This DIY Gumball Machine Ornament is Gum-believably Adorable for Your Christmas Tree

Add a sweet touch to your Christmas tree with this DIY ornament—or give it as an adorable gift to a friend of your chews-ing!

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my most favorite things to do during the holidays. Each year, my family and I love to pull out all of our themed ornaments to decorate the multiple trees we usually put up. Of all the trees we assemble and decorate, I love our candy trees the most. We adorn the trees with fun M&M garland and festive ornaments of gingerbread people, lollipops, and candy bars.

To add to our treat trees this year, I decided to make a fun DIY Gumball Machine Ornament that is so cute, it will certainly make “chew” smile! With a little paint, an ornament, a small pot, and some magically colorful sprinkles, you can create the sweetest, little ornament for the holidays. Plus, it’s simple to make, too!

This adorable ornament is the perfect accent for a fun Christmas tree or even makes a thoughtful gift for a friend or family member who has a sweet tooth!

Read on to learn how to make your own DIY Gumball Machine Ornament for Christmas!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• A clear, plastic holiday ornament
• Red and black paint
  • I used Martha Stewart’s Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint in Habañero
  • I used Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint in Black
• Paintbrushes
• A small terra cotta pot
• A soda can tab
• Jumbo rainbow sprinkles
• Hot glue gun

Here’s How to Make Your Own DIY Gumball Machine Ornament:

Using a small terra cotta pot that is proportional to the clear, plastic holiday ornament, paint the entire terra cotta pot with red paint. For this ornament, I used Martha Stewart’s Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint in Habañero because the red is so vibrant and festive for this whimsical holiday ornament. Once the terra cotta pot is completely painted, set it aside to let it dry.

After the painted terra cotta pot has completely dried, it’s time to put on the “dispenser” for the gumball machine.

To make the dispenser for the gumball machine, I used a soda can tab to give it a three-dimensional effect, but you can certainly paint one on using some silver or gray paint.

Using a hot glue gun, apply some glue to the back of the soda tab and press the tab upside down and onto the terra cotta pot. Hold the soda tab in place against the pot until the glue hardens and dries.

Once the soda tab is glued onto the terra cotta pot, take some black paint (along with a small paint brush) and paint in the bottom opening of the soda can tab to make it look like the chute where the gumballs would come out. You could, of course, use a fine-tip permanent marker to do this as well. Use whatever it easiest and whatever you have on hand!

While the terra cotta pot sits aside to dry, it’s time to fill the clear, plastic holiday ornament with the “gumballs”.

For the gumballs, I used jumbo rainbow sprinkles from Wilton, which you can find in the cake decorating aisle at Walmart. Small, colorful pom-poms would work for this, too!

Rolling a small piece of paper up to create a funnel, I poured two containers of the jumbo rainbow sprinkles into the ornament and put the ornament cap back on.

Next, to adhere the gumball globe to the terra cotta pot, apply hot glue to the top (technically the bottom) of the terra cotta pot and stick the rainbow-filled ornament onto the hot glue, pressing down firmly until the hot glue dries completely.

And how cute is that?!

Now, you have a gum-believably adorable ornament for your tree or to give as a fun gift!

What do you think of this fun, little ornament? Let me know in the comments below!

And, as always, you can find the video tutorial for this DIY Gumball Machine Ornament on my TikTok!

I sure hope you have fun making this one!

I wish “chew” a Merry Christmas!