Crochet Christmas Pudding Free Pattern

Work the icing as a separate piece with uneven edges and this crochet christmas pudding amigurumi stops looking like a brown ball with a white circle on it. Holly and two berries finish the top, and the amigurumi stops.

Most mantels have one awkward gap that garland can’t fix and a candle only makes worse. A small round object with a white cap on it fills that space better than almost anything, partly because the eye reads it as food, and food reads as warmth.

Crochet Christmas Pudding

This one finishes about the size of a large plum. Dense enough to sit still on a shelf, light enough to hang off a branch. The build is unusual for amigurumi too: a flat panel worked in rows, seamed into a tube, then cinched at both ends like a drawstring bag. No decrease rounds to lose your place in.

Countdown Before You Start

• One pudding, start to finish: around two hours at a steady pace. The thirty-row body takes about seventy minutes of that, and the star icing takes another thirty.
• A batch of six: nine to eleven hours. It splits cleanly over four evenings, and the second one you make is always noticeably faster than the first.
• Latest sensible start: one pudding can be made the night before you need it. Six can be finished by Friday if you sit down Tuesday evening. Nothing here needs blocking or drying time, so there is no hidden wait built into the schedule.
• If you are posting one as a gift, add a day. The hanging loop wants to be knotted, checked and re-knotted once you have seen how the finished piece hangs.

Where It Actually Lives

• Tiered tray, bottom layer. It has the weight to anchor a tray that is otherwise all paper and pinecones.
• Bowl filler, mixed with wooden beads and a couple of cinnamon sticks. Three puddings in a shallow wooden bowl reads better than one.
• Tree ornament on an outer branch. The white icing catches light, so it wants to be seen from the side rather than tucked deep in the greenery.
• Gift topper, tied on with the hanging loop threaded under the ribbon. This is the one that gets photographed.
• Garland along a bannister, spaced every forty centimetres or so with greenery between.
• Wreath accent, sewn at four o’clock rather than dead centre, where the weight looks intentional.
• Desk or windowsill, on its own. It sits flat and does not need a stand.
• Advent display, one added per week, going from bare pudding to iced to fully decorated if you like a slow reveal.

What You’ll Need

• DK weight yarn in brown. A variegated brown with flecks is worth hunting for, and the reason why is under Colourways.
• DK weight yarn in white for the icing.
• DK weight yarn in dark green for the holly leaves.
• A small amount of DK weight yarn in red for the berry.
• 4.0 mm crochet hook for the body, icing and berry.
• 3.0 mm crochet hook for the holly leaves. The smaller hook is what keeps the leaves stiff enough to stand off the icing.
• Soft toy stuffing.
• Yarn needle.
• Scissors.

Abbreviations Used

• ch = chain
• sc = single crochet
• hdc = half double crochet
• dc = double crochet
• tr = treble crochet
• sl st = slip stitch
• st, sts = stitch, stitches
• sp = space

Pieces List

• Pudding body, make 1 in brown
• Star icing, make 1 in white
• Holly leaf, make 2 in green
• Berry, make 1 in red

The Pattern

Pudding Body

Worked flat in rows with the 4.0 mm hook, then seamed.

• Make a slip knot and ch 19 in brown.
• Row 1: Skip the first ch from the hook. Sc 4, hdc 10, sc 4 across the remaining chains [18].
• Row 2: Ch 1, turn. Sc 4, hdc 10, sc 4 [18].
• Rows 3 to 14: Repeat Row 2. By around Row 12 the taller hdc band down the centre should already look slightly raised against the sc edges, which is what will become the belly of the pudding [18].
• Rows 15 to 30: Repeat Row 2. Finished panel should measure roughly 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches when folded in half, and should feel like a soft rectangle with no curl at the short edges [18].
• Fold the panel in half so the two short edges meet, then sl st the two edges together across every stitch to form a tube. Ch 1 and fasten off, leaving a tail.
• Thread a long tail of brown onto a yarn needle and weave it through the ch-1 spaces along one open end of the tube.
• Pull the tail tight to cinch that end completely closed, then knot it securely. Leave both brown ends long, because these become the hanging loop.
• Stuff the tube firmly through the open end. Stuffed and closed at one end, the shape should read as a squat dome rather than a ball, and should hold its own weight without slumping sideways.
• Cinch the remaining open end shut the same way, weaving through the edge spaces and pulling tight.
• Weave the bottom ends inside the body and trim. Keep the top ends free.

Star Icing

Worked in the round with the 4.0 mm hook. Leave a long starting tail for sewing.

• Ch 4 and sl st into the first ch to form a ring.
• Round 1: Work sc 1, ch 1 into the ring. This pair stands in for the first dc of the round.
• Round 1: Work 2 dc into the ring to complete the first cluster, then ch 2.
• Round 1: Work [3 dc cluster, ch 2] four more times into the ring [5 clusters and 5 ch-2 spaces].
• Round 1: Sl st into the top of the beginning dc to close, then turn. The ring should look like a small flat flower with five stubby petals, not a solid circle.
• Round 2: Work sc 1, ch 1, 2 dc into the first ch-2 space, then ch 1.
• Round 2: Work [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc] into the next ch-2 space to make a corner, then ch 1.
• Round 2: Repeat [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc] with ch 1 between into each remaining ch-2 space around.
• Round 2: Return to the starting space and work 3 dc, ch 2, then sl st to the top of the beginning dc to complete the fifth corner. Turn. [CHECK — count unclear in source. The first corner is split across the start and end of the round and no total is stated. Expect five corners with a ch-1 space between each.]
• Round 3: Work sc 1, ch 1 into the corner space to stand in for the first dc, then 2 tr, ch 2, 2 tr, 1 dc into the same space, then ch 1.
• Round 3: Work a 3 dc cluster into the next ch-1 side space, then ch 1.
• Round 3: Work [1 dc, 2 tr, ch 2, 2 tr, 1 dc] into the next corner ch-2 space, then ch 1.
• Round 3: Continue around, alternating a 3 dc cluster with ch 1 in each side space and the tr corner group in each corner space [5 points]. The taller treble crochets at the corners are what pull the points long, so if the star still looks like a pentagon rather than a star, the trebles are being worked too tightly.
• Round 3: Sl st to the beginning stitch, ch 1 and fasten off, leaving a long tail. Laid flat, the star should be wide enough to cover the cinched top of the pudding with its points reaching a third of the way down the sides.

Beginner crocheter? The video tutorial below guides you through every round of this plushie, and the written pattern is below for later!

Holly Leaf, Make 2

Worked with the 3.0 mm hook. The repeated peak is a small picot that forms the spiky leaf edge.

• Ch 4 and sl st into the first ch to form a ring.
• Round 1: Work sc 1, ch 1, 2 dc into the ring to make the first cluster, then ch 2.
• Round 1: Work a 3 dc cluster into the ring.
• Round 1: Make a peak: ch 1, ch 3, sl st into the 3rd ch from the hook, ch 1.
• Round 1: Work 3 dc cluster, ch 2, 3 dc cluster into the ring.
• Round 1: Make a peak: ch 1, ch 3, sl st into the 3rd ch from the hook, ch 1. [CHECK — count unclear in source. The number of clusters worked into the ring is not stated as a total and the peaks are counted separately in the video.]
• Round 2: Work sc 1, ch 1 into the beginning dc.
• Round 2: Make a peak: ch 1, ch 3, sl st into the 3rd ch from the hook, ch 1.
• Round 2: Work 3 dc into the next ch space, make a peak, then work 3 dc into that same ch space.
• Round 2: Make a peak, then work 1 sc into the dc of the next cluster. The leaf should now be a pointed oval with spikes down both sides, roughly the length of one star point.
• Round 2: Ch 1 and fasten off, leaving a tail long enough to sew with.

Berry

Worked with the 4.0 mm hook. This one takes about four minutes.

• Ch 3 in red.
• Work 6 hdc into the first ch [6].
• Sl st into the first hdc to draw the stitches into a small sphere. It should curl into a bead on its own as you join, without needing stuffing.
• Ch 1 and fasten off, leaving a tail for sewing.

Safety Eye Timing

This design has no eyes, so there is nothing to insert as written. Plenty of people add a face anyway, and if you do, the timing matters more here than in a standard amigurumi because the body is seamed rather than worked in a spiral.

• Insert safety eyes after the tube is seamed and one end is cinched shut, and before you add any stuffing. Once the second end is closed, you cannot reach a washer.
• Place them on the sc panel, not the hdc band, roughly a third of the way up from the bottom. The hdc stitches are looser and the shank will wander.
• For anyone under three, skip the safety eyes entirely and embroider the face in black yarn instead. Take the stitches right through the body and back, not just through the surface.
• The same applies to anything going into a treat bag, a party favour or a classroom set, regardless of the age on the box. Those puddings get handled by children you will never meet, and an embroidered face removes the question.
• The red berry is a small round piece sewn to the surface. If the ornament is for a young child, sew it down around its full circumference rather than tacking it at one point.

Assembly

• Sit the star icing centrally over the cinched top of the pudding, with the brown hanging tails coming up through the middle of the star.
• Pin all five points before sewing anything. The star will look centred and then turn out not to be, every time.
• Using the long white tail, stitch each point down onto the brown body. Sew along the underside edge of each point rather than tacking the tip, so the points lie flat instead of lifting.
• Weave all remaining white ends inside the body between the icing and the brown.
• Lay the two holly leaves on top of the icing so they meet at their bases and angle apart in a shallow V. Try them in two or three positions before committing.
• Sew the bases of both leaves down securely, leaving the tips free so they stand slightly proud of the surface.
• Sew the berry over the point where the two leaf bases meet, hiding the join.
• Knot the two brown tails together above the star to form a hanging loop. Test the hang before trimming, then knot a second time.

Stuffing

• Firm, and firmer than instinct suggests. Because there are no decrease rounds, nothing is pulling the shape in for you, and an understuffed pudding goes soft and pear-shaped within a week of sitting on a shelf. Push stuffing out toward the seam first, then fill the centre.
• The hdc band is where over-stuffing shows. Those stitches are taller and looser than the sc panels, so stuffing pokes through as visible white flecks if you force it. Work in small pinches rather than one large handful.
• Keep the top just slightly softer than the rest, in the last centimetre before you cinch. A rock-hard top makes the gathered edge splay out and pushes the icing star up off the body, and once the icing is sewn down you cannot fix it without unpicking.
• The holly leaves and berry take no stuffing at all. The berry curls closed by itself.

The Character Dial: Rustic or Bright

Two directions, and the yarn choice does most of the work in both.

• Rustic. Swap the pure white icing for oatmeal, ecru or a very pale grey. It stops looking like royal icing and starts looking like brandy butter, which is the older, less cartoonish version of the same thing. Use a heathered undyed brown for the body, ideally something with a bit of tweed nep in it. Take the green down to sage or olive rather than a true dark green. The berry works better in rust or brick than in pillar-box red. Replace the yarn hanging loop with a short length of jute twine or linen thread, knotted rather than tied in a bow. Push the holly leaves further apart so they sit almost horizontally, which reads as botanical rather than decorative. If you want to go further, work only one leaf instead of two and place it off-centre.
• Bright. Go the other way entirely. High-contrast white icing against the darkest brown you own, then a kelly green leaf and a genuinely red berry. Run a strand of gold metallic thread alongside the white yarn for the final round of the star only, so the icing edge catches light without the whole star being glittery. Sew three or four tiny clear seed beads onto the icing points as sugar. A short length of eyelash yarn worked into the last round instead of metallic gives a snowy edge rather than a shiny one. Two berries instead of one, sitting slightly apart, tips it further toward the illustrated Christmas card look. And if you are making a set, a bright red hanging loop instead of brown makes the whole batch look deliberate on a tree.

The dial also moves through size. A 3.5 mm hook and the same row count gives a tighter, smaller, more ornamental pudding. A 4.5 mm hook gives a slumpier, more homemade one.

Colourways

• Toffee Sundae. Deep caramel body, cream icing, dark cherry berry, and no green at all. Reads as dessert first and Christmas second, which makes it usable well past December.
• Blackcurrant. Aubergine body, soft dove grey icing, deep plum berry, and grey-green leaves. The moodiest version, and the one that works in a room with no other Christmas colour in it.
• Nordic Frost. Cool grey-brown body, bright white icing, ice blue berry, and pale silver-green leaves. Sits well against natural wood and white candles.
• Vintage Postcard. Faded warm brown, tea-stained cream icing, dusty rose berry, and muted sage leaves. Everything one shade lighter than expected, which makes it look as though it has been in the family for years.

One small thing worth knowing about variegated brown: if you pull the darkest section of the colour change round to the front of the panel as you work, those flecks land on the visible face and read as raisins. Left to fall where they like, they mostly end up in the seam.

After the Season

Store it loose, not squashed. The stuffing takes a compression set if it spends eleven months at the bottom of a box under heavier decorations, and a flattened pudding does not come back with a shake. A shoebox with the ornaments sitting side by side in a single layer is enough. Give the icing points a gentle pull outward when you unpack it, since the trebles at the star tips are the part that folds. If the white has picked up dust, a soft brush works better than washing, and washing a stuffed piece is rarely worth it. Check the hanging loop knot before it goes back on the tree.

Quick Answers

• Can I make this without seaming? You can work it in the round instead, but the flat panel is doing something specific here. The band of taller hdc stitches down the middle is what creates the belly, and in a spiral you would have to build that shaping with increases and decreases instead. If seaming genuinely puts you off, the sl st join is worked through both edges at once and takes about five minutes.
• Will it stand up on a shelf on its own? Yes, as long as you stuffed it firmly and the bottom is cinched tight rather than gathered loosely. The flat cinch at the base gives it a small stable footprint. If yours rolls, the bottom knot has come loose or the stuffing has migrated upward, and both are fixable by opening the base.
• How much yarn does one use? Nowhere near a full ball. A single 50 g DK ball of brown will cover four or five bodies, and the white, green and red are all scrap amounts. This is a good pattern for the leftovers drawer, which is also why it batches so well.