How to make a toilet roll Santa

Ho, ho, ho! It's Santa with a big round belly and a beard as white as, well, cotton wool. Our jolly-looking Santa craft is loads of fun to create with the kids and is made from a recycled loo roll tube decorated with coloured felt.

It's amazing what you can make with everyday household items like loo roll tubes, cotton wool and odd buttons, so get your kids hunting around for things they can turn into a merry Santa. Then give them some coloured felt sheets, googly eyes and sparkly pipe cleaners and leave them to it to dress up Santa in his red suit and hat.

Once your kids have brought Santa to life, they could create a whole family of festive loo roll characters with the leftover felt, including Mrs Claus with cotton wool hair, an elf with a green felt suit and even Rudolph the reindeer with a red pom pom or shiny bead for his nose.

Age group: Kids as young as five can get involved in making Santa - they will just need help cutting out felt shapes for Santa's red suit and hat.

What you will need

• 1 cardboard loo roll tube
• 1 red felt A4 sheet
• 1 black felt A4 sheet
• 1 white felt A4 sheet
• 1 pink felt A4 sheet
• 1 cotton wool ball
• 1 sparkly gold pipe cleaner
• 1 black button
• 2 medium googly eyes
• 2 white mini pom poms
• 1 white small pom poms
• 1 pink mini pom pom
• Glue stick
• Glue dots
• PVA glue
• Scissors

Step 1

Find a flat surface to work on and gather together all the craft materials you need to make Santa.

Step 2

How to make Santa...

• Take a loo roll tube and a sheet of pink felt.
• Using scissors, carefully cut out a rectangle shape from the pink felt, measuring approx 110mm x 185mm.
  
• Spread one side of the pink felt shape entirely with some glue stick and wrap it around the loo roll tube. It should fit perfectly.
  

Step 3

For Santa's red suit...

• Take a sheet of red felt and carefully cut out a rectangle shape, measuring approx 75mm x 185mm.
• Spread one side of the red felt shape entirely with some glue stick and wrap it around the bottom of the loo roll tube.
• Save the leftover red felt to make Santa's hat.

Step 4

Cut out 1 black and 2 white felt strips, measuring approx 10mm x 185mm each. Stick the white felt strips at the top and bottom of Santa's red suit, using some glue stick. Then stick the black felt strip in the middle for Santa's belt.

Top tip: When sticking on the felt shapes, make sure all of the overlaps are at the back, so Santa looks nice and neat from the front.

Step 5

Stick on a button between Santa's collar and belt.

Step 6

Make Santa's shiny belt buckle using a gold, sparkly pipe cleaner, by folding it 4 times to create a small square. Cut off the excess pipe cleaner and you're left with a little, sparkly buckle.

Step 7

Stick the buckle to Santa's belt, using PVA glue.

Step 8

How to make Santa's beard and nose...

• Unravel a cotton wool ball and shape it into a 'U' shape.
• Stick the cotton wool 'U' just above Santa's button and up around where you think his face should be. Don't worry that it doesn't cover the back of Santa's head as you won't see it when his hat is on.
• Stick on the pink pom pom just above Santa's beard, for his nose, using a dab of PVA glue and hold Santa's nose in place until it sticks.
  
• Then stick on the small white pom poms just underneath Santa's nose, for his white moustache.
  

Step 9

How to make Santa's hat...

• Take the leftover red felt and just trim off any stray bits, so it is more rectangle in shape. Then roll the red felt rectangle into a cone.

Step 10

Trim off the bottom overlapping corners of the red felt cone, so the bottom of Santa's hat is neat. Then cut out one white felt strip, measuring approx 10mm x 185m.

Step 11

Stick the felt strip to the bottom of Santa's hat, using PVA glue, trim off any white excess, then hold it in place until it sticks.

Step 12

Bend down the top of Santa hat and stick it down with a glue dot, to hold it in place immediately. Then stick on the small white pom pom to the point of Santa's hat, using another glue dot.

Step 13

How to put the finish touches to Santa...
Stick on Santa's googly eyes just either side of his nose using glue stick, then pop on his hat and that's it! Santa is ready to play with. When the kids aren't looking, you could even fill their Santa up with festive choccies as a delicious surprise on Christmas day.

Design created by Jennifer Shepherd for goodtoknow.co.uk.

For crafts materials such as felt, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and pom poms etc. visit Baker Ross, a family run craft business who are the leading suppliers of arts and crafts to schools and other organisations across the UK and abroad, based in Walthamstow, London.

Where to next?
- How to make a hand-print Rudolph the reindeer - fun and easy
- How to make a hand-print Christmas wreath
- How to make Patch the penguin gift tags