Popcorn Garlands
A Simple, Old-Fashioned Christmas Craft Kids Absolutely Love
There’s something almost magical about a bowl of popcorn sitting in the middle of a winter table. The smell is familiar, the steps are simple, and the craft unfolds slowly — piece by piece — just the way the season was meant to be enjoyed.
Here on the farm, popcorn garlands have become one of our favorite December traditions. They’re kid-friendly, cozy, inexpensive, and full of those tiny learning moments we love to tuck into our activities.
This is the kind of Christmas craft that makes kids slow down, lean in, and feel proud of what they’ve created.
🌾 A Cozy Bit of History
Long before families had bins of store-bought decorations, they used what they had — popcorn from the pantry, cranberries from winter bogs, and citrus abundant in the colder months.
Popcorn garlands were draped across mantels, wrapped around Christmas trees, and even strung outdoors for birds and woodland animals.
There’s something beautiful about knowing that when your child threads popcorn today, they’re doing something children have enjoyed for more than a century. Simple, frugal, and deeply traditional — a craft that truly connects past and present.
🌟 A Story From Long Ago
Imagine a little girl named Clara, living on a small farm more than a hundred years ago. In Clara’s farmhouse there were no quick trips to the store and no garage stacked with tubs of Christmas décor. Whatever her family hung on their tree was gathered, made, or created together at the kitchen table.
Clara’s mother would hand her a blunt needle and a bit of string and say,
“Let’s make the tree beautiful.”
Clara sat by the window, snow falling outside, carefully threading one soft piece of popcorn at a time. The fire crackled. The room smelled like woodsmoke and buttery corn. She tried her best to make a pattern — popcorn, cranberry, popcorn.
She kept threading, slowly and proudly, until her garland stretched across her lap like a snowy rope.
When she finally hung it on the Christmas tree — a real pine her father had brought in from the woods — the whole family stepped back and admired it. The tree didn’t need store-bought sparkle. It had something better: the work of their own hands.
And every year, Clara would make another one.
Not because she had to — but because it felt like Christmas.
Lets make a garland much like Clara’s……
🍿 Step 1: Gather Materials
Pop Popcorn That Won’t Crumble
The secret to a sturdy garland is firm, well-shaped popcorn.
Fresh, steamy popcorn tends to fall apart when kids poke it, so here’s our farm-tested method for perfect garland popcorn:
How to Make Strong Popcorn
Pop on medium heat (not high) so the kernels stay round and tight
Use just a teaspoon of oil
Shake the pot gently while popping
Spread popcorn out and let it dry overnight
Pick round, puffy pieces (skip flat or broken ones)
We used mushroom popcorn kernels — they pop into beautiful ball shapes that hold up incredibly well.
You can find them at Azure Standard (insert link) and the popcorn we used today on Amazon (insert link).
🍊 Add Citrus Slices (Fresh or Dried)
Popcorn garlands pair beautifully with citrus — and citrus is historically iconic at Christmastime. It’s one of the few fruits naturally abundant in winter, and families traditionally dried oranges for brightness and color.
Can kids use fresh citrus slices?
Absolutely. They’ll dry right on the string.
Today we used dried lemons, but oranges and even grapefruit add lovely color variety.
I sliced mine with a slicer I could set for uniform thickness.
6mm or ¼ inch is the perfect thickness.
🍒 Add Cranberries for Color
Fresh or lightly dried cranberries give those cheerful pops of red that make popcorn garlands feel festive and traditional.
If kids get frustrated, pre-poke cranberries with a toothpick or skewer — it makes threading much smoother.
Add Salt Dough Ornaments
Salt dough ornaments are another old-fashioned favorite you can add to your garlands. They’re wonderfully sturdy, easy for little hands to make, and they dry into the sweetest rustic shapes. We love mixing in cozy spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or cloves right into the dough — it makes the whole room smell like Christmas cookies (but don’t eat them!). Kids can cut them into stars, hearts, trees, or whatever shapes match your theme. And one little tip from experience: make sure you poke a large enough hole in each ornament before baking or drying so your needle or yarn can pass through easily — nothing frustrates excited, ready-to-thread kiddos faster than a tiny hole that won’t cooperate.
You can find our full salt dough ornament recipe and step-by-step instructions👉 HERE.
Add Wood Beads
Wood beads make garlands look extra magical and help break up delicate pieces. They slide easily onto yarn and give kids a confidence boost between popcorn and cranberries. Even the simplest patterns look beautiful when beads are added.
Other Ideas
Bells, bay leaves, felt shapes, or anything else that inspires your crew.🌲
🧵 Step 2: Let Kids Thread With Ease
For classroom success, we set up every child with:
A blunt plastic needle 👉(Amazon LINK)
A string of your choice — we used blue yarn, which was easy for little hands and added a gorgeous pop of color
Bowls of popcorn, fresh cranberries, dried or fresh citrus, and salt dough ornaments
Optional additions: wood beads, bells, bay leaves, felt shapes, cinnamon sticks, etc.
🔷 Introduce Patterns
This is a perfect moment to talk about patterns.
For young kids, start with simple questions:
“What is a pattern?”
“Would you like to make one, or go wild and create freely?”
Kids often surprise us with their creativity — and their freestyle designs are incredible. Don’t push a pattern if they want to be artistic and imaginative.
If your child needs ideas,👉 HERE is our link to pattern suggestions.
Once they get the rhythm, they beam with pride.
🎨 Step 3: Build the Garland
With everything prepped, kids are ready to create.
They choose a pattern, thread carefully, and watch their strand grow longer and more colorful. Every few minutes we hear:
“Look how long mine is!”
“Can I add a lemon slice?”
“I want to use the big bead next!”
It’s sweet, steady work — the kind that makes kids feel capable and calm.
🎄 Step 4: Hang & Admire
When the garlands are finished, we hold them up and admire the light shining through the citrus, the bright reds of the cranberries, the soft whites of the popcorn, and the warm tones of the wood beads.
And then — the very best moment — the kids get to hang their garlands exactly where they want: on trees, fireplaces, porch rails, or bedroom windows.
**Do let them know that if they decide to hang outside between weather and wildlife their garland will not last as long.
🍊 Try This! Science Extension: Orange Slice Drying Experiment
If you want to weave in a little science, try this simple experiment:
Slice oranges into ¼-inch rounds.
Weigh slices.
Dry in a dehydrator at 135°F for 6–12 hours, depending on juiciness.
Weigh again.
Subtract to see how much water evaporated.
Older kids can calculate the percentage of water lost.
Most slices lose over half their weight — an easy introduction to evaporation, moisture content, measurement, and basic subtraction.
Evaporation is what happens when liquid water turns into a gas and rises into the air.
Inside every slice of citrus is a lot of water — that’s what makes it juicy. When you place the slices into a dehydrator, warm air begins to move across their surface. That gentle heat gives the water molecules enough energy to escape from the fruit and float away into the air as invisible vapor.
As the water leaves, the slices become:
lighter
thinner
more translucent
a little curled around the edges
beautifully fragrant
The “weight loss” you’re measuring isn’t the fruit disappearing — it’s the water disappearing. The dehydrator is simply helping the water evaporate faster and more completely than it would on its own.
Kids can actually see evaporation in action:
The slices shrink.
The centers turn shiny and glassy.
The colors deepen as the water leaves.
The weight drops dramatically when you put them back on the scale.
Let the kids see the progress an hour in, 3 hrs in, 6 hrs in. It’s the perfect visual to show that so much of our food — even fruit that feels heavy — is mostly water. That water helps hydrate you sometimes even better than water does.
Once that water evaporates, you’re left with the sugars, fiber, minerals, and natural oils that make dried citrus smell amazing and look like tiny stained-glass ornaments.
🌟 Why Make Your Own Christmas Décor?
Handmade decorations:
are simple and inexpensive
mean no plastic bins of décor to store
invite kids into hands-on creativity
offer sensory learning (smell, texture, pattern, patience)
carry historical meaning and timeless charm
work for kids of all ages
look genuinely beautiful when finished
But most of all, they remind us that the best Christmas crafts aren’t complicated — they’re the ones made slowly, joyfully, and together. And if we’ve inspired you to try it at home, we’d love to see your creations! Feel free to tag us on Instagram or Facebook @k2acres.
