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How To Make Special DIY Paper Christmas Trees With Maps

My mantle is full of DIY and upcycled tabletop Christmas trees. There are felt Christmas trees made with old sweaters, Denim DIY Christmas trees made with old jeans and even some repurposed China plate trees. I thought it would be fun to add some DIY paper Christmas trees to this collection.

Most paper Christmas trees are made with old books. As I love crafting with maps so much and have quite a stash, I made my DIY paper Christmas trees out of old maps rather than books.

Old maps are a very affordable craft paper. You can pick up old maps from charity/thrift shops cheaply or even from elderly relatives for free. This, for me, often works out much cheaper than if I bought new craft paper from a store.

Also, I find that many old maps are printed in festive colours. The roads are often in red, rural areas coloured green and all printed on a white background. This makes them suited for making map Christmas trees.

These trees are straightforward to make; you could even get the kids involved with this one. Also, making the DIY paper Christmas trees out of maps of your favourite places will make them even more special.

Old maps

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What You Need To Make Map Trees

How To Make DIY Paper Christmas Trees With Maps

Step 1: When making a DIY paper Christmas tree with maps instead of books, you must first turn the map into a book.

To do this, open out the road map. Then, cut up the map along the fold lines using either a rotary cutter, ruler, mat, or a paper guillotine.

Cutting the map up.
cutting road maps
Cut up map squares

Step 2: Next, stack the cut map sheets together, ensuring they all face the same way. Then cut a small strip of paper about 1″ in width and the same length as the map sheets.

Place glue along the edges of the stacked map sheets and on one side of the paper strip. Wrap the paper strip around the edge of the map sheets to create a spine. Hold the map book spine in place with pegs whilst the glue dries.

gluing spine

Step 3: Once the glued spine has dried, the map book can be turned into a DIY paper Christmas tree.

Place the map book face down. Take the top right corner of the first page and fold it towards the centre (as in the picture below).

folding the corner
Folding corner down

Step 4: Next, with the same page, fold the map in half again along the diagonal towards the centre. As you make the second fold, you will notice that the bottom of the map sticks out from the rest of the book. Simply fold and tuck this under.

folding down the second corner
second fold
folding second corner pt 3

Step 5: Carry on folding all the map pages similarly. Once finished, the map book should look like a map Christmas tree. Glue the two end pages together to maintain that DIY paper Christmas tree shape.

fold map Christmas tree book
gluing ends together

Step 6: To finish these DIY paper Christmas trees, wrap the velvet ribbon around the cotton reel. Then glue the cotton reel to the base of the map of Christmas trees to provide a base for the trees.

Step 7: For a final touch to map Christmas trees, make a star topper. Simply punch some star shapes out of gold paper. Glue the stars to the top of a toothpick. Then, slip the toothpick into the top of the paper Christmas trees.

making maps star toppers
DIY Paper Christmas tress with maps.

I made two DIY paper Christmas trees, one with a red ribbon base and the other with a gold ribbon base.

map Christmas tree
DIY map paper Christmas trees
pair of map Christmas trees
Map Christmas trees

You might want to check out my upcycled map heart garland made similarly. I’ve also made paper pine cones using old maps.

If you liked these map Christmas trees, you should check out these cone Christmas tree ideas and my other map Christmas crafts.

Find more ideas for Christmas crafts here.

Sharon Slinger

Monday 8th of November 2021

The trees are wonderful. Love the size. How many pages did you use?

Claire Armstrong

Tuesday 9th of November 2021

Thank you so much. It depends on how full you want the tree to look I used about 16 pages.

Roseann Hampton

Friday 20th of December 2019

Such a beautiful decoration! This will be one of my features this Saturday at the Snickerdoodle link party!

Claire Armstrong

Sunday 22nd of December 2019

Thank you so much for the feature. Merry Christmas.

Lora Bloomquist

Saturday 14th of December 2019

Absolutely love these , Claire! Pinned & sharing with my email list!

Claire Armstrong

Saturday 14th of December 2019

Thank you so much and cheers for the share that's awesome.

Linda at Mixed Kreations

Friday 13th of December 2019

This map tree is so cute! I wish that I had the foresight to save all my dads maps.

Claire Armstrong

Friday 13th of December 2019

Thank you. I always hang on to old maps they are so great o craft with.

Michele Michael

Friday 13th of December 2019

Totally down with this idea.

Claire Armstrong

Friday 13th of December 2019

Thank you so much!