Today on The Inspiration Edit, I am sharing an awesome and easy Christmas craft for kids. It's simply and easy to make this Rudolf tealight ornament which I am sure you will love. Enjoy.
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💖 Why You'll Love This Craft
- Reindeer Squad Ready: Make one or a whole herd for a cute ornament collection.
- Hang or Gift: Pop it on the tree or gift it to someone for instant Christmas cheer!
- Kid-Friendly Crafting: Safe and simple, even little hands can join the reindeer fun!
🎨 Supplies Needed
- Small battery operated tealight
- Brown and red paint
- Paintbrushes
- Ribbon
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Wiggly eyes
- Sparkly gold pipe cleaners
RELATED POST: SNOWMAN ORNAMENTS FOR CHRISTMAS
🖌️ How To Make This Rudolf Tealight Ornament
- Step 1: Begin by painting the flame of your battery operated tealight with red paint. We used chalk paint because it is fast drying.
- Step 2: Once the flame of the tealight has dried, use brown paint to cover the rest of the front and sides of the tealight. You will not need to paint the back of the tealight. When the paint has dried completely, glue two wiggly eyes to the front of your painted tealight above the flame. Cut a gold sparkly pipe cleaner in half and form each half into a zigzag type of reindeer antler shape. You can see the photos for reference.
- Step 3: Hot glue the two pipe cleaner antlers to the back of the tea light, one behind each eye of the reindeer.
- Step 4: Cut a small piece of holiday ribbon and tie it into a small bow.
- Step 5: Glue the small bow to the bottom front of the tea light reindeer.
- Step 6: Cut another small loop of ribbon and hot glue it to the top of the back of the tea light in the middle. This will be the hanger for your ornament
Now you have your tea light rudolf. Enjoy
Have Fun With Rudolf
If you love Christmas and want more fun ideas then check out our Christmas section here on The Inspiration Edit. You might also want to make some super cute magic reindeer food with the kids to feed rudolf on Christmas eve!
💡 Pro Tip: Use a compass or round template to sketch layout guides on paper first—this gives kids a visual roadmap to follow on the actual ornament.
🧑🎨 Expert Tips
- Circle Centering: Have kids find and mark the exact center of the tealight before adding features, so elements like noses or eyes stay balanced.
- Radial Layout: Teach children to build features evenly around the center point to maintain symmetry in all directions on the round surface.
- Angle Checking: Let them turn the ornament slowly while decorating to check if each part looks even from multiple sides and angles.
- Edge Spacing: Remind kids to leave equal space between features and the tealight edge, keeping the design clear and preventing crowding.
- Front-Facing Placement: Encourage placing all major decorations facing one flat plane so the ornament looks consistent when hung or displayed.
- Round Surface Practice: Give children scrap circles to practice layouts before decorating the real tealight—this builds layout confidence on curved shapes.
💭 FAQs
Children watch how the red flame softens and spreads light. It helps them understand how glow changes with surface color and texture.
Yes, testing tealight effects builds curiosity about glow behavior. They learn how materials impact the way brightness appears to others.
Using small lights shows how color affects glow strength. Kids notice brightness changes when different filters are placed over it.
They observe how light changes beneath transparent layers, training their eyes to detect subtle differences in light and surface combinations.
🖌️ Related Crafts
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Rudolf Tealight Ornament
Equipment
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
Materials
- Small battery operated tealight
- Brown and red paint
- Paintbrushes
- Ribbon
- Wiggly eyes
- Sparkly gold pipe cleaners
Instructions
- Begin by painting the flame of your battery operated tealight with red paint. We used chalk paint because it is fast drying.
- Once the flame of the tealight has dried, use brown paint to cover the rest of the front and sides of the tealight.
- You will not need to paint the back of the tealight.
- Cut a gold sparkly pipe cleaner in half and form each half into a zigzag type of reindeer antler shape.
- You can see the photos for reference.
- Hot glue the two pipe cleaner antlers to the back of the tea light, one behind each eye of the reindeer.
- Cut a small piece of holiday ribbon and tie it into a small bow.
- Glue the small bow to the bottom front of the tea light reindeer.
- Cut another small loop of ribbon and hot glue it to the top of the back of the tea light in the middle.
- This will be the hanger for your ornament.
- Now you have your tea light Rudolf. Enjoy
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This is such a cute idea and it look easy as well! I will be making these with my kids this year 🙂
This so cute! My daughter is obsessed with reindeer so she would just love this!
Oh this is adorable ! How cute is that!