How to Build a Christmas Village Display

Make your own Christmas village with recycled materials.

Instead of purchasing a ceramic Christmas village display from a store, create one at home using recycled materials. A homemade Christmas village will save you money over a store-bought set and gives you an opportunity to reuse some of the boxes, bags and other packaging material you may have accumulated during your holiday shopping. Get the whole family involved and spend some time together while crafting your personalized Christmas village display.

Things You'll Need

• Boxes
• Craft paint
• Pencil
• Three-dimensional craft paint
• Craft knife
• Yellow tissue paper
• Cardboard
• Craft glue
• Artificial spray snow
• Quilt batting
• Mirror
• Foam cones
• Beads

Instructions

1. Collect various containers such as tissue boxes, oatmeal canisters or cereal boxes to use as houses and other buildings in your Christmas village.

2. Paint each box with craft paint to hide the label or any markings on the box.

3. Draw doors, windows and other details on each building with a pencil and fill in your drawings with three-dimensional craft paints.

4. Cut out one or two windows on each building with a craft knife. Tape a piece of yellow tissue paper to the inside of the box to cover the window openings and give the room a lighted appearance.

5. Cut pieces of cardboard to form roofs for your buildings and glue them in place with craft glue. Paint each roof with craft paint or artificial spray snow as desired.

6. Arrange your buildings on a large piece of poster board or cardboard. Glue the buildings in place with craft glue when you are satisfied with your arrangement.

7. Lay a piece of quilt batting over the Christmas village and rip holes in the batting to push it down over the buildings so that it rests flat on the poster board. Move the quilt batting around and cut it as necessary to create a blanket of snow in your Christmas village.

8. Cut a pond shaped hole in the quilt batting and place a mirror in the hole--beneath the batting--to create an ice skating pond.

9. Paint foam cones with green craft paint to create pine trees. Glue small beads to the trees to decorate them for Christmas and arrange them throughout your village.

References

• HGTV: Christmas Village