It’s the week before Christmas, and all the kids are in the house!

24/7.

You and I are going to need to find some way to channel all that excited energy bouncing off the walls – before the whole house goes crazy.

This is why I wanted to share the tutorial for this popsicle stick sled ornament, this very week.

It’s a wonderful craft you can do with your kids (or yourself), made from basic materials you probably have lying around the home.

You can opt to paint them or leave them in their lovely, light wood natural state.

Either way, they are an absolutely charming decoration for the tree.

My husband actually made these a few years ago, and I briefly posted an image of the sled, HERE.  It is such a hit every holiday season, I decided it was high time to do a step-by-step tutorial for the popsicle stick sled.

So we made up another batch to match our current tree decorations, and they were the perfect touch to our cottage Christmas theme.

If you missed my complete Christmas home tour this year, feel free to come check it out!

I haven’t talked a lot about how we pulled the tree together, so I thought I would share more details here.

First, I wrapped it in some ticking wired ribbon.  I wanted to keep the decorations pretty basic and just started adding some natural elements, such as snow covered pinecones and cranberries.

Then I threw in some dollar store mini red ball ornaments, some vintage Santa pictures and finally – THE SLED!

I love how the red pops against the flocked tree, and I love that it is not too busy.

Any way – Let my husband and I show you how easy these sleds are to make.  I have the kids help and watch as we put them together with the glue gun, and then I let the kids paint them entirely.  A quick sanding and distressing when the paint dries, unifies them all together.

Supplies for 1 sled:

• 8 mini popsicle sticks
  • Available in dollar stores or craft stores.
• 2 Regular size popsicle sticks
• Hot Glue Gun
• Craft Paint (optional)
• Ribbon or Twine
• Sharp scissors or garden shears
• Sand Paper

Begin by taking 2 of the mini sticks and cutting off about 1/4 inch from both ends of both sticks.  Sharp scissors will work for this job, but garden shears slice through it like butter.

This may leave the ends rough, but can be sanded down easily with sand paper.

Take 5 of the mini stick and align them together like shown in the image below.

Apply glue to the back of one of the mini sticks with the ends removed.

Adhere the piece on top of the 5 arranged mini sticks, like shown below.  Do the same for the 2nd trimmed mini stick, and glue it to the bottom.

Place a dab of glue to the very ends of the cut sticks.

Carefully lay one of the regular sized popsicle sticks on top of those glue dots, on its side.  The bottom of this stick should almost line up with the bottom of the sled.  Or in other words, be sure the top of the regular sized stick is higher than the arranged smaller sticks.  Refer to the image below.

Repeat these steps for the second regular sized stick.

Once the glue is dried, flip the sled over.  Take the last mini stick and glue it to the top of the regular sized sticks, like so.

At this point, you can choose to paint it any color of choice.  Once it is dried, lightly sand and distress the sled.

Finally, cut your twine or ribbon to the desired length and hot glue the ends to the back side of the top mini stick.

Once you have made one, the rest come together very quickly.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!  I’m signing out for the week to soak it all it!

Thanks for reading!

*Linking up to these parties, HERE.