How to Make Homemade Christmas Villages

Christmas villages typically have a "Main Street, USA" theme.

Christmas villages are a holiday tradition, often adorning mantles and tabletops. However, buildings and decorative pieces for these miniature villages are often made of ceramic, making them quite expensive. A homemade Christmas village made from paper and craft items is an ideal option if you have children in your home or are on a budget. Design a miniature village that's based on the street where you live, or where you grew up, for a personalized creation that can't be found in stores.

Things You'll Need

• Newspaper
• 3 to 6 White paper lunch bags
• Stapler
• Card stock, assorted colors
• Scissors
• Hot-glue gun
• Craft foam, assorted colors
• Puff paints, assorted colors
• Fine-tipped marker
• 3 to 6 Green pipe cleaners
• Jewels, rhinestones and beads
• Cotton balls
• 4 to 10 Wooden skewers
• 24-to 36-inch-square Cardboard or white cloth
• Spray glitter
• Fake snow, bagged or spray

Instructions

Buildings

1. Crumple newspaper into fist-sized balls. Fill three to six white paper lunch bags, depending on how many buildings you want for your village, with the newspaper balls. Add enough newspaper to provide structure to the base of the lunch bags.

2. Fold the tops of the bags over once at the point where you want the top of the roof. Add one staple to the center of the fold.

3. Cut a sheet of card stock to cover the folded portion of each bag. Double the length of the card stock so it covers the other side of the bag; this will form the roof. Fold the card stock in half so it fits evenly over the top of each bag. Trim the outer edges of the card stock into scalloped or zigzag designs. Use hot glue to attach it to the top of the bags.

4. Cut craft foam into rectangles for the doors and windows of the buildings. Decorate the doors with a dot of puff paint for the door knobs. Draw "T" shapes on the windows with puff paint. Attach the doors and windows to the buildings with hot glue. Cut thin rectangles from craft foam to attach to each side of the windows as shutters and beneath each window as flower boxes.

5. Write the names of buildings, such as “school” or “church,” with a fine-tipped marker over the doors as appropriate.

Christmas Decorations

1. Bend a green pipe cleaner into a circle; overlap the ends to secure its shape. Make one of these wreaths for each building. Embellish the wreaths by hot-gluing jewels, rhinestones or beads on them. Hot-glue each wreath on the front side of each building or on the doors.

2. Make snowmen for the village by stacking three cotton balls vertically, using hot glue to hold them together. Draw two eyes and a mouth using dots of black puff paint on the top cotton ball. Add three dots of black puff paint in a vertical line down the center of the middle cotton ball.

3. Create a top hat for each snowman by cutting a 1/2-inch circle, a 1-by-1/2-inch rectangle and a 1-inch circle out of black craft foam. Fold the rectangle into a cylinder that's 1/2-inch tall; hot-glue a circle to each end to form a snowman’s hat. Hot-glue a hat on each snowman’s head, as desired.

Trees

1. Cut four to 10 wooden skewers, depending on how many trees you want for the village, into lengths from 4 to 8 inches; don't cut off the sharp ends. Cut green craft foam into squares ranging from 1 to 3 inches. Stagger the sizes of the squares so you have an equal number of each size.

2. Push the point of a skewer through the center of one of the largest squares until it reaches the flat end of the skewer. Apply hot glue to the bottom of the skewer and square. Continue adding squares to the skewer. Use the largest for the bottom, then progressively smaller ones until you reach the top. Turn each square so all of the corners are not matched up.

3. Add a large drop of hot glue to the tip of the skewer to hold the squares in place; it will look like snow or ice. Drip hot glue randomly on the corners of the squares; allow it to drip so it forms icicles. Decorate the trees, if desired, by hot-gluing jewels, rhinestones or beads to them.

Assembly

1. Place the village on a 24-to-36-inch-square cardboard base or on a surface covered with a white cloth of the same size.

2. Arrange the buildings with the fronts facing outward in a row as if they're on a street; you can move some of the buildings out from the row but don't turn them around or the decorations won't be seen.

3. Spray fake snow (or use bagged fake snow) on the base of the village in-between the buildings. Pile the snow around the base of the snowmen and trees. Mound the snow into little hills to look like snow drifts. Form foot trails out from the doors of the buildings by dragging your finger through the snow.

4. Spray glitter on the rooftops, trees, snowmen and snow.

Tips & Warnings

• For the trees, you'll need approximately 10 squares to cover an inch of skewer. For example, for four 4-inch trees you'll need 160 squares.

References

• Better Homes and Gardens: Craft a Mini Holiday Village
• FamilyFun: Paper Gingerbread Village
• FamilyFun: Faux Gingerbread House