Tristan and I made these egg carton bells tree ornaments three years ago when he was two. So last year I made them again with two more two-year-olds. This year the girls only made one each, but last time we went a little crazy and made lots of them in different colours and sent them to family far and near for Christmas gifts. This post contains affiliate links.

We’ve been saving up our egg cartons for a while. We only buy six eggs at a time, but from those little cartons you can only get two of these bells. We have a friend on the case for us saving up larger cartons for some more crafts later in the dreary winter months ahead.
You’ll need the long, pointy bits that rise up between the eggs as you look into the box from the top. Carefully break these out of the box and trim them nicely with a pair of scissors.
Prepare the painting area and gather the children around the table, smocks on and brushes in-hand. Let them paint away on and in these bell-shaped bits, just watching that they don’t squish them too tightly and flatten them. We used gold paint this year, but you can use any colour your little one desires to make the bells nice and festive.
After the paint had dried…we waited until the next day when our little visitor came to play again. We threaded a jingle bell onto the end of a sparkly pipe cleaner that each girl had chosen. I measured it up and put a little bend in it so that part of it would hang down inside the ‘bell’ to allow it to ring. Then I threaded it up through the top of the bell and made a loop with which to hang the bell on the tree.
While the girls were painting their bells, Tristan was also painting a similar egg carton piece to make little “ice cream cones” that can also be hung on the tree by looping a thread loop through the top of the ice cream.

Everyone had fun while working on these egg carton bells and turning some garbage into a new work of art. Now we’re ready to ‘ring’ in the new year!
Don’t forget to have a walk through some of our other Christmas crafts for kids:
- Rudolph pine cone
- Finger print tree decorations
- Rudolph clothespin magnet
- Christmas Ideas page
- Music page
If you’re looking for crafts to go with Christmas story books, I recommend “Christmas Crafts For Kids – 100+ Activities, Crafts, and Recipes based on Children’s Books” You can read our review on it here.

Rebecca says
What a lovely idea! They look great.
I’ve featured this on The Sunday showcase this week. https://www.herecomethegirlsblog.com/2013/12/07/christmas-decorations-for-kids.html
Sugar Aunts says
Love it! We’re featuring this post too, tomorrow on Share It Saturday over at Sugar Aunts. Thanks for linking up!
Carrie @ Crafty Moms Share says
So cute!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Carli says
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing on Family Friday Link Up Party!
Jill @ Called To Be A Mom says
These are so cute! My toddlers would love these!
Carli says
These are so cute and look so easy! Pinning!
Crystal McClean says
Thank you, Carli! Have a great week 🙂
Natalie says
These bells are awesome! I love that they do not cost much to make and have an old-world kind of look. Oh, I am part of the Friday Linkup as well, and will start following with bloglovin’. Thanks for the share!
Crystal McClean says
Thank you so much for following along 🙂 We’ve made bells 2 years apart so both of my children could have fun with them. Merry Christmas!
Missy Homemaker says
So cute! I haven’t been able to use egg cartons because everyone keeps putting their broken shells back inside. lol I’m going to have to put a stop to that so we can use them for all the cute crafts I’ve been seeing.
Crystal McClean says
Once you start crafting with them your kids will say ‘you can’t throw that out, we can use it for a craft!’ At the moment I’m missing the ‘styrofoam’ type egg carton, I haven’t seen them here yet 😉
Janis Cox says
Hi,
Following you from Friday Linkup. I love using egg cartons too. I have a craft for making turtles using egg cartons. I would love you to link to Creative Saturdays.
Crystal McClean says
Thank you for stopping by, I’ll go check out your turtles 😉
Tammy Doiel @creativekkids.com says
Those are really cute! I’m going to pin this!
Crystal McClean says
Thanks so much, Tammy! Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
TheBargainBabe says
Those are adorable, never seen an egg carton used to make bells. 🙂
Crystal McClean says
It’s so easy and the kids enjoy jingling them. Egg cartons are very versatile.