How to make a Pinecone Christmas Tree

The history of the Christmas tree

Decorating evergreen trees is something that people were doing far longer than the Christian religion has existed.

This tradition dates back a long time, even to ancient Egypt. Decorating evergreen trees symbolized the endurance, everlasting life, and rebirth of nature. Winter is the time when nature is dormant, food is scarce, but evergreen trees remind us that this scarcity is only temporary and that nature will wake in a couple of months.

We already covered the symbolism of decorating the evergreen tree and how it became a symbol in Christianity so check out History of the Christmas Tree in the How to Make a Toilet Roll Christmas Tree article.

What makes pinecones interesting?

What are pinecones? Pinecones are a storage-like product of pine trees. They store and protect seeds. Pinecones open their scales when the air is dry and close them up when it is wet - which is clever, because seeds carried on the wind travel much further on a dry day than they would through rain.

You may be asking yourself “Is there anything interesting about pinecones? They don’t look that remarkable.” But did you know that pine trees belong to one of the oldest groups of trees on Earth? Conifers have been around for more than 150 million years - they were already ancient when the first flowering plants appeared! 

Also, did you know that pinecones hide math? The spiral rows of their scales almost always come in Fibonacci numbers, like 8 spirals one way and 13 the other - the same pattern you can find in sunflower seed heads.

Fun fact: there is a tiny gland deep in your brain called the pineal gland - and it got its name from the pinecone, simply because it is shaped like one.

If you’re still not convinced that pinecones are interesting, maybe knowing about their many symbolic meanings will help. Pinecone played a big role in many cultures, dating back even to ancient Egypt:

• Regeneration and Resurrection - since they play a major role in protecting and nurturing pine seeds.
• Maturity - since they only open their scales when they are completely ready to release the seeds.
• Fertility - since they are holding and releasing the pine tree seeds.
• Enlightenment - in some spiritual traditions the pinecone stands for the third eye and inner insight, partly because the pinecone-shaped pineal gland sits deep in our brain.
• Festivity - often associated with Christmas and a warm, calm, festive atmosphere.

Materials needed for pinecone Christmas tree

• Pinecone. If some evergreen trees are growing in your vicinity, just go out and take a stroll. You are guaranteed to find some pinecones. It can be a fun activity with children by itself - searching for pinecones in the park!
• Paint. We will need some watercolors or acrylic colors to transform our pinecone into a holiday tree. Since we are making evergreen tree, green color is mandatory. Other colors are not mandatory since we can decorate our tree with any colors.
• Painting Brush. We need a brush to color our pinecone. Any painting brush will do the trick but we probably want some thinner brush so we can reach into all holes of the pinecone.

Optional materials:

• Wood Bark. There is a high chance the pinecone will need some support to stand. And while searching for the pinecones, we can also find some wood bark to use as a platform for our pinecone Christmas tree. But even if we don’t have wood bark at hand, we can use some thick cardboard to glue our pinecone on it.
• Hot glue gun. If our pinecone Christmas tree needs support for standing, we can use hot glue or super glue to attach it to some surface that will serve as the pedestal.
• Glitter. Glitter can make an amazing sparkly effect so it’s great for decoration. But it is optional.
• Colored paper. We can use colored paper for additional decorations. For example, we can use yellow paper to make a star at the top of the tree.
• Pencil. If we decide to create some decorations from paper, the pencil will be of good use. We can first draw decorations and then cut them out from paper.
• Scissors. And finally, we will need scissors to cut out our decorations from the paper if we decide to create some paper decorations.
• Pom Poms. Another optional decorative option is small pom poms. You can attach them to the pinecone to act as little colorful balls.
• Decorative chain. If you have some small or thin decorative chain, you can also use it to decorate your Christmas pine tree.

Instructions on how to make a pinecone Christmas tree

Read on for a step by step written guide. You can also check the video at the beginning of an article if you would like to see how we made our pinecone tree.

1. Prepare paint and a pinecone. Use green color to fully color the pinecone. Pinecone has many nooks and crannies so take your time coloring the pinecone. After you are done, leave the pinecone to dry. It can take a couple of hours, depending on how thick of a layer of paint you applied.
2. After the green paint dried, we have our pinecone tree. Now it’s time to decorate. You can go full creative here since there is no one right way to decorate your Christmas tree. You can use different colors to draw decorations. You can use a decorative chain if you have some that are thin. You can use pom-poms as little balls. Glitter is excellent to make our tree sparkly. As you see, we can add whatever we want here.
3. And every Christmas tree needs to have a star at the top, right? The easiest way is to take yellow colored paper, draw a star using a pencil, and cut the star using scissors. Then we can just put the star at the top of the pinecone or even glue it so it stands firmly.
4. There is a high chance the pinecone tree will be unstable and won’t stand straight. In that case, we will have to make some pedestal. We can use some tree bark, stone, or even a piece of cardboard to glue our pinecone tree to it. Superglue is also an option. This will make our pinecone tree stand straight and proud.

Bonus experiment: the pinecone weather station

Before you paint anything, keep two pinecones back - because a pinecone is a working humidity meter, and that is a real experiment hiding inside a craft.

You will need two similar open pinecones and a bowl of water.

1. Put one pinecone in the bowl of water. Leave the other one somewhere dry, next to it.
2. Wait. Within about 30 minutes the wet pinecone starts closing its scales, and after an hour or two it is shut tight. The dry twin hasn't moved.
3. Take the closed one out and leave it somewhere warm and dry. Over the next day it slowly opens again - and you can repeat this as many times as you like.

Here's the neat part that connects the experiment back to your craft: once a pinecone is painted, it stops responding, because the paint seals the scales so they can't take up water any more. Your decoration is a pinecone that has stopped listening to the weather. That's a great thing to notice out loud with your child - and a good reason to keep one unpainted cone on the windowsill as a weather station.

What will you develop and learn making a pinecone tree craft?

• Develop creativity. Thinking about materials you have at hand and how to use them for decorating your tree is a very creative process. And with this activity, you will have to think outside of the box and hone your creative skills.
• Develop fine motor skills. Using a brush, coloring all little holes and craters of a pinecone, making decorations, all require good fine motor skills. So with this activity, you will practice and improve your motor skills.
• Improve hand-eye coordination. Similar to fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination is an important skill for precise actions. And this pinecone craft requires some delicate, precise moves so you will improve your hand-eye skills by doing this activity.
• Learn about renewable, natural materials. While creating our pinecone tree, we can also talk about materials we are using and what materials are good, or not that good for nature. This way we can raise awareness about renewable materials and the importance of taking care of our nature.
• Learn about Christmas customs. We can use the opportunity to talk more about Christmas festivities and what it represents today in our culture while making our pinecone ornaments.

Frequently Asked Questions

We hope you enjoyed making your pinecone holiday decor which is now decorating your home. And if you are searching for more holiday activities, we have some recommendations:

• For an alternative method, you can try and make one Christmas tree using toilet rolls.
• And for another great holiday decoration, you can make a Christmas reindeer using cinnamon sticks and your home will spread a nice cinnamon smell.

We wish you happy holidays and a lot of creative fun!