Halloween Tree Decorating Ideas with DIY Ornaments

Decorate a Halloween tree for a playful addition to your holiday decor. This mini tree makes a cute Halloween decoration with DIY ornaments.

(If you’re looking for vintage-inspired ceramic trees for Halloween, find them at Michaels.)

The past few years I’ve set up a mini Halloween tree in my living room with my other Halloween decor. It’s silly and fun, and kind of fits with my eclectic retro decorating style.

I have several smaller pink, black, and white Christmas trees that fit on a shelf or a tabletop. They don’t take up much space and since they’re small, they only need a few ornaments.

My kids are older and we never did the Switch Witch, but I think this would be a cute addition to that tradition if you do. Decorate a tiny tree and leave the candy there for the Switch Witch to find!

Whether you go all out with Halloween decorations or just want to try something new, I’ve got tons of tips to help you get started.

Shopping for artificial trees

You can use any artificial tree for Halloween, even your Christmas tree. The trick is in decorating!

Now that decorating Halloween trees is trendy, you can also find black and orange trees. And trees are popping up in stores much earlier than they were for Christmas.

There are similar to what is pictured in this post:

• 3-foot pink tree (a brighter pink than mine)
• 2-foot black tree
• 18-inch iridescent tree (my exact tree!)

I’ve got a ton of trees in different sizes from Michaels, At Home, and even Walmart. My favorite place to get full-sized trees for any holiday is Treetopia.

Treetopia trees are a bit pricey, but they are also really high quality and last longer. The branches on my full-sized silver tree are a lot thicker and fuller than the mini pink tree that I bought somewhere else.

Halloween lights

You can add lights to a tree or just ornaments. Your regular mini Christmas lights are fine, but if you want to add Halloween lights, here are the ones I’ve used:

• pink mini lights
• skeleton micro LED lights

Michaels also has micro LED lights in purple and orange. And these candy corn lights are a really cute idea too!

Halloween tree ornament ideas

Any tree can be a Halloween tree with the right ornaments!

For this tree, I used clear plastic ball ornaments filled with candy corn. Full disclaimer – ours did get a bit sticky because Texas is still pretty hot and humid in October. You could also try other Halloween candy, including individually wrapped pieces.

These glittery ball ornaments were from Dollar Tree. They come in a tube of 5 and include a random variety of purple, fuschia spider webs, and eyeballs.

This year I decided to paint some easy DIY wood ornaments. They were really quick to make using wood cutouts from Dollar Tree. I’ve got the tutorial below.

How to paint wood ornaments

Supplies

• Halloween wood cutouts – I bought these Dollar Tree ornaments. I also love the wood shapes from Michaels and these wood cutouts from JoAnn.
• watercolor paint kit
• a glass of water
• newspaper, to protect your workspace
• metallic elastic cord

Instructions

1. Lay out the newspaper (or whatever you’re using) to protect the table. Watercolors are not very messy and clean up easily.

2. Choose your ornaments and colors. I went with iconic colors that matched my other decor, but anything goes!

3. Dip your brush in the water and load it up with paint, then brush it onto the wood cutout. I’ve found that while water will soak into the wood a bit, it didn’t hurt my ornaments too much.

• If you find your wood warping, use less water or try pre-wetting the wood and then sanding off those “wild hairs” that tend to pop up.
• Paint slowly along edges to create straight-ish lines and avoid colors bleeding together.
• Watercolors dry quickly. Mine were dry to the touch within minutes.

4. Flip the ornaments over and paint the back too.

5. Cut a length of cord about 6 inches long. Loop it through the hole in the ornament and tie it off.

What’s next? Try these other fun and creative ideas on One Mama’s Daily Drama:

• 12 Last-Minute Halloween Costumes
• Pink Fall and Halloween Art Gallery
• DIY Macrame Moon Halloween Wreath