Macrame Christmas Tree Ornament

Make your own ornaments this year, like this cute macrame Christmas tree ornament! It is an easy DIY project to do with the kids or the whole family!

Welcome back to part three of my four-part macrame Christmas ornament series! Today we are learning how to make this adorable macrame Christmas tree ornament. You will learn a new knot for this ornament, but again it is a very basic macrame knot.

If you want to check out the other macrame Christmas ornaments in my series, here are the links:

• Macrame wrapped wood ring snowflake ornaments
• Macrame Christmas Wreath Ornament
• DIY Macrame snowflake ornament

There are several different ways to make a macrame Christmas tree, but the was the cutest, in my opinion! So, I decided to share this way with you. Plus it gives us a chance to go over another basic knot of macrame… the square knot.

Supplies to make a macrame Christmas tree ornament

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use. If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase. I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.

• Macrame cord (4mm)
• Wood Beads (16mm) – mine are from a wood bead garland I bought at Walmart. I just cut part of the garland off. 
• Scissors
• Large embroidery needle
• Embroidery thread or yarn
• Fabric or tacky glue

How to make a square knot

Don’t want to read all the instructions? I have included a video in this post showing you how to make this macrame Christmas tree ornament. If you can’t see the video, turn off your ad blocker. If you want more detailed instructions, continue reading.

Cut two lengths of macrame cord to 10 feet each. Fold both cords in half, then adjust the lengths of each side so that the inside lengths are 2 feet long and the outside lengths are 8 feet long. Lay them next to each other with the shorter lengths on the inside facing each other. For ease of explaining this knot, we will refer to the orientation of the ropes below as A, B, C & D going from left to right.

To make a square knot, take rope A and fold it over ropes B & C and under rope D. Next take rope D and run it under ropes A, C & B coming out over rope A again through the opening on the left side. Pull both A & D tight. If the knot looks like a pretzel, you know you did it correctly.

Next, you will do the same thing just starting on the right hand side this time. Rope D goes over ropes C & B, then under rope A. Rope A goes under rope D, B & C and comes out going over rope D again. Pull the both sides tight. 

You will continue in this pattern to make a square knot chain. If you want to make it laying on the counter, you will need to secure the top of the chain to make it easier to work with. You could do this with a macrame board and some pins, or just some tape or something heavy. I found it easier to hold it in my hands while making the square knot chain as you will see in the video. Here is a tip for you… if you forget which side you are supposed work on next, just look for the side with the rope on top. You will start the next knot on that side.

Continue until you have worked as far down as you can on the outside ropes. You will have a pretty decent sized square knot chain.

How to make a macrame Christmas tree ornament

First, thread a 30″ length of embroidery thread or thin yarn onto a large embroidery needle. Pull it through so it is even on both sides. The larger the needle, the easier this step will be. This happened to be the biggest one I already had, so I used it. Lay this aside.

Next, take the square knot chain and starting at the top, form it into a Christmas tree shape. You will do this by folding the chain back and forth, starting out very small at the top and getting progressively bigger as you go down. Shape the Christmas tree so that the end of the square knot chain is at the bottom edge of the tree.

Now take the embroidery needle and work it up through the center of the Christmas tree while still holding the shape in place. If you have a smaller needle, you may need to work it up a little at a time, letting go of the part that you already threaded on.

Once you have worked the whole needle through, tie a large knot at the base of the Christmas tree. Pull it tight and make sure it does not pull through.

Tie another large knot at the top of the Christmas tree and string on a wood bead. If the wood bead opening is bigger than your thread/yarn, you will need to loop the needle through the bead a second time to secure it. Cut the thread below the needle and knot it.

Add some fringe at the bottom

The last step is to add some fun fringe at the bottom of the Christmas tree. For the fringe, you will need to cut 10 pieces of macrame cord to a length of 6 inches each. Set these aside and add a wood bead on to the bottom of the tree. Separate the two strands of thread and lay the pieces of macrame cord in between the two threads, making sure they are centered. Tie the thread into a square knot so it does not slip.

We still need to deal with the ends of the square knot chain. Make sure you pull both sides tight then snip off the ends. I added a couple drops of tacky glue to the cut ends and spread it around so the ends would unravel. I also glued the end of the square knot chain to the layer right above it so that it would not flop down.

At this point you can either leave the fringe as is, or comb it out so it is more fluffy. You can see both options in the picture below.

To comb out the fringe, I used a fine tooth rat tail comb. I found it easier to separate the strands first with the rat tail end and then comb it out. Make sure you hold on to the opposite side you combing out so you don’t pull the cord all the way out. Which ever way you decide to leave the fringe, trim the uneven ends so they look nicer.

Enjoy your macrame Christmas trees

These DIY macrame ornaments look fantastic hanging on the Christmas tree, but I could also envision making them into a super cute Christmas garland, couldn’t you? Maybe that is a project for next year? 😉

I will be back soon with the last installment of my macrame Christmas ornaments series. We will be making a snowflake ornament and it is a little more involved, so that is why I saved it for the last. But with all your newfound macrame knot knowledge, it shouldn’t be an issue, right? 🙂