3D Printed Christmas Ornaments: Festive Designs for Your Tree

Why 3D Print Christmas Ornaments?

Store-bought ornaments are fine, but they're the same mass-produced designs everyone else has. A 3D printer lets you create ornaments that are truly unique — personalized name tags, miniature replicas of your house, or articulated flexi designs that move and dangle from the tree. The cost per ornament? About $0.20-0.50 in filament, depending on size.

We started printing Christmas ornaments as quick gifts for family, and it turned into one of our most popular seasonal categories. People go wild for them at craft fairs and holiday markets too — a printed ornament with someone's name on it sells for $5-15, and the margins are incredible.

Best Materials for Ornaments

PLA is the go-to. It's easy to print, comes in every color imaginable (including metallics, silks, and color-changing filaments), and holds detail well. For ornaments, PLA's brittleness isn't an issue since they hang on a tree and don't get handled roughly.

Silk PLA is a game-changer for ornaments. Brands like eSUN, TTYT3D, and Eryone make silk gold, silver, copper, and multicolor filaments that give ornaments a metallic sheen without any post-processing. A silk gold star ornament looks genuinely premium.

PETG works if you want translucent ornaments for LED lights. Print a snowflake or star in clear PETG at 15-20% infill, hang it in front of a string light, and it glows beautifully.

• Silk PLA — best visual impact, no painting needed
• Standard PLA — widest color range, cheapest
• Translucent PETG — great with LED backlighting
• Glow-in-the-dark PLA — fun for kids' trees

Types of Ornaments to Print

Flat Ornaments (Fastest)

These are essentially 2D shapes with some depth — snowflakes, stars, name tags, silhouettes of reindeer or Santa. Print time: 15-30 minutes each. Print them at 2-4mm thick with 0.2mm layer height. Add a hole at the top for a ribbon or hook. These are perfect for batch printing — you can fit 6-10 on a single build plate.

3D Ornaments

Baubles, miniature Christmas trees, bells, and angels. These need more print time (1-3 hours) but look incredible. Print at 0.16mm layer height for smoother surfaces. Consider printing in two halves and gluing if the design has overhangs you want to avoid supporting.

Articulated & Flexi Ornaments

Print-in-place ornaments that move — articulated reindeer, flexi snowmen, or dangling icicles with segments that swing. These are the showstoppers. They print as one piece and articulate right off the bed. Our Christmas collection includes several print-in-place ornament designs.

Lithophane Ornaments

Lithophanes turn photos into 3D-printed ornaments that reveal an image when backlit. Upload a family photo to a lithophane generator (ItsLitho.com is free), print it in white PLA at 0.12mm layers, 100% infill, 1 wall. Hang it near a light source and the photo appears. Genuinely magical — easily the most impressive 3D printed gift you can make.

Print Settings for Best Results

Ornaments are small, so detail matters. Here's what we use:

• Layer height: 0.16mm for 3D ornaments, 0.2mm for flat ones
• Infill: 15-20% for solid ornaments, 0% for hollow ones (use 2-3 walls)
• Speed: 40-50mm/s for detail, up to 80mm/s for flat designs
• Supports: Avoid if possible — design with overhangs under 60°
• First layer: Slow it down. Small ornaments pop off the bed mid-print if adhesion isn't solid

For batch printing flat ornaments, use a raft instead of a brim. Small footprint pieces tend to warp at corners, and a raft prevents that without making cleanup harder.

Adding Hooks and Hangers

You've got several options for hanging:

1. Printed loop: Design a 3mm diameter hole at the top, thread ribbon or twine through it
2. Wire hook: Drill a 1.5mm hole, insert a bent ornament hook (buy 100 for $3 on Amazon)
3. Embedded magnet: Pause the print at the right layer, drop in a 10mm neodymium magnet, resume printing. Now your ornament sticks to metal trees or fridge displays
4. Snap-in hook: Design a slot that accepts standard S-hooks

Painting & Finishing Ornaments

Silk filament looks great unpainted, but standard PLA benefits from some finishing work. Spray primer (Rust-Oleum filler primer) covers layer lines. Acrylic craft paint from the dollar store works perfectly — ornaments don't need to be durable since nobody handles them.

For a quick glitter effect: spray with clear coat while it's still tacky, then dust with fine glitter. The result looks like you bought it from a boutique. Gold spray paint on a PLA ornament is indistinguishable from a "real" gold ornament at tree distance.

If you're printing in white PLA, try painting with Sharpie markers for simple designs. Kids love decorating blank ornament prints this way — it's a great family activity.

Selling Christmas Ornaments

3D printed ornaments sell extremely well at holiday craft fairs and on Etsy from October through December. Personalized name ornaments (with the year) are the #1 seller. Price them at $8-12 for simple flat designs, $12-20 for articulated or lithophane ornaments.

Cost breakdown for a typical name ornament: $0.15 filament + $0.05 electricity + $0.50 hook and ribbon = $0.70 total. Sell at $10. That's a 93% margin. Print 10 per build plate in about 3 hours. The math works.

Start printing inventory in September. By November you should have 200+ ornaments ready. Package them in small kraft boxes with tissue paper — presentation matters more than you'd think.

Our Favorite Christmas Designs

Check out our Christmas ornament collection for print-in-place designs that work right off the printer. From articulated candy cane dragons to flexi deer with magnet mounts — all optimized for PLA, no supports, no assembly. Just slice, print, and hang.