Whoever said that hats were out of style? Join your kids in bringing hats back with these creative hat crafts for National Hat Day.

How’s that lovely head of yours doing? Is it bare and cold? Maybe it looks sad and boring because there isn’t a decorative accessory gracing it, like a hat!

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Fun Facts about Hats

Hats are worn for safety and protection, religious reasons, ceremonial reasons, warmth or fashion
In the Middle Ages, hats were an indicator of social status
In the military, hats may denote ones nationality, branch of service, rank and/or regiment
A Thebes tomb painting of a man wearing a conical straw hat is one of the first images of a hat
Structured hats for women began to be worn in the late 16th century
Millinery is the designing and manufacturing of hats, and it began as a woman’s occupation
The word ‘milliner’ is derived from the city of Milan, Italy as the best quality hats were made in Milan
In the 1920′s, women began to wear smaller hats to replace the bonnets and wide-brimmed hats

So you can see, hats have been a part of our lives for a long time now – so much so that they’ve become ingrained in our everyday speech! Here are some commonly used hat idioms:

Throw your hat in the ring
‎At the drop of a hat
I take my hat off to
‎A hat trick
Wear more than one hat

So why are we talking about hats today? Because it’s National Hat Day on January 15th!

While there is no known origin of how National Hat Day came to be celebrated, the day is set aside to wear and enjoy a hat of your choice and style. If you’re short of ideas for what type of hats to wear, check out these simple but creative hat crafts for kids to make!

20 Creative Hat Crafts for National Hat Day

1. Printable Mad Hatter’s Day Paper Hat

When you think about creative hat crafts, the first person that comes to mind is probably the Mad Hatter, with his colorful personality and interesting attire! Here’s a fun printable so you can make your own Mad Hat!

2. New Year’s Eve Coloring Party Hats

It’s not a New Year’s Eve party if you don’t have a party hat, and if you find yourself missing one, we’ve got you! Grab our printable and color it in anyway you like, so you start the New Year on your terms!

3. Jester Hat Craft

We may not have jesters in today’s world, but if you are ever putting on a show based in another century, you certainly need a jester, and Woo Jr. ensures they won’t be hatless!

4. Printable Elf Hat Craft

Elves work hard during winter, and since it’s so cold, they need adequate protection for their heads. This is where Kids Craft Room comes in, with a cute DIY elf hat craft!

5. DIY Wizard Paper Hat

If you’ve got a Harry Potter fan among your friends or are planning a Harry Potter party, you will enjoy making and using this pretty wizard hat from Mom Brite!

6. DIY Safari Hat

Every child dreams of going on a safari at some point in their life, which means that we must feature a DIY safari hat in our list of creative hat crafts! Raise Curious Kids shows us how to make one without much effort.

7. Egg Carton Dinosaur Hat

This easy-to-make dinosaur-themed hat from Crafty Morning is just the thing you need for a quick costume for Dinosaur week, or if you are thinking of a great kids craft project that they can make themselves!

8. Cardboard DIY Minion Hat

Kids will enjoy making creative hat crafts based on popular characters, which is why we love this cute template from Craft Passions to make an adorable Minion hat! There are also instructions to make a Minion goggles mask, so you have a full Minion DIY costume!

9. Paper Mache Hats

There are so many things you can make with papier mache, and creative hat crafts are some of them! Buggy and Buddy show us how to make a huge papier-mache hat, which you can decorate and use in make-believe play.

10. Tiny Victorian Style Hats

These adorable little hair accessories start with two recycled items. Can you guess what they are? These tiny, cute hats from Mark Montano are perfect not only for kids but for dolls, too.

11. Easy Paper Hat Tutorial

Creative hat crafts don’t mean that they have to be complicated; instead, the simplest hat craft can still be considered creative! Check out One Little Project for the step-by-step tutorial on how to make this.

12. DIY Paper Plate Visors

Can visors be considered hats? Well, we think so, which is why we absolutely love these gorgeous paper plate visors from Handmade Charlotte! We love how you can customize it with multiple materials.

13. DIY Paper Masterchef Hat

This DIY Chef Hat from Kids Explorer is extremely versatile! It’s perfect for a baking party, pizza party, or any kind of cooking party! It’s also great for pretend play!

14. Princess Cone Hat

Princess play is an inevitable part of childhood, and if your child is in that phase, you must try this cute princess cone hat from First Palette!

15. Crazy Hat Craft Project

Woo Jr. shows us that creative hat crafts can also be a little crazy – and how crazy you want to make it is totally up to you, mixing up colors, textures and anything at all.

16. Origami Paper Hat

World of Art and Craft shows us one way to use Origami to make creative hat crafts, but there are many more! These hats are adorable and would be perfect to stick on a headband or on a doll.

17. DIY Ice Cream Melting Party Hat

How would it feel to have an ice cream melting on your head? Well, it may feel good on a hot, muggy day, but for most of us, it would be a huge mess! Well, thankfully, these DIY hats from Oh Happy Day are anything but messy!

18. Pirate Hat Paper Craft

Fancy being a pirate for a day? Well, Super Simple has made it easy – you can now make a pirate hat for yourself! We love how detailed it is, with the skull and crossbones and everything.

19. Cat in the Hat Paper Plate Hat

You can’t think of creative hat crafts without thinking about a major fictional character who wears a hat – Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat! A Night Owl Blog shows us how to make a realistic-looking hat in the same pattern.

20. Glow-in-the-Dark Witch Hat

Craftulate shows us that you don’t have to be satisfied with a plain witch hat – not when you can have a glow-in-the-dark one!

If you ever thought hats were boring, bet you’ve changed your mind after seeing all these creative hat crafts! So gather your friends together and get hat crafting together!!