Christmas Ornament Drawing: 16 Easy Bauble Ideas (+ Free Templates)

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Here are sixteen easy Christmas ornament drawing ideas, plus five free printable template pages to trace, practise and design your own baubles.

A Christmas bauble is a circle with a little hat on. That’s the secret. Once you’ve drawn the circle, the cap and the loop, every pattern you can think of goes inside it, and that’s where the fun starts.

Below are sixteen Christmas ornament drawing ideas, from a plain shiny bauble to a cute one with a smiling face, plus two step-by-step guides: a patterned round bauble and a vintage onion-dome ornament.

What Makes an Ornament Easy to Draw?

Quick answer: an ornament is easy to draw because it’s one simple outline, usually a circle, with a small cap and loop on top. The pattern inside does all the work, and patterns are just lines, dots and little shapes repeated.

The one thing that makes a bauble look round rather than flat is curved pattern lines. If you draw stripes straight across a circle, it looks like a flat disc. Bend each stripe slightly, so it smiles downwards across the ball, and suddenly it looks like a sphere. You don’t need any shading at all.

The other trick is the shine mark: a small curved line or a little white blob near the top left. It takes two seconds and it’s the difference between a circle and a glass bauble.

What You Need

A pencil, a pen and a coin or a jar lid to draw round will get you a long way. These are the things that make it easier:

• A fineliner. A Sakura Pigma Micron set has the 01 for tiny dots and lace, and the 05 for outlines. The ink stays put when you colour over it.
• Colour. A box of brush pens like the Faber-Castell PITT artist pens gives you proper Christmas reds, greens and golds.
• A good eraser for the pencil guidelines. The Tombow Mono Zero is small enough to get between dots.
• Something round to draw around, if freehand circles drive you mad. A coin, a bottle cap or a roll of tape all work.
• A light pad is lovely if you want to trace the templates onto nicer paper. An LED light pad makes the grey lines show straight through card.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. I only link to things I’d happily use myself.

16 Christmas Ornament Drawing Ideas

They’re grouped in fours, just like the grid on the free trace-over page, starting with simple patterns and finishing with the fancier ones.

Simple patterns (1 to 4)

1. Plain bauble. A circle, a cap with a wavy bottom edge, a loop and two little shine marks. Start here to get the shape right.

2. Stripes. Five or six curved lines across the bauble, each one bending slightly downwards. Colour alternate stripes.

3. Polka dots. Small circles scattered evenly. Make the dots near the edge a little smaller and they’ll look like they’re wrapping round the ball.

4. Zigzag. One sharp zigzag line across the upper middle. Quick, bold and very Christmassy in red on green.

Little pictures (5 to 8)

5. Snowflake. Three crossing lines with little V shapes at the ends of each arm. If you want more help, my how to draw a snowflake guide breaks it down.

6. Little tree. A tiny decorated Christmas tree with a star, sitting in the middle of the bauble like a picture in a frame.

7. Heart. One big heart in the centre. Simple, sweet, and perfect for coloring in solid red.

8. Star. A five-point star in the middle. My how to draw a star tutorial has a trick for getting the points even.

Different shapes (9 to 12)

9. Swirl drop. A teardrop shape, rounded at the top and pointed at the bottom, filled with little spiral swirls.

10. Diamonds. An onion-dome shape, wide in the middle and narrowing to a point, with a row of tall diamonds round the fattest part. There’s a step-by-step for this one below.

11. Icicle. A long, thin finial with a twisting line spiralling down it to a point.

12. Star shape. An ornament that is itself a star, drawn as a puffy outline with a second star inside it.

Fancy finishes (13 to 16)

13. Holly. Two spiky holly leaves and a cluster of three round berries.

14. Lace. Scalloped bands at the top and bottom with a row of tiny dots between them, like a vintage glass bauble.

15. Cute face. Two big shiny eyes, a tiny smile and two rosy cheeks. The most popular one with children, every time.

16. Bow. A ribbon crossing the bauble like a wrapped present, with a big bow on top. Draw the bow loops before the ribbon tails.

Want more festive things to draw? My list of easy Christmas drawing ideas has thirty simple subjects, each broken into basic shapes.

How to Draw a Patterned Bauble Step by Step

Quick answer: draw a circle, add a small cap and loop on top, draw two curved bands across the middle, then fill the bands with a zigzag and a row of dots and add a shine mark.

Step 1: a circle

Draw a circle about the size of a large coin. If it wobbles, that’s fine. Real baubles catch the light unevenly anyway.

Step 2: the cap and loop

Add a small rectangle on top with a wavy bottom edge, sitting slightly into the circle. Then a little loop above it for the hanging string.

Step 3: two curved bands

Draw two pairs of curved lines across the bauble, one above the middle and one below. Let each line dip gently in the middle, following the roundness of the ball.

Step 4: the patterns and shine

Fill the top band with a zigzag and the bottom band with a row of small dots. Finish with a short curved shine mark near the top left. That’s it.

How to Draw a Vintage Ornament Step by Step

Quick answer: draw an onion shape that’s widest in the middle and narrows to a point at the bottom, add a cap and loop, draw a row of tall diamonds round the middle, then add dots, a band and a shine.

Step 1: the onion shape

Start with a small neck at the top, curve out wide to the left and right, then sweep both sides in to meet at a little point at the bottom. Draw one side, then mirror it.

Step 2: the cap and loop

Same as the round bauble: a small cap with a wavy edge and a loop on top.

Step 3: a row of diamonds

Round the widest part, draw tall diamonds side by side, touching at their points. Make the ones at the edges narrower so they look like they’re turning away round the curve.

Step 4: dots, a band and a shine

Pop a small dot in each gap between the diamonds, add a thin band line near the top and a curved shine mark. It looks like something from your grandmother’s tree.

How to Colour Your Ornament Drawings

Pick a small palette and stick to it across the whole page: a deep red, a forest green, a mustard gold and one surprise colour like navy or pink. A page of baubles in four colours looks planned. A page in twelve colours looks like a sweet shop.

Colour the caps gold or yellow ochre on every single ornament. It ties the page together. Then leave the shine mark white on each bauble, or add it afterwards with a white gel pen. If you’d rather paint them, the same shapes work beautifully in watercolour, and my easy Christmas watercolor paintings show how loose and quick that can be.

How to Design Your Own Baubles

The last page of the free templates is twelve empty baubles, because the most fun part of drawing ornaments is inventing your own patterns. A few starting points:

• Mix two patterns: stripes on the top half, dots on the bottom.
• Repeat one tiny shape: hearts, stars, snowflakes or little Christmas trees all the way round.
• Add a name or initial in the middle for a personalised gift tag.
• Borrow from fabric: tartan, gingham, Fair Isle knits and Scandinavian folk patterns all look lovely on a bauble.
• Give it a face, then give the next one a different expression. A whole row of little characters is very hard to resist.

What to Make With Your Ornament Drawings

Ornament drawings are made for little Christmas makes:

• Christmas cards. Three baubles hanging from strings at different heights across the front of a folded card.
• Gift tags. One striped bauble on a brown kraft tag, outlined in black.
• Paper garlands. Draw on card, colour, cut out and string on baker’s twine.
• Journal pages. A row of baubles hanging along the top of a December spread.
• Wrapping paper. Small baubles scattered over plain brown paper.

For ready-made festive printables, have a look at my free printable Christmas gift tags and my Christmas coloring pages for adults.

Five Tips for Better Bauble Drawings

• Curve every line across the bauble. Straight stripes make it look flat.
• Shrink the pattern near the edges. Smaller dots and narrower diamonds at the sides make the ball look round.
• Draw the cap last if your circle wobbles. You can hide a bumpy top under it.
• Vary the string lengths when you draw several hanging together. Even heights look stiff.
• Use two pens. A thicker one for the outline, a fine one for the pattern.

Want the Full Christmas Drawing Set?

Want More Printables Like These?

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you draw a Christmas ornament easily?

Draw a circle, add a small rectangular cap with a loop on top, then fill the circle with a simple pattern such as curved stripes, dots or a zigzag. Finish with a little shine mark near the top.

How do you make a bauble drawing look 3D without shading?

Curve every pattern line across the bauble so it follows the roundness of the ball, make the pattern smaller towards the edges, and leave a small white shine mark near the top. That’s enough to make it read as a sphere.

What are some easy Christmas ornament designs for kids?

Polka dots, stripes, a heart, a star and the cute face are the easiest. The blank bauble page in the free templates is perfect for children to make up their own.

Can I use the templates in a classroom?

Yes, please do. Print as many copies as your class needs. Just don’t share or sell the file itself, and send other people here to grab their own copy.

Final Thoughts

Start with the plain bauble, then the stripes, then pick whichever one makes you smile. By the time you get to the blank page you’ll be inventing your own, and a page of hand-drawn baubles is one of the nicest things to have on the fridge in December.

I share more drawing and painting over on my YouTube channel, so subscribe on YouTube if you’d like to draw along, and you’ll find all my Christmas ideas saved on Pinterest.

Pin this for later so you can find the free ornament templates when you sit down to draw.

Happy drawing!
Dee x

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