many options! This is a fabulous Christmas Craft for Preschoolers and Tots

If you like to plan ahead…. check out these FABULOUS Paper Plate Dragon Whirlgigs for Chinese New Year (complete with printable dragons)

Christmas Tree Paper Plate Twirlers – Materials

• Per tree a paper plate – if you are short on time and can get green ones, perfect, but we like to paint ours
• Green paint & brushes
• Coloured paper we used “paper scraps” and focussed on rainbow colours
• Scissors, glue stick, stapler
• Hole punch (single hole hole punches are super handy US / UK)
• Bakers Twine (oh how I LOVE bakers twine) (US/ UK)

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As mentioned, you could also use photos to make your paper baubles or you could make 3D Paper Baubles – make this as simple or as “extended” as you like. If your baubles take longer to make, then these Christmas Tree Whirligigs make great collaborative projects too – get a team of kids in the classroom or a siblings to work together.

How to make Paper Plate Christmas Tree Whirligigs

We have another short and sweet Whirligig video for you to watch.. but again have Step by Step Twirler instructions (with photos) below! Choose which ever method you prefer!

How to make a Paper Plate Whirligig – step by step instructions

• Paint your paper plate a lovely Christmas Tree green. Let it dry and paint the reverse side.

• Whilst waiting for the paper plate to dry, you can start cutting out some cirlces for baubles and 2 paper stars. We cut out about 12 Baubles and I think used 9 of them… decorate if you wish!

• Once your paper plate is dry, get your scissors and cute a spiral into your Paper Plate to make the Christmas Tree Twirler. It should look a bit like a snail.
• NOTE: the thicker your snail twirls the more compact your Christmas tree will be.. the thinner.. the more “elongated” it will be. It is a style preference!

• Take a piece of string and tie a knot one end. Then staple it into place.
• Next you glue your paper star to the top of your tree – make the string stick between the 2 stars.

 

• Now comes the fun bit (actually, all of it is fun). Take your hole punch and make holes into your baubles and into your Christmas Tree Paper Plate. On the paper plate, try and spread them out evenly.. but to be honest, we sort of added them as we went along… and then ended up skipping some holes. Again… it is really a matter of preference as to how many “baubles” you would like to add to your Tree Twirler!

• Tie on each bauble with a peice of string. Now this can be great fine motor skills for younger kids. They can thread the string and you can knot it onto the tree for them.

And your easy peasy Paper Plate Christmas Tree Whirligig is FINISHED!!

Love Paper Plate Crafts for Kids? Check out this fabulous collection of Paper Plate ideas:

Want more Christmas Crafts for Preschoolers? Look no further!

More Paper Plate Whriligigs from Red Ted Art

• Christmas Tree Twirler
• Autumn Tree Twirler
• Dragon Whirligig for Chinese New year
• and now of course the cute Paper Plat Star Whirligig