Take a quick look at the WON’s craft section and you’ll see that the women of The WON are great at finding easy and cute outdoor-themed crafts. I’ll confess that one of my favorite things about writing for The WON is the craft ideas that Barbara Baird sends me, and this craft is possibly my favorite yet. Ms. Barb sent me a photo of okra Santa ornaments on the day before Christmas Eve last year, and I’ve been impatiently waiting to make them ever since. These easy ornaments are made using dried okra and can be as simple or as complicated as you wish. You can use as little as paint to make your okra Santas, or you can go all out with glitter and clay for 3D beards. If you dried okra this harvest season, this is the perfect customizable craft to do with the family this year.
After seeing these cute ornaments, I opted to paint my okra instead of using clay. This eliminated a trip to the craft store and highlights the okra pod’s unique structure. I love okra, and I wanted my ornaments to be recognized for what they are.
What you’ll need:
First, paint your base. Pick a color for Santa’s coat and paint the entire okra pod and stem and let it dry. Darker paint colors may only need one coat, but others may need two or more. Have fun with this! Find interesting paints and make each okra pod a different color, or if your Christmas decor has a theme, choose one or two colors to match.
Second, paint the beard. This will probably take at least two coats. You can add a little beard, or a long winding one. The beauty about beards is that if something doesn’t turn out, Santa’s only having a bad hair day. You can always touch it up later. At this point you can also add white dots to the spot where the okra pod and the stem meet. This forms some definition between the coat and the hat. Let the beard dry completely before moving on.
Next, find a skin-toned paint or mix your own. Decide what shape you’d like Santa’s face to be in. You can either paint it exactly how you want, or simply make a splotch of paint and touch it up afterwards.
Once your face is dry, touch up any parts of the okra that need it. Then either use a fine tipped marker or paintbrush to draw Santa’s face. Have fun with expressions and deciding whether or not to make his nose cherry red.
Finally, tie string tightly around the top of the pod and knot at the top, or hot glue the string onto the back. Some people recommend drilling horizontally through the top of the pod, but this step isn’t necessary and can be difficult with smaller pods. Hang on the tree and enjoy!
Tips and Tricks
I recommend taking a couple of days to do this craft, especially if you’re making them as gifts for family and friends. Paint dries very quickly on okra pods, but it can still be slightly tacky for hours. I worked on the pods little by little. On the first day, I only painted the base coat, and on the second, the beards and so forth.
Be creative in your color choices! I painted a traditional bright red Santa, but I also had fun with some other colors. Green is personally my go-to color for Santa decor, but just about anything can work. I used green, blue, rust red, coppery red, and even purple. Mix up your acrylic paint styles for a fun look, too. All of my white beards are normal matte acrylic, but some of my base colors are shimmery. Who’s to say that Santa can’t be glitzy?
Don’t think that you have to paint a perfect face the first time around. I only painted one face that I was happy with. Painting lines over ridges on an okra pod isn’t hard, but it’s not easy either. For most of my faces, I just painted a splotch of peach on, then decided on the shape I wanted when I came back and painted over the spot with white.
You can also give Santa a bit of company. I made a few angels and even a Grinch for some different holiday themes. For angels, simply paint the whole pod a metallic color like gold, silver, or bronze, and be creative with the rest of it. I used hazelnuts for heads, cotton burs for wings and a great big bow to hide the stem. For a Grinch, find your brightest green paint and add a red coat and hat. Don’t forget his wicked smile!
Okra ornaments lend such a unique look to a Christmas tree, and they’re simple enough for the entire family to make. A quick Google search will provide so many different ways of making Santas, whether you want to highlight the okra or use it as a base for a three dimensional clay face. As with any craft, be creative and make these ornaments truly your own.
"Anna" is a teenage girl who loves to write, read, and do just about anything artsy. She enjoys writing about nature crafts and her experiences while learning to hunt and cook wild game. Anna firmly believes that backyard chickens lay the best eggs and that spending time outside with her flock every morning will start the day off happily. She is extremely grateful to her best friend, who inspired her to really take writing seriously. You can find her lost in her latest idea or listening to her sister "Rose" read book quotes. View all posts by Anna
