(Mostly) Free Patterns and Instructions for Making Christmas Crafts and Holiday Craft Projects (Plus a Few Suggestions for Christmas Craft Pattern Books That Are Truly Worth the Money)

‘Tis the season to be crafty! If you’re feeling creative, these free ideas and instructions for Christmas crafts are sure to inspire you throughout the holiday season.

Are you planning to give handmade gifts to everyone you know, or maybe just one or two special people? Are you interested in making Christmas decorations for your home? How about Christmas accessories to wear? There are zillions of satisfying reasons to get started with making Christmas crafts. No matter what your reason, we’re hoping that you’ll be able to use the ideas we’ve shared to enrich your Christmas crafting adventures.

How to Make Your Own Christmas Cards

Handmade Christmas cards are some of the most popular Christmas crafts. If you’d like to make festive holiday greeting cards to send to your faraway friends or give to your colleagues and neighbors, you’re invited to check out the fun card making tutorials, instructions and ideas posted at this website.

• Find more Christmas card making ideas HERE.
• See Also: Is it cheaper to make your own Christmas cards and gifts?

Unique DIY Christmas Ornaments to Make

Want to deck your halls with handmade Christmas ornaments and other fabulous DIY Christmas decorations? If so, this is the place to load up on unique ornament patterns, tutorials and inspiration.

• Easy Crochet Christmas Tree Ornament — Free Pattern
• Crochet Snowflake Christmas Ornament — Free Pattern
• Lacy Wreath Christmas Ornament — Free Crochet Pattern

Bead Embroidery DIY Christmas Stocking

Holiday Table Settings, and Kitchen Patterns for Christmas

For some people, the holidays are really nothing more than a good excuse to throw Christmas parties, scarf Christmas cookies, drink eggnog and cook up some epic meals. So we think it’s important to offer a variety of patterns enabling you to set a gorgeous holiday table, and also to keep things looking festive in the kitchen.

Napkin Rings Suitable for Christmas:

• Beaded Christmas Napkin Rings
• Copper Beaded Wire Crochet Napkin Rings
• Pull Tab Napkin Rings With Dark Green Wire Accents

Christmas Potholders:

Free potholder patterns for making the projects pictured above, from left to right:

• Christmas Cupcake Potholders to Crochet
• Crochet Snowflake Potholders
• Peppermint Candy-Inspired Crochet Potholders — Free Pattern

Christmas Decorations

Want to update your home decor for the holidays this year? If so, any of the following home decor patterns could inspire you.

• DIY Christmas Candy Cane Dispenser
• Christmas Crochet Blanket Pattern
• Christmas Crochet Pillow Pattern

Snowflake Trivet — A Craft Project You Can Make for Christmas and the Entire Winter Season

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Christmas Appliques

You can magically transform just about any item, including store-bought items, into Christmas projects. It’s easy! Just stitch a Christmas-themed applique to the item, and there you have it. An ordinary scarf can become a Christmas scarf, or an everyday hat can become a Christmas hat using this method. You can also use appliques to dress up plain Christmas tree skirts, Christmas stockings, and more.

• Crochet Christmas Tree Applique

Christmas Gift Baskets, Giftwrap Ideas and Gift Containers

Baskets make a lovely and sustainable alternative to giftwrap — and it’s particularly nice to knit or crochet your own Christmas basket. Pictured above is a crocheted basket I designed especially for this purpose; however, many of the baskets on our basket pattern list could be suitable to use for making Christmas gift baskets.

Find more ideas for making sustainable Christmas and holiday giftwrap on the following pages:

Crochet Wine Bottle Cover or Liquor Bottle Cover Pattern

Christmas Giftwrap Idea

Christmas Accessories

‘Tis the season to dress up in festive Christmas scarves and accessories.

• Dressy Neck Warmer That’s Easy Enough for Total Beginners

Grid Lace Christmas Scarf Pattern

Crochet this festive scarf to wear to Christmas parties or just wear around during the Christmas holiday season.

Christmas Jewelry Patterns

Get free instructions and ideas for making your own Christmas jewelry. Whether you want to make jewelry for yourself or to give as gifts to your friends, family and colleagues, these free patterns and tutorials are sure to inspire you.

• DIY Button Necklace Crocheted in Christmas Colors
• Wire Lace Cuff Bracelet Crocheted in Christmas Colors
• Red, Green and Turquoise Bead Crochet Bracelet

Christmas Squares and Edging Patterns

• Crochet Puff Stitch Christmas Tree Square — Includes instructions for making a pillow or blanket using this design.
• Crochet Christmas Tree Square
• Simple Single Crochet Blanket Border — ideal for embellishing a Christmas afghan, but useful for just about any other blanket or afghan as well.
• Christmas Crochet Checkerboard Afghan Squares

So there you have it: that’s our roundup of free Christmas patterns to knit and crochet. We hope you found bunches of worthwhile patterns to either work on or add to your pattern archives.

More Christmas Gift Ideas

Do you need to produce the coolest-ever Christmas gift for a knitter or crocheter in your inner circle? If so, you’ll want to check out our current Christmas gift guide featuring a mix of spectacular gift ideas. Some of the suggestions cover the trendiest yarns and needlework gadgets available. Others cover the best, highest quality time-tested classics that have been around for years — with good reason. Whether your gift recipient prefers the latest needlecraft gear or old-school traditional favorite craft supplies, you’ll find ideas for gifts you’ll be proud to give at Christmas or any time.

Find My Top Picks for the Best Christmas Craft Books

You’ve reached the end of my list of suggestions for free Christmas craft project ideas. I hope you found some fantastic project ideas to work on.

But please don’t worry if you didn’t find what you’re looking for amongst the project ideas posted above. There are zillions more possibilities!

If you want to find premium, top-of-the-line Christmas craft projects, I invite you to check out my top picks for the best Christmas craft books HERE.

Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Christmas Knits

Jorid Linvik is a Norwegian knitting pattern designer who has a talent for designing truly unique motifs, many of which feature depictions of animals that tug at your heartstrings. In this book, she’s focused her attention on designing holiday-friendly projects that are all gift-worthy (of course, you’ll probably want to make some of these items for yourself, too.

This book is filled with festive projects including dolls and stuffed toys to give to the children you know; appealing accessories such as hats, mittens, cowls and socks; Christmas stockings featuring Jorid’s super creative animal motifs; pretty bows for decking your halls, your gifts, your Christmas tree, your kids and yourself; a DIY advent calendar; and more.

Learn More About This Book:

• Click here to check out our book review of Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Christmas Knits.
• Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.

Christmas Stencils

Here’s a fun, festive little Christmas stencil by Waffle Flower Crafts. The stencil design features an image of a giftwrap bow and a simple “Merry Christmas” sentiment. This is known as the “Merry Bow Stencil”. It is useful for making your own Christmas gift tags, Christmas cards, December Daily scrapbooking layouts, Christmas mini albums and Christmas scrapbooking layouts. It could also be useful for decorating your planner or bullet journal (BUJO) spreads or for many other purposes.

Click or tap here to shop for the Merry Bow Stencil at A Cherry on Top Crafts.

Over to You:

Which craft projects are you interested in working on next? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

If you found this page helpful, I invite you to return to this site often for more craft tutorials, project ideas and inspiration! You can make sure you keep this site on your radar by signing up for my newsletter and community at Substack. .

Basic subscriptions are free; I send out regular newsletters to let my subscribers know about new craft articles and tutorials as they are posted. I also share details about the craft projects I’m working on, and invite my readers to share their projects, too. So there is no need to feel like it’s just you, crafting all alone at home. I’d love to have you join us! You’re invited!!

By Amy Solovay

Please Visit My Ko-Fi Shop HERE to Find My Sample Sale, Destash Sale and Digital PDF Pattern Downloads for Sale.

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About the Author:

Amy Solovay is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Sweet Briar College; she has also earned a separate Associate of Arts degree in textile design from FIDM LA (The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles). She is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write book reviews or articles for this website.

As a child, Christmas was Amy Solovay’s favorite holiday — and she still enjoys Christmas crafting and gift giving all these years later.

As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles.

If you’re interested in reading Amy’s personal blog, she invites you to visit her official website, AmySolovay.com.

This page was last updated on 11-17-2024.