Inside: Learn how to make these adorable DIY Cone Christmas Trees with boxes you have lying around the house. I’ll even show you options to customize the trees so they match the rest of your Christmas decor.
When I was a newlywed, we didn’t have a lot of money for Christmas decor, so I had to get a little creative.
We started out with a 4-tree, gifted ornaments, and some DIY cone Christmas trees I made with my friends.
It cost me maybe $10 to make all of the trees and that was money well spent because I still put them up every year as part of our Christmas decorations.
So while they aren’t my most expensive Christmas decor, they are just as beautiful and maybe even better because they’re homemade.
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Materials
To make these DIY cone Christmas trees you’ll need:
- Cardboard boxes (Cereal, cracker, snack, and soda can boxes) – The thinner the better because they’ll be easier to roll
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Decorations – Suggested items include feathers, beads, ribbon, yarn, sequins, string, gems, paper, fabric, stickers, coffee filters, etc.
How do you make a Christmas tree cone?
There are a few ways to make the Christmas tree cones, but first I’ll show you how I do it.
It’s not very technical or exact, but it works and it’s why this project is easy.
The Easy Way
1. Unfold the boxes and cut the flaps off so you’re left with a large, solid rectangle.
2. Flip the box so the design is facing up and starting with one corner, start rolling the cardboard into a cone shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You’re just “creasing” the cardboard.
3. Once you’ve got the cardboard pre-rolled, have your hot glue gun ready, and this time roll the cardboard tightly so the top of the cone is as pointy as possible.
4. Hold the cardboard together in the cone shape and glue the open edge down so the cone stays together.
5. Allow the cone to dry and then trim the bottom with scissors so the cone stands straight.
6. Decorate your cones! For ribbon, string, or yarn you will need to use hot glue every so often to keep the materials from slipping on the cone.
Tips for the easy method
If you notice that there’s a lot of cardboard left after you’ve pre-rolled the cone, just cut the box in half so you don’t have a lot of box leftover.
The thin cardboard boxes work best to mimic the sleek, smooth surface of the store-bought cones.
During step four, you may have to put one hand inside the cone to twist the shape tight before you glue it together.
Check out this video of me making the Christmas tree cone if you need to see the process in real-time.
The Technical Way
If you have more time on your hands and want to get a really sleek cone shape, the other alternative is to tie a string to a pencil, hold the string in the middle of the paper and draw a perfect half-circle on the cardboard.
Here’s a video of this method.
The only downside to making the cone this way is that you won’t get to utilize the full surface area of the box, so the cones will be smaller.
DIY Cone Christmas Trees
Here are all of my completed DIY cone Christmas trees!
To get the look I used white feathers, a white feather boa, gold sequin trim, gold ribbon and gems, frilly ribbon, and beads glued on a skewer.
This is where you get to be creative!
You could even make these cone Christmas trees out of patterned or decorated paper.
Check out this post from The Budget Decorator for more DIY Christmas cone tree ideas.
Want More?
If you liked this post and you like saving money, you’ll love my Christmas budgeting post with 13 easy ways to save this holiday season!
Your Turn
Did you end up making these DIY cone Christmas trees?
If so, let me know what you used to decorate yours with in the comments!
