Sometimes ideas come to me in pieces. Part of an idea will come at one time and the rest later. Which seems like an appropriate way to have come up with this LEGO® Christmas ornament snow globe project—one piece at a time!

I won’t bore you with the entire process (so we can get onto the good stuff you actually want to know about). However, it started at the dollar store where I saw these simple snow globe ornaments that sort of look like upside down mason jars. At the time I was not sure what I wanted to do with them, but I knew they were too good to pass up, and I ended up getting a case of them to use with my students…for something!

Then, my cousin was selling a bunch of old LEGOS®, again, what was I going to do with them? Well, I wasn’t sure…but I knew eventually I’d think of a reason why I must have them!

…fast foward to when all the “pieces” came together and I thought, how fun would it be if my students got to make LEGO® Christmas ornament snow globes?

I posted about this project on my Instagram account and I had a lot of teachers asking me questions. So I thought I’d take the time to go through how I did this project with my students. I hope that if you try this project with your kids (at home or in the classroom) you’ll already have the pieces you need, and won’t have to wait for lighting to strike, like I did! 😉 If you do this project please tag me on social so I can see it. You’ll find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, at the handle @artwithjennyk.

This project takes something simple (image on the left) and turns it into something fabulous (image on the right). So, let’s get to it…

LEGO Christmas Ornaments

Materials:

• • • Snow Globe Ornaments: I got mine at Dollar Tree. This is the exact one I got from Dollar Tree (on Amazon) HERE. However, this is pricey for just one ornament and the snow (considering they were each $1 at the dollar store) so here is a link to some DIY snow globe ornaments that are better priced HERE. For this set, you’d just need to hot glue something to hang the ornament with. Since this is a seasonal item, I would recommend checking your local dollar stores or craft stores and see if you can source them at an affordable price.
    • LEGOS: Use a variety of what you already have, have your students bring in pieces from home, fundraise for them, or buy them on Amazon HERE.
    • Hot glue gun: You won’t need much glue here, but I would suggest hot glue, not regular Elmer’s glue.
    • Faux “snow” for the globe: Again, I got this at the dollar store but you can find it at any craft store or on Amazon HERE.

*Any link that takes you to Amazon is an affiliate link. That means if you click on it and purchase from there I get a small amount in return (very small ;)). See my disclosure here.

Step-by-Step Instructions

The missing “piece” (are you tired of this pun yet?) of this LEGO® Christmas ornament project is the creativity that kids bring. That’s when the magic happens (keep reading to see their final examples).

The steps are pretty simple. Prior to my students arriving I did the following to create my example to show my students and to prep their individual globes. Here is what you need to do…

Step 1

First, remove the top from the “bottom” of the snow globe ornament and see if you can find a flat LEGO piece that will fit into the top. Then hot glue that piece into the top. This will give your students a base to build upon when they create their LEGO Christmas ornament design and then it won’t fall over after they make their piece.

Finding the lego piece to fit in the top might be the hardest part, depending on what supplies you are using. I searched and searched for the right round LEGO piece. Then I gave up and asked my husband to search for me. Well, of course, he found them on eBay in like 5 minutes ‍♀️.

So, if you aren’t able to find round pieces to fit in the bottom of the snow globe then have your students create their LEGO Christmas ornament design first. Then hot glue the bottom of their design to the bottom of the snow globe. This would be an easy workaround for this step.

Step 2

Make sure that you have the snow globe for your kids to use while they are designing their LEGO Christmas ornament. This way they can keep checking to be sure it fits and isn’t too tall or wide. I had to remind my students several times to keep checking to be sure their design wasn’t too big and that the globe would still fit on top.

Also, it helps to have the “snow” that the kids are going to add to their snow globe ready for them.

Tip: This styrofoam “snow” is messy so I used a large storage bin to pour into the individual snow globes. This way, any that fell out would fall out into the bin, and not all over the room.

That’s really all the prepping that you need to do…

…the kids then bring the magic to this project!

Step 3

Have your students or children at home design their LEGO® Christmas ornament piece after you have the globes prepped and ready to go.

Here is a list of things I suggested that children could make.

• • • Snowman
    • Tree
    • Candy Cane
    • Gingerbread Man
    • Gift Package
    • Nutcracker

And that’s really all the instructions that they needed. They were eager to start and get down to it!

Here are some examples of the Christmas ornament snow globes that my students made.

I think you’ll agree, the kids did a pretty great job with this project! I can’t wait for their families to hang these on their trees and cherish them for years to come.

That’s it, my friends! Thanks for reading and for making art with your kids.

If you want more DIY Christmas ornament ideas, I have an entire blog post with lots of other ones. You can check it out HERE.

Thanks for reading,

Jenny K.