Before you toss those empty toilet paper rolls into the recycling bin, take another look. With a little colored paper, paint, glue, and imagination, those humble cardboard tubes can become some of the cutest Christmas decorations of the season.
Santa Claus, rosy-nosed reindeer, cheerful snowmen, miniature Christmas trees, and even the Grinch can all begin with the same simple cardboard roll.
These projects are inexpensive, wonderfully adaptable, and especially fun for family craft days. Children can give every character a different expression, outfit, or personality, while adults can help with cutting and any trickier details.
Save a handful of cardboard tubes, spread out the craft supplies, put on some Christmas music, and see what your family can create.
🎨 Gather Your Christmas Craft Supplies
You don’t need a huge collection of specialty supplies for these crafts. In fact, part of the fun is using bits and pieces already hiding in your craft drawer.
Useful supplies include:
- Empty toilet paper rolls
- Construction paper or colored cardstock
- Red, green, white, brown, black, and orange paint
- Paintbrushes
- Child-safe scissors
- Craft glue or glue sticks
- Googly eyes
- Cotton balls
- Small pom-poms
- Pipe cleaners
- Small twigs
- Ribbon
- Buttons
- Felt scraps
- White tissue paper
- Markers
- Sequins or paper snowflakes
Don’t worry if you don’t have everything on the list. A black marker can replace buttons, paper circles can replace pom-poms, and ordinary white paper can become Santa’s beard or the trim on his hat.
The best cardboard-roll Christmas crafts are often the ones made from whatever happens to be available.
🎅 1. Toilet Paper Roll Santa Claus
A bright red Santa is the perfect place to begin.
His familiar red suit, fluffy white beard, pointed hat, and black belt make him instantly recognizable, even when he’s only a few inches tall.
What You’ll Need
- 1 cardboard toilet paper roll
- Red paper or red paint
- White paper or cotton
- Small piece of peach or pink paper
- Black paper or marker
- White pom-pom or cotton ball
- Glue
- Scissors
How to Make Santa
Cover most of the cardboard tube with red paper or paint it red.
Create Santa’s face near the top using a small piece of peach or pink paper. Add eyes with a marker or googly eyes and give him a tiny smiling mouth.
For his beard, cut a rounded shape from white paper, felt, or tissue paper. You can also pull apart a cotton ball and glue the fluffy cotton around his chin for a wonderfully snowy beard.
Add a strip of black paper around the middle for Santa’s belt and a small yellow or gold square for the buckle.
Then make his hat.
Cut a triangle from red paper, roll or fold it slightly so it sits over the top of the tube, and finish it with white trim and a fluffy pom-pom.
Give Every Santa a Personality
Once you have the basic Santa figured out, make a whole group.
Give one an extra-long beard.
Make another with round paper glasses.
Add tiny paper mittens, buttons, rosy cheeks, or a miniature sack of presents.
Children don’t have to make their Santas identical. A slightly crooked hat or wildly fluffy beard often makes the finished character even more endearing.
🦌 2. Make a Rudolph Reindeer
Brown cardboard tubes practically beg to become reindeer.
Add two antlers, a pair of eyes, and a bright red pom-pom nose and Rudolph is ready for Christmas Eve.
What You’ll Need
- 1 toilet paper roll
- Brown paper or brown paint
- Red pom-pom
- Googly eyes
- Brown pipe cleaners or small twigs
- Glue
- Scissors
- Black marker
How to Make Your Reindeer
Cover the tube in brown paper or paint it brown.
Glue two googly eyes near the top.
For Rudolph, add a bright red pom-pom beneath the eyes. If you’re making the rest of Santa’s reindeer team, use black or brown noses instead.
Create antlers from brown pipe cleaners by bending them into branching shapes.
Small twigs also work beautifully and give the reindeer a slightly more rustic woodland appearance.
Attach the antlers inside or along the top of the tube.
Then use a marker to add a little mouth.
Create Santa’s Entire Reindeer Team
Why stop with Rudolph?
Make a whole herd of cardboard-roll reindeer and give each one different details.
Try adding:
- Tiny bells
- Green paper holly leaves
- Red bows
- Paper scarves
- Glittery antlers
- Mini pom-pom earmuffs
- Name tags
Line them up beside your cardboard Santa and suddenly you have the beginnings of a miniature Christmas Eve scene.
⛄ 3. Build a Cheerful Cardboard Roll Snowman
A snowman is one of the easiest toilet paper roll Christmas crafts because the basic design is so simple.
Start with white, add a carrot nose and a few black buttons, and your little snowman is already coming to life.
What You’ll Need
- 1 cardboard tube
- White paper or white paint
- Orange paper
- Black marker
- Small buttons or paper circles
- Ribbon or colored paper for a scarf
- Small twigs, if desired
- Glue
Make Your Snowman
Paint the cardboard tube white or wrap it completely in white paper.
Draw two small eyes near the top and add a dotted coal smile.
Cut a little carrot-shaped triangle from orange paper and glue it in the center of the face.
Add three black circles or buttons down the front.
Now give your snowman some winter accessories.
Wrap a narrow strip of colorful paper, felt, or ribbon around the tube to create a scarf.
You could also add small twig arms, a paper top hat, earmuffs, or a knitted-looking hat made from scraps of yarn.
Make a Whole Snowman Family
Try creating snowmen in slightly different sizes if you have cardboard tubes that can be trimmed.
Give each family member a different scarf and expression.
One might wear red.
Another could wear green.
A tiny snowman could have an oversized hat or a particularly long carrot nose.
Display the finished family together on a mantel or windowsill with cotton batting or white tissue paper around their feet for “snow.”
🎄 4. Create Mini Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Trees
Not every cardboard tube needs to become a character.
A roll can also provide the sturdy base for a sweet miniature Christmas tree.
These little trees are especially fun because decorating them is almost like decorating the real thing—only much faster.
What You’ll Need
- Toilet paper rolls
- Green paper or cardstock
- Glue
- Scissors
- Small pom-poms
- Sequins
- Stickers
- Buttons
- Paper stars
- Ribbon or metallic thread
Make the Tree
Leave the cardboard roll natural or paint it brown to create the trunk.
Cut a large triangle from green paper and glue it around or to the front of the tube.
For a fuller look, layer several green triangles in slightly different shades.
You can also cut little snips along the edges of the paper to suggest evergreen branches.
Decorate the Tree
Now comes the best part.
Decorate your miniature tree with anything small and colorful.
Try:
- Pom-pom ornaments
- Sequins
- Paper circles
- Tiny stickers
- Beads
- Buttons
- Metallic yarn
- Narrow ribbon
- Paper snowflakes
Finish the top with a bright yellow star.
Children can make each tree in completely different colors, or everyone can use the same palette to create a coordinated little Christmas forest.
💚 5. Make a Mischievous Toilet Paper Roll Grinch
Among all the cheerful Santas, snowmen, and Christmas trees, one grumpy green face is guaranteed to stand out.
A toilet paper roll Grinch is wonderfully silly and gives children a chance to experiment with exaggerated expressions.
What You’ll Need
- 1 toilet paper roll
- Green paint or green paper
- Red paper
- White cotton or tissue paper
- Black marker
- Glue
- Scissors
Create the Grinch
Paint or cover the tube in bright green.
Once dry, draw the Grinch’s face.
Give him narrow eyes, raised eyebrows, and a crooked little smile. The more mischievous the expression, the better.
Make a tall pointed Santa hat from red paper.
Add white cotton around the bottom of the hat and a white pom-pom at the tip.
You can also add a strip of red paper near the bottom of the tube to suggest a Santa coat.
The contrast between the cheerful Christmas outfit and that wonderfully grumpy green face is what makes this craft so much fun.
Create a Mini Whoville Display
Make several green characters alongside brightly colored cardboard Christmas trees.
Add pom-poms, oversized stars, crooked decorations, candy-cane stripes, and other playful details.
If your family loves decorating with the Grinch at Christmas, you can find even more inspiration in 25 Grinch Christmas Decorations to Turn Your Home Into Whoville.
🎄 Create a Cardboard Roll Christmas Village
Once you’ve made all five projects, don’t put them in separate corners of the house.
Bring them together.
Arrange Santa beside his reindeer.
Place snowmen near miniature Christmas trees.
Let the Grinch lurk suspiciously somewhere in the background.
Add a few extra details around them:
- Cotton-ball snow
- Small pinecones
- Paper presents
- Bottle-brush trees
- Fairy lights
- Cardboard houses
- Paper snowflakes
- Mini candy canes
Suddenly a collection of recycled cardboard tubes becomes an entire handmade Christmas scene.
It can make a charming decoration for a child’s bedroom, playroom, bookshelf, mantel, or holiday table.
🎁 Turn Them Into Christmas Gift Decorations
Small cardboard characters can also become part of your Christmas gift wrapping.
Instead of simply tying ribbon around a present, place a handmade Santa or snowman on top.
Write the recipient’s name on the back and the craft becomes both a gift tag and a little keepsake.
You could even fill a decorated tube with a few wrapped candies before closing the ends, creating a simple homemade Christmas favor.
🧒 Let Kids Make Their Own Versions
One of the nicest things about toilet paper roll crafts is that there isn’t much pressure for them to look perfect.
A child’s snowman might have enormous buttons.
Rudolph might end up with three antlers.
Santa could have a purple beard.
The Grinch might look more surprised than grumpy.
That’s all part of the fun.
Instead of showing children exactly where every detail should go, give them the basic idea and let them invent the rest.
You may be surprised by what appears on the craft table.
✂️ Prepare a Christmas Craft Station
If you’re crafting with several children, preparing the supplies beforehand can make everything much easier.
Set out bowls or trays containing:
- Pre-cut paper shapes
- Pom-poms
- Googly eyes
- Buttons
- Ribbon scraps
- Pipe cleaners
- Paper stars
- Cotton balls
- Markers
Place the cardboard tubes in the center and let everyone choose a character.
Adults can handle complicated cutting or any hot-glue work while children concentrate on painting, wrapping, gluing, and decorating.
It’s an easy activity for a December afternoon, classroom Christmas party, family gathering, or playdate.
♻️ Save Those Cardboard Rolls
This craft is also a great reminder that Christmas supplies don’t always need to be purchased new.
Keep a small box for clean craft materials in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
You might save:
- Cardboard tubes
- Small cardboard boxes
- Ribbon scraps
- Wrapping-paper remnants
- Gift tags
- Buttons
- Yarn
- Tissue paper
- Christmas cards
- Paper shopping bags
Then, when Christmas crafting day arrives, you’ll already have a treasure box of materials waiting.
For even more ideas for turning everyday items into holiday decorations, see DIY Christmas Crafts from Recycled Materials.
❤️ Little Crafts, Big Christmas Memories
A cardboard tube isn’t particularly exciting on its own.
Add a red paper hat and suddenly it’s Santa.
Give it twig antlers and a bright red nose and you’ve made Rudolph.
Wrap it in white, add a carrot nose, and a snowman appears.
That’s part of what makes simple Christmas crafting so magical for children. Ordinary things become something completely different right in front of them.
And years from now, you probably won’t remember whether every line was straight or every pom-pom stayed exactly where it was supposed to.
You’ll remember the afternoon spent together making them.
So save a few cardboard rolls, put some Christmas music on, and make room at the table.
Your miniature Christmas crew is waiting to be created.
