Christmas Tree Napkins

Confession time: I’m one of those nutty people who listens to Christmas music all year long, and who spends even the hottest summer days dreaming about my favourite holiday. So naturally, I love preparing gifts and decor in advance. This little project counts as both: the Christmas Tree Napkin.

Cute, right? Let’s add simple, too. This tree napkin is a two-sided circle folded and flipped a couple times to form a Christmas tree. I love it! My Grandma used to fold napkins like this for Christmas Eve dinner, but I completely forgot about that until I saw a video on YouTube for a similar project. Where would I be without the internet! Here’s how you do it:
Choose two pieces of material and place them right sides together. I used a scrap of cotton and a piece of an old curtain, but you want washable fabrics (they should be pre-washed to avoid shrinkage later).
Draw or trace onto the wrong side of the lighter fabric a circle the size you want your unfolded napkin to be. This was my test napkin, so it was a mini – only 8 inches across. A more usable size is about 18 inches in diameter. Once the circle is drawn, stitch along the line, almost all the way around. Leave a two inch opening to turn the circle. Trim the excess fabric and clip the curve, making sure not to cut into your seam.

Next, turn the fabric and press it flat. Take care to ‘unroll’ the edges as much as possible, so that neither fabric shows on the opposite side.

Once the circle is pressed, go back and either machine or hand stitch the opening. Press again.
Now for the good stuff!

Fold the circle almost in half and press the fold. One edge of the circle should be slightly lower than the other, as shown.

Flip over the semi circle. Working from about 2/3rds of the way up the folded edge, fold the lower right corner down to the left to form the middle part of the tree. Press. Flip the whole thing over again.

Take the top of the folded edge and fold it to the left. Press.

And then fold and press the top piece of the tree so that the right corner extends just beyond the edge of the middle section. Press again. You’re done!

This mini version will be placed on our official Cookies-for-Santa plate come Christmas Eve, but until then, I’ll be busy making lots of full-size napkins to give as gifts to family and friends. By switching up the fabrics and colours, these napkins can be made as fun and casual or as elegant as you want.


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