This pipe cleaner and button wreath is a great Christmas craft for toddlers and preschoolers. It’s a lovely sensory craft and a great activity for strengthening fine-motor skills and eye-hand co-ordination.
See more of our easy Christmas crafts for toddlers here.
This button wreath ornament is very easy for young children to make, so it’s a great Christmas craft for toddlers and preschoolers. If you have older kids who love sifting through your button collection, they’ll enjoy it to, and will also love our mason jar lid button wreaths and our easy button trees.
Fine motor skills get a real work out while threading the buttons for this simple ornament. Sorting through the buttons is a terrific sensory activity too; the colours and textures of the buttons are a visual delight, and the rattling sound they make as you sort through them is so lovely.
I’ve had a thing for buttons every since I was a young child, sorting through my Nana’s button collection. My friends and family know this, so they pick them up for me when they come across a jar or bag of them at a thrift shop.
As a result, we’ve been using lots of buttons for our Christmas crafting this year.
We’ve made the buttons wreaths you see today, as well as these styrofoam button christmas tree ornaments and our painted button trees. We’ve even made a this simpler version of a button wreath.
The Hooligans love playing with buttons as much as I do, so before making our wreaths, we sat for about an hour on the kitchen floor, just sifting through our button collection, sorting, stacking, scooping, pouring.
I had a couple of glass containers for the kids to spoon the buttons into while we sorted, and one little guy said he loved the “music” the buttons made when he poured them into the jar.
Sigh…I know what you mean, buddy!
How to Make a Button Wreath
Supplies:
- buttons
- pipe cleaner
- ribbon
- metallic thread
Making your button wreath:
To make a button wreath, your kids will simply thread your buttons onto a pipe cleaner.
You might want to make a little loop at one end of your pipe cleaner, to prevent little ones from pushing the buttons right off the other end.
When you get your wreath to the size that you’re happy with, twist the ends of the pipe cleaner together to secure, and trim off any excess.
You’ll see a gap between the buttons where you secured your pipe cleaner. Just wrap that with a bit of ribbon and tie a decorative bow.
To finish, attach a loop of metallic thread for hanging, and hang it on your tree!
More easy Christmas Crafts for Kids:
- 10 Easy Ornaments for Kids to Make
- 12 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids
- 40 Kid-Made Gifts that Grown-Ups will Love
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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Maureen Antoski
Love them! I just have to get a collection like yours wow!!!!
happyhooligans
Thrift shops are a good place to find them. I just scored a HUGE bag (probably 1000 buttons) for a couple of bucks at a thrift shop last week. My mom picked up a few big jars full at an auction sale last summer too. I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to looking at and sifting through them!
Melissa (@ChMuffinTree)
So cute! Love it!
Rachelle | TinkerLab
I heart buttons, too. My three-year old requested that I sew a handful of buttons to the bottom of a skirt for her today. I guess that makes two button fans in my household 🙂
happyhooligans
What a cute idea! I love the way your daughter thinks! 🙂
Jill Blanchard
I plan to try the button wreath with my grandson. I have no buttons tho. I will go to Goodwill or thrift store for buttons …
happyhooligans
Good luck with your button search, Jill!
Laura S.
How do you successfully cut off the shanks of buttons?
Isabel O.
I don’t use the shank buttons for this project. But to cut off the shank, use wire cutters ( don’t forget to wear safety glasses when doing this!)
Kate
My mom was telling me last week about my Grammy’s epic button collection. She kept them in a mini chest of drawers separated by color. Whenever she needed to keep a kiddo busy (she had six of them + foster kids, so I sure that was often!), she’d dump them all out and tell them to sort them back into the box! Mom said she used to love it!