How to create a child theme?

A child theme is a WordPress theme that inherits the design, functionality, and features of a parent theme. It’s the safest and most recommended way to customize your site without modifying the original theme files.

Why use a child theme?

When you update your WordPress theme, any direct modifications to it will be lost. By using a child theme, your customizations remain intact even after updating the parent theme.

Creating the child theme is an easy process. You can create and activate the child theme in two different ways.

You may find it useful: How to Choose and Select an Excellent WordPress Theme Wisely?

Steps to create a child theme

Method 1: Manually Create a Child Theme

Follow these steps to set up a child theme manually:

Step 1: Create a Child Theme Folder

Navigate to /wp-content/themes/ in your WordPress installation, and create a new folder for the child theme.

Example: If your parent theme is Travel Log, name the folder travel-log-child.

Step 2: Add a style.css File

Inside your new folder, create a file named style.css and paste the following header:

/**
* Theme Name: Travel Log Child
* Author: WEN Solutions
* Template: travel-log
* Text Domain: travel-log-child
* Description: Travel Log is a simple and clean Travel WordPress Theme.
*/

The two necessary items in the code above are the lines starting with “Theme Name" and “Template.”  

The theme name tells WordPress what the name of your theme is, and the template tells WordPress which theme it should consider as the parent theme.

Step 3: Enqueue Styles in functions.php

Now, create a file called functions.php in the child theme folder and add the following code to load the parent and child styles properly:

<?php
/**
 *Recommended way to include parent theme styles.
 *(Please see http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes#How_to_Create_a_Child_Theme)
 */  
  add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'travel_log_child_style' );
  function travel_log_child_style() {
	wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
	wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style',get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',array('parent-style'));
}

That’s it! Once the folder and files are set up, go to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard and activate the Travel Log Child theme.

You might be interested: 25+ Best WordPress Travel Agency Themes & Templates to beautify your travel booking website

Method 2: Use a Plugin to Create a Child Theme

If you prefer a quicker method, you can use a plugin to generate and activate a child theme automatically. We recommend using:

WP Child Theme Generator

It’s easy to use and lets you preview changes before activation.

For more details, please watch YouTube video given below:

Conclusion

Creating a child theme is a simple yet powerful way to future-proof your site customizations. Whether you do it manually or with a plugin, it helps ensure your changes are safe when updating the parent theme.