Have you seen the vintage Christmas tree hats? They were popular in the 1940’s-50’s and were very whimsical! So I thought I’d make my own. This is a very satisfying craft- it takes less than an hour to make and it’s really fun seeing it come together. If you need a way to make a holiday party super festive, make a DIY Christmas tree hat with me!

diy Christmas tree hat

SUPPLIES

step 1- make the cone

To start this project, grab some poster board. I’m just using an old basketball poster- this is a good item to use what you have on hand. Shape the poster board into a cone.

I have a Halloween Witch hat and so I used that as the base to form my cone around. This isn’t necessary and you can just shape it into a cone.

Use hot glue to glue the flap down and thus hold the cone in one place.

Next, I used a measuring tape to measure 10.5 inches down from the point of the cone and drew a line all the way around the hat.

Now all you have to do is take scissors and trim along that line.

This will give the bottom a nice straight line along the bottom. At this point, the base of the DIY Christmas tree hat is complete!

step 2- glue on tinsel

Next, take a hot glue gun and apply the hot glue along the bottom of the hat.

Press the tinsel onto the hot glue. I’m using gold tinsel- whatever color you use will be the main color of the hat. If you want to go more literal with the Christmas tree idea, you can use green tinsel.

Continue applying the glue and the tinsel as you work your way up the hat. The tinsel is super thick with lots of pieces so it can be a little tricky to get to the base of the hat to apply the glue. Do your best to move the tinsel out of the way.

Finish at the top of the hat. At this point I felt like the hat was too wide at the top so I used scissors to trim the tinsel so it was more pointed at the top like a triangle.

step 3- add decorations

And now, the fun part! Add decorations to the DIY Christmas tree hat! I began with a snowflake tree topper at the top of the cone that I hot glued on.

I also added some small pink tinsel garland and glued it on top of the other tinsel. It got wrapped around the whole length of the tree hat.

Then I wrapped miniature battery operated lights around the tree. I started at the top where I hot glued one bulb of the lights to the hat. Then I worked my way to the bottom- winding the lights around the tree shape.

The battery pack is attached to the inside of the hat with Velcro dots so it stays tucked out of sight while wearing it. I made sure to position it near the bottom edge of the hat so I can easily reach it to turn the lights on and off.

The Velcro also makes it easy to remove the battery pack when it’s time to change the batteries!

I also hot glued on ornaments. I got miniature ones that are meant for a small tree.

They work perfectly for this hat and I just hot glued each ornament in place.

I’m a bow lover so I made velvet bows out of pink ribbon and glued them at the top of the ornaments for a sweet look.

Besides those pieces, I thrifted some silver Christmas leaves and a mini Poinsettia. At this point, I also glued those into place.

step 4- finish with a chin strap

Finally, the last step is hot glue on two ribbons to create a chin strap. For this, I used 1-1/2″ pale pink grosgrain ribbon. This keeps the hat in place. I cut each ribbon to 32″ long. The top of the ribbons get hot glued inside the hat on either side of where your head will go. I specifically planned a front view of the hat as I was gluing items on so I kept that in mind when using hot glue to attach the ribbons.

after

Ta da! Here is my finished DIY Christmas tree hat! I LOVE how it came together.

It lights up, it’s my favorite pastel colors, and is very fun to wear.

Yes, it’s kitschy and silly, but life is too serious IMO, might as well have fun at the holidays! It can also be used for Christmas decor when not being worn. Just tuck the ribbons into the base of the hat and it looks really cute on a table top.

price breakdown

For this project, I started gathering items to make it last year. So I really don’t know what my total is. BUT for this project, I 100% recommend thrifting as many of the supplies as possible. It’s a small tree so having little baubles from the thrift store works perfectly.

time spent

This was a fast project! And very satisfying! For me, it took less than an hour to make the whole thing. I stopped for filming and photos, so that adds time. This would make SUCH a fun party craft! It’s fast and easy to make. Then you could all wear them together and have dessert and drinks- sounds like a blast to me!

I hope this DIY Christmas tree hat inspires you to make something a little silly and extra festive this holiday season! You can customize it with your favorite colors, vintage ornaments, and tinsel to make it completely your own. Now all that’s left is to put it on, turn on the lights and a holiday album, and enjoy a little extra Christmas magic!

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