Printable Merry Christmas Banner

Make this free printable Merry Christmas banner for a quick and easy way to elevate your Christmas tree from basic to classic this year!

Hey guys!! I am back with my last Christmas post of the season. Just in time too! Whew!! I was so thrilled with how well this printable Merry Christmas banner turned out! I was a little afraid that they would look too simple being made out of plain paper, however I think the glitter around the edges really makes them look stunning. The glitter is like a power boost for the banners. Ha! Seriously though, they look so pretty on the tree all glittery and shiny!

I guess some people might be opposed to putting paper banners on their Christmas tree, but I say try it before you knock it. They really look elegant in the tree and I don’t even notice that they are made from paper, to be honest. I love an easy, inexpensive DIY project to make my trees look better and this one checked all the boxes.

The best part is they are practically free to make. If you already have a printer and paper, glue and glitter laying around, you are golden! I found this particular champagne colored glitter at Hobby Lobby as I was initially planning on making these for my Candy Christmas tree which has champagne ornaments on it. However, after making a whole candy Christmas ornament series for that tree, I needed something for my silver and gold Christmas tree. I think the Merry Christmas banners fit in so much better with this tree anyway! 

Supplies to make a printable Merry Christmas banner

*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.

• Merry Christmas template (see below)
• Mod Podge (or regular glue)
• Glitter
• Foam Brush and small paint brush
• Scissors
• Paper Cutter – this is optional, you can use scissors, but this makes the job easier!
• Paper
• Ruler – I think it is time for a new ruler for me, this one is looking a little worse for wear! LOL!

Print out the Merry Christmas banner template

The first step is to print out the Merry Christmas banner templates onto a piece of regular paper. I think paper works better for this project over card stock as it is more pliable. When you put it on the tree, you want it to look wavy and resemble ribbon. One sheet of paper will get you two banners. I made 10 banners in all for my tree but you may need less or more depending on how many you want on your tree. Also, I think my toner is getting low on our printer, that is why the printing looks lighter in some places and there are lines running through the words. Yours will hopefully look better. 😉

When you are printing, make sure you print this pattern at 100% to make sure the size is correct. Every printer is different so just make sure your settings are not set to ‘fit to page‘ or that the box is not checked letting your printer make changes. 

How to make a Merry Christmas banner

The next thing you need to do is to measure and mark some lines where to cut the banners so that they are all uniform in size. Each word should be about 1″ in height and 1″ in between them. I measured and marked a line ½” above and below each word.

When using a paper trimmer, it is easier to have the marks on the edges to line them up with the trimmer. So I lined the ruler up straight with the marks I made, and made more marks on the side.

Cut the strips for banners

Now line up the marks on your paper trimmer and cut some straight lines. If you don’t have a paper trimmer, you can always just mark lines with the ruler all the way across and cut them out with scissors.

Cut out all the strips at this time.

How to make swallow tail ends on banners

To make the banners look better, I cut the ends into swallow tail shapes. Again, you want them all to be the same size so instead of winging it and cutting the ends, I measured them out. I made a mark 1″ in from the end of the Christmas strip.  Then lining up the ruler on that mark, I measured across the 2″ strip and made a dot in the middle. 

Instead of measuring the Merry strip as well, I just laid it upside down and backwards under the Christmas strip and cut them both at the same time. This will produce a swallow tail at the beginning and end of the banner.

The dot is where you will cut to with some scissors when cutting out the ‘V’ shape for the swallow tail. Make sure you don’t cut past this dot.

Glue the two banners together

Next you will need to glue the two strips of banner together, but we need to trim down the Merry strip first. Lay the two strips in a line and measure out 1.5″ from the right edge of the Y to the left edge of the C. Make a mark at the top of the Merry strip where the C starts. This is where you will cut. (It just occurred to me that alternatively you could just measure 1.5″ from the Y and cut that. D’oh! LOL!)

Add a little strip of glue with a foam brush to the end of the Merry strip and glue the Christmas strip down on top of it. Trim the meeting point to have a continuous edge in they don’t line up perfectly.

Add glitter to edges of banners

Now comes the fun part! Glitter!! Just be prepared, it will get everywhere, like it always does whenever you use it. 😉 Using the small paintbrush, paint on a small line of glue on the edge of the banner. Next, slowly pour some glitter onto the glue and shake/tap it off onto a paper plate. I worked in small sections at a time to ensure the glue did not dry before I could pour on the glitter.

When I got a pretty good pile of glitter on the plate, I also started to dip it into the glitter instead of pouring it on. This worked really well for the ends.

Continue adding glitter around all the edges. 

Now you are ready to hang your printable Merry Christmas banner in the tree! When I placed them in tree, I tried to make them look like they had motion. So going from a lower to higher branch or vice versa and waving it in and out a bit. 

All that is left is to just stand back and admire the sparkle!! I hope you like this printable Merry Christmas banner project as much as I do and will try them out too. Now it is time to go enjoy the holidays! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Chat soon friends!