Festive Christmas Ornament DIY Recipe List & How To Get [2023] in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH)

Festive Christmas Ornament DIY Recipe List & How To Get [2023]

Christmas Ornaments are a special festive seasonal crafting material in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH)! Learn how to get different colored Ornaments and see all of the Festive Christmas DIY Recipes in this guide.

How to Get Christmas Ornaments

To get Ornaments in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll need to be playing in Festive Season during December 15th to January 6th in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. Snowflakes can be found during the Winter as well.

During this festive period of time around Christmas, some tall Pine Trees on your island will transform into decorated festive trees with Christmas lights on them! You’ll know you have the right tree if you hear a unique sound of shaking ornaments when bumping into it.

Shaking these decorated festive Pine Trees in Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a random chance of dropping one of three types of special Ornament crafting materials:

Red Ornaments
Blue Ornaments
Gold Ornaments

Unlike Acorns & Pine Cones during the Autumn season, these festive trees can’t drop useless Tree Branches as well, so it’s pretty easy to keep shaking and get all of the Ornaments you need in an efficient manner.

After you’ve gathered some Ornaments from your festive Pine Trees, make sure to shoot down plenty of flying balloon presents in the sky across your island for a chance of finding DIY Crafting Recipes that can use them. There are 14 different Festive Ornament items to craft in total and we cover all of them later in this guide.

Ornament Gathering Tips

To help take your festival Ornament gathering to the next level, here’s a few quick tips on getting Ornaments in Animal Crossing:

There is no limit to the amount of Ornaments you can get from a single festive tree.
However, they can only drop in a 3×5 cone in front of the tree, so you will need to pick Ornaments up or shake the tree from a different side eventually.
Gold Ornaments might be rarer to find than the other colors, based on our testing.
Ornaments stack up to 30 items in one inventory slot.

Ornament Sell Price at Nook’s Cranny

Red, Blue, and Gold Ornaments can all be sold to Timmy & Tommy at Nook’s Cranny for 50 Bells each at any time. Before you sell your Ornaments though, it’s worth keeping in mind that crafting materials essentially double in value when you craft with them and then sell the crafted item.

Festive Christmas Ornament DIY Recipes List

There are 19 different Festive themed items you can exclusively craft with Ornament seasonal materials in Animal Crossing: New Horizons including furniture, wallpaper, flooring, accessories, and more. Additionally, you can find Christmas Toys at Nook’s Cranny from December 1st to 25th.

In the Version 2.0 Update released during November 2021, five new Ornament recipes called the Giant Ornament, Ornament Crown, Ornament Garland, Ornament Table Lamp, and Ornament Tree were introduced to the game. This guide has been updated accordingly.

You can unlock these DIY Crafting Recipes by shooting down flying Balloon Presents or learning from Villagers in their homes during Festive Season during December 15th to January 6th in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.

Big Festive Tree Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Big Festive Tree from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Big Festive Tree using the following materials and items:

6 Red Ornament
6 Blue Ornament
4 Gold Ornament
5 Wood
5 Clay

Festive Rug Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Festive Rug from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th. Newly added in the Version 1.6 Winter Update.

Craft the Festive Rug using the following materials and items:

5 Red Ornament
5 Blue Ornament
5 Gold Ornament

Festive Top Set Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Festive Top Set from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Festive Top Set using the following materials and items:

2 Gold Ornament
1 Hardwood

Festive Tree Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Festive Tree from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Festive Tree using the following materials and items:

3 Red Ornament
3 Blue Ornament
2 Gold Ornament
5 Wood

Giant Ornament Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Giant Ornament from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th. Newly added in November 2021’s Version 2.0 Update.

Craft the Giant Ornament using the following materials and items:

10 Red Ornament

Holiday Candle Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Holiday Candle from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Holiday Candle using the following materials and items:

5 Red Ornament
5 Clump Of Weeds

Illuminated Present Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Illuminated Present from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Illuminated Present using the following materials and items:

3 Red Ornament
4 Gold Ornament
3 Iron Nugget

Illuminated Reindeer Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Illuminated Reindeer from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Illuminated Reindeer using the following materials and items:

6 Gold Ornament
5 Iron Nugget

Illuminated Snowflakes Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Illuminated Snowflakes from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Illuminated Snowflakes using the following materials and items:

9 Blue Ornament
3 Iron Nugget

Illuminated Tree Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Illuminated Tree from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Illuminated Tree using the following materials and items:

6 Gold Ornament
6 Iron Nugget
8 Red Ornament
8 Blue Ornament

Jingle Wall Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Jingle Wall from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Jingle Wall using the following materials and items:

5 Red Ornament
5 Blue Ornament
5 Gold Ornament
5 Clay

Ornament Crown Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Ornament Crown from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th. Newly added in November 2021’s Version 2.0 Update.

Craft the Ornament Crown using the following materials and items:

3 Red Ornament
3 Blue Ornament
3 Gold Ornament

Ornament Garland Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Ornament Garland from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th. Newly added in November 2021’s Version 2.0 Update.

Craft the Ornament Garland using the following materials and items:

2 Red Ornament
2 Blue Ornament
2 Gold Ornament
5 Iron Nugget

Ornament Mobile Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Ornament Mobile from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Ornament Mobile using the following materials and items:

1 Red Ornament
1 Blue Ornament
1 Gold Ornament
4 Tree Branch

Ornament Table Lamp Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Ornament Table Lamp from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th. Newly added in November 2021’s Version 2.0 Update.

Craft the Ornament Table Lamp using the following materials and items:

2 Red Ornament
2 Iron Nugget

Ornament Tree Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Ornament Tree from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th. Newly added in November 2021’s Version 2.0 Update.

Craft the Ornament Tree using the following materials and items:

3 Red Ornament
2 Blue Ornament
1 Gold Ornament
3 Iron Nugget

Ornament Wreath Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Ornament Wreath from Isabelle’s Morning Announcements, Balloon Presents, or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Ornament Wreath using the following materials and items:

6 Blue Ornament
2 Gold Ornament

Tabletop Festive Tree Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Tabletop Festive Tree from Balloon Presents or Villagers during Festive Season from December 15th to January 6th.

Craft the Tabletop Festive Tree using the following materials and items:

5 Gold Ornament
3 Tree Branch
2 Clay

Festive Wrapping Paper Recipe

Unlock the DIY Crafting Recipe for Festive Wrapping Paper by talking to Jingle during the Toy Day Christmas Eve event on December 24th. Newly added in the Version 1.6 Winter Update.

Craft the Festive Wrapping Paper using the following materials and items:

1 Red Ornament
1 Blue Ornament
1 Gold Ornament

Festive Ornament Items & Recipes Complete Checklist

Want to make sure you’ve gotten absolutely all of the Festive Ornament recipes and items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons before the season ends? Check out the checklist grid below for a summary of every item using Ornaments.

Use the interactive checkboxes below each item to keep track of what recipes you’ve unlocked or crafted throughout the month and what you’re still missing! Data will be saved to your browser’s storage and retained if you come back to this page.

How to Get & Learn Festive Ornament DIY Recipes

There are a few different ways you can find and get new Festive Ornament DIY Crafting Recipes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but unfortunately it’s mostly dependent on luck, taking much time and patience.

Morning Isabelle Announcement

Near the beginning of the Festive season on December 15th, you should hear from Isabelle or Tom Nook in the morning announcements about the new Ornament crafting materials and recipes. If you haven’t already learned the Ornament Wreath DIY Crafting Recipe, they’ll send it to your NookPhone during the announcements.

It’s worth noting that these seasonal announcements can sometimes be delayed if you have another notable event happening on that morning, like a villager moving in or birthday celebration. So you may need to wait an extra few days until you have nothing else going on.

Keep in mind that the Ornament Wreath can also be unlocked through Balloon Presents like everything else too — it’s not exclusive to Isabelle, but rather a shortcut.

Flying Balloon Presents

During the Festive season, all Balloon Presents flying in the sky over your island have a chance of dropping a Festive Christmas Ornament DIY Crafting recipe! Unfortunately, there’s no concrete way to control exactly what you’ll get, so you’ll need to just keep shooting them down until you get lucky.

Duplicate crafting recipes are easily possible too and should be expected, so we recommend trying to make trades with friends to complete the collection faster. You may be able to sell any duplicates for a hefty amount online too.

We do have some general tips for how you can most effectively hunt and farm balloon presents though by taking advantage of a few specific mechanics. And for the laziest farming method, check out our Farm DIY Recipe Balloons Easy Using Jail Bars Wall Trick guide here!

New Balloons can spawn every 5 minutes at times ending in a ‘4’ or ‘9’. For example, a balloon could appear at 4:19pm or 4:24pm. By the time it actually reaches your beach though, the time will likely be closer to 4:20pm or 4:45pm.

A Balloon won’t always spawn on these minutes — it’s a random chance as to whether one will actually appear every time. Expect some spawn times to be duds with nothing to see.

The wind direction that Balloons fly in from changes throughout the day. Once you spot the direction that one Balloon flies into your island from, you can expect all Balloons to come from that side for quite some time. Then around 6pm-7pm in the evening, the direction will flip to the opposite.

Walk up and down your beach around spawn time. Now that you have an idea of the current wind direction and when Balloons can spawn, it’s possible to find them with relative ease by pacing up and down the side of your beach where the wind is blowing from when it’s near the possible spawn times ending in ‘4’ and ‘9’.

Turn up your volume and listen carefully. When a Balloon is flying nearby you, a relatively obvious wind sound plays to let you know. This is great when multitasking.

Villagers Crafting In Homes

Contrary to the vast majority of other seasonal crafting recipes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Festive Ornament DIY recipes can be learned from villagers crafting in their homes!

To discover DIY recipes through this method, you’ll want to regularly check the villagers around your island throughout the day to see if they are inside their home. If a villager is hanging out at their house, walk in and you might find them crafting at their DIY Workbench.

Chat up the villager, and with some luck, they might just be crafting one of the Festive Christmas items listed in this guide allowing you to grab the associated DIY Recipe card from them!

Toy Day Christmas Eve Event

One final recipe using Ornaments, Festive Wrapping Paper, is exclusively unlocked during the Toy Day for Christmas Eve event held on December 24th.

When playing the Toy Day event on December 24th, talk to Jingle the Reindeer near Resident Services and he’ll give you the DIY Crafting Recipe for Festive Wrapping Paper.

It takes one of each Ornament color as materials to craft the Festive Wrapping Paper, and you’ll need to craft three of this item for Jingle to progress in the Toy Day event.

Total Materials Needed To Craft All Festive Ornament Items

Looking to craft the entire Festive Ornament set? In the handy table below, you can find a complete summary of how many Ornaments and other crafting materials are needed to craft every single item listed above.

Material	#
Blue Ornament	43
Gold Ornament	42
Red Ornament	36
Iron Nugget	17
Clay	12
Wood	10
Tree Branch	7
Clump of Weeds	5
Hardwood	1

Frequently Asked Questions

When dates can you get Ornament materials and recipes?

Ornaments can be found during Festive Season in Animal Crossing held from December 15th to January 6th in both hemispheres. The Winter Snowflake items and recipes can be obtained during this time as well.

How many Ornament DIY Recipes are there?

There are 14 different Festive Christmas items and recipes you can unlock during the Festive Season by crafting Red, Green, and Gold Ornaments together.

How do you get Ornament crafting materials?

You can get Ornaments in Animal Crossing: New Horizons by shaking the festive decorated cedar or pine trees on your island during Festive Season. Look out for lights!

What do Ornaments sell for at Nook’s Cranny?

You can sell Ornaments to Timmy & Tommy at Nook’s Cranny for 50 Bells each.

If you have any suggestions or spot any errors in this guide, please help us out in the comments below so we can address them!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) Guides