DIY Penguin Christmas Tree Ornament

This Felt Penguin Ornament Christmas Craft Activity is perfect for kids, tweens and teens who can sew. This penguin is actually cute all year round. You can add some Christmas scent to this little fellow as a scented gift idea.

List of Supplies:
1. Felt fabric –black, white, orange and another color of your choice
2. Pencil or pen – for tracing the template
3. Scissors
4. Needle and thread
5. Ribbon
6. Pink sharpie

Penguin Template

Step 1:
Trace the 2 main body parts on black felt fabric (you can choose any other color if you want to).
Trace the other body part on white felt; the beak and feet on orange felt and lastly, trace the strip
(muffler) on any colored felt you want.

Step 2:
Prepare orange thread in needle and stitch the beak on the white body part.

Step 3:
Use black thread to stitch the eyes. Trace the eye shape on the white body part using a pencil.
Simply stitch along the traced eye pattern.

Step 4:
Use the pink sharpie to draw 2 blush patterns on both cheeks. Place the white body part on any one
of the black body parts. Prepare white thread in needle and stitch along the outer edge of the white
piece to join it with the black piece.

Step 5:
Done stitching the white piece? Now place the prepared piece (from the previous step) on the other
black body part. Make sure that all sides are matched.

Step 6:
Take a small piece of ribbon (about 6 inches will do) and fold it into half.

Step 7:
Insert the 2 open ends of the folded ribbon between the 2 black body parts, on the top end. Prepare
black thread and needle. Start to stitch the 2 black body parts together from the top end, stitching
both black parts and the ribbon together.

Step 8:
Keep a small opening to stuff the felt penguin.

Step 9:
I am using left over felt fabrics. Cut the left over felt penguins into small pieces to prepare them for
stuffing.

Step 10:
Simply insert the felt pieces into the felt penguin through the open end.

Step 11:
Stitch to close the open end once you are done stuffing.

Step 12:
Take the felt strip and wrap it around the penguin’s neck. Do a small stitch on the join of the muffler
to secure it.
Add more details if you want to.
Enjoy!

Kids all seem to go through a phase of loving trivia, and if you’ve got kids who want to know about the tallest, biggest and weirdest things in nature, they’ll enjoy the book Once in a Blue Moon by Emily Hawkins.

The book explores wonders of astronomy, meteorology, big trees, weird animals, volcanoes and more to show off the rarest events and phenomena in the natural world.

Kids ages 7-10 will learn about the lake (Lake Hillier, on an island off Australia) that has water that’s bubblegum pink, the world’s deepst came (Veryovkina Cave in the country of Georgia) and the world’s biggest tree, a banyan in southeast India with a canopy that covers more than five acres!

Readers will learn what a blue moon is, how supernovas happen and about Haley’s comet and solar eclipses, among other space-related phenomena. Closer to home they’ll learn about stinky flowers, bleeding trees, glowing fungi and pizzly bears.

There’s content about times when it’s rained frogs (and when frogs have exploded en masse), when snow made giant snowballs all by itself and how clouds stack on themselves like pancakes. The book also explores ball lightning, sun dogs, St. Elmo’s fire and more.

I love books like this and I know kids do, too. There’s so much weird and wonderful about our world and even as adults we don’t know about all of these things. I found it fun to learn, for example, that there’s a volcano on the island of Java that not only sends out blue flames from vents near its crater, it’s also home to an acidic lake.

Illustrations by Vlad Stankovic illuminate these weird natural wonders and are sure to get kids interested in learning more about some of these remarkable animals, plants, rock formations and more.

About the book: 80 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $30.

Have you read?