How to Make Chrismons

But first of all: What is a Chrismon?

Developed in 1957 at the Ascension Lutheran Church, a chrismon is a white and gold ornament made in the shape of a symbol of Christ's name or nature. A lot of churches use them to decorate the main tree in the sanctuary during Advent.

This year, I wanted to make an Advent tree in our home, so I found this site with excellent patterns and ideas for chrismons. I think the only patterns I didn't get from that site was the crown which I found here and I honestly don't know where I found the pattern for the shepherd's crook, but I can tell you that it was really a candy cane coloring page.


Having found my patterns, I copied them into a word document so I could play around with the sizes since I was decorating a small four foot tree at home, not a giant church-sized tree. Then I printed them out on paper and cut each symbol out.

From there, I used my amazing disappearing ink to trace each pattern onto some white felt that I kid you not, showed up on my front porch one day as a surprise offering from a former girl scout leader who was cleaning out closets.

Then I cut out the ornaments.

I used two pieces to make one ornament. Using embroidery thread, I stitched the details, like the "jewels" on the crown or the eye on the dove on the top piece and then sewed the two pieces together, going around the outside.

I then used another piece of the embroidery thread to make a tie to hang the ornaments on the tree.

Right now I only have a dozen ornaments, but I decided the tree would be more fun if I added to the ornaments each year, so I'm leaving it a little bare this year with room to grow.