Christmas Paper Village (DIY FREE PRINTABLES!)

Want to learn how to make EASY DIY Christmas paper village? Looking for a DIY advent Calendar or FREE printable Christmas house template to print at home? You’re going to want to check out our CUTE and EASY FREE printable gingerbread houses & matching Christmas trees!

Our FREE printable Christmas paper village is also perfect for making DIY advent calendar boxes. They are inexpensive to make and only require minimal supplies. You can print out our gingerbread house village and create it in an evening! You might already have everything you need at home in your craft room!

You could also use these gingerbread houses to make DIY gift boxes! Fill them with candy and small treats for classmates, coworkers, friends, teachers or something to make and sell at craft fairs and fundraisers. I don’t know about you but I love receiving handmade gifts…they are more meaningful!

We love making cute, homemade Christmas arts and crafts like this DIY advent calendar for adults and others like the 3D Coloring Gingerbread House and 3D DIY Christmas Cards with FREE templates! Let’s check out this EASY DIY Christmas paper village!

DIY Christmas Paper Village

If you’re not familiar already, a Christmas advent (or countdown) is a Christmas tradition observed by many religious believers and increasingly by non-religious folks too! It’s the countdown or anticipation leading up to Christmas Day. The word “advent” is derived from the Latin word “adventus,” meaning “arrival” or “coming.

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One of the most popular ways to mark the Advent season, for people of all ages, is through the use of Advent calendars. These calendars are often a box for each day from December 1st through December 24th. Inside each box, there might be a small treat (like a piece of chocolate), a toy, or a homemade gift. The act of opening a new box every day builds up to the countdown for Christmas.

Make a DIY Advent Calendar for Adults

If you’re planning on making a DIY advent calendar for adults you might include small treats that adults might like! This could include things like mini liquor bottles, homemade bath bombs, perfume or cologne, christmassy scented candles, nail polish, colorful holiday socks, gourmet chocolates or homemade gourmet food to name a few advent calendar ideas for adults.

Make a DIY Advent Calendar for Kids & Teens

If you’re planning on making a DIY advent calendar for kids or teens you might include small surprises like hair clips, mini lego sets, play doh, toy cars, DIY craft kits, chapstick, stickers, stamp and ink pads or small beauty products just to name a few advent calendar ideas for kids and teens.

Our FREE printable gingerbread houses can stand alone and be their own cute little gingerbread village. We provide you with 3 unique gingerbread house templates.

We also provide you with 2 unique Christmas tree boxes in two shades of pastel, greenish blue. They’re adorned with vintage style ornaments and starbursts. When you put it all together it’s a DIY advent calendar that doubles as Christmas decor. It looks beautiful on a mantle, at the center of a table or on a buffet or entryway table.

Don’t forget the Christmas lights. For a cool wintry effect you can place Christmas lights in between your houses. If you have a steady hand you can use an exacto knife to remove windows and create luminaries! Add fake Christmas snow or use some Modge Podge and glitter to make all of the houses and tree sparkle.

Make This DIY Advent Calendar With a Cricut!

Although you don’t need a Cricut Cutting Machine to make our cute Christmas paper village- you can turn this into an easy Christmas Cricut craft with our included FREE Gingerbread House & Tree cut files! We provide all the cut files you need to make a perfect Christmas village with your Cricut.

Within Cricut design space you can resize your DIY advent calendar boxes to be any size you want. If you’re new to Cricut this is a great opportunity to try a SUPER easy print and cut project. This could save you lots of time cutting!

DIY Christmas Paper Village Supplies

This printable gingerbread village is easy to assemble using a few simple crafting crafting tools. If you have a Trim and Score Board you might want to use that over the straight edge and exacto knife.

Cricut cutting machine (optional)

Quilting Mat

Glossy Premium Heavy Cardstock (we used 80 lb)

Metal Ruler or Straight Edge

Double Sided Tape or Quick Setting Glue

Scissors

Exacto Knife

Bone Folder or Scoring Tool

FREE Printable Gingerbread Houses Templates (Download at End of Tutorial).

How to Make DIY Advent Calendar Step By Step

STEP ONE – Trim Gingerbread Houses to Size

Download and print your template on your preferred paper. We like this Glossy Premium Heavy Cardstock because it has a real professional finish to it but you can use regular bright white cardstock. Using a quilting mat, straight edge and a exacto knife- carefully cut all the long straight cuts. pattern. Be precise and leave any rounded cuts for your scissors.

STEP TWO – Fold All Tabs

All of our gingerbread house templates have dashed lines to indicate where the folds will be. Use a metal ruler Bone Folder or Scoring Tool to gently score along these lines. Scoring makes folding easier and much cleaner. If you have a Trim and Score Board in your craft stash you might want to use that over the straight edge and exacto knife.

STEP THREE – Fold The House and Tape

Carefully fold the body of the gingerbread house to create the desired 3D shape of the house. Make sure your folds are clean and sharp. Apply a double-sided tape along the tabs (small flaps) where indicated on the edges of each template. You can also use a quick setting glue here but double sided tape is more forgiving and doesn’t require clamping and wait time.

STEP FOUR – Add Your Christmassy Gifts and Treats

Now that you have the fully formed gingerbread house you can add your small Christmas gifts. If you have small kids (or adults in the house) that like to peek you make want to seal your boxes shut.

How to Make DIY Advent Tree Boxes

Next we’ll show you how to make the tree boxes from the Christmas paper village. We provide you with two different sizes and colors of Christmas tree. The process is very similar to the gingerbread houses.

STEP ONE – Trim Tree Boxes to Size

Download and print your Christmas tree template on your preferred paper. We like this Glossy Premium Heavy Cardstock because it has a real professional finish to it but you can use regular bright white cardstock. Using a quilting mat, straight edge and a exacto knife- carefully cut all the long straight cuts. pattern. Be precise and leave any rounded cuts for your scissors.

STEP TWO – Score and Fold

All of our Chrismtas tree templates have dashed lines to indicate where the folds will be. Use a metal ruler Bone Folder or Scoring Tool to gently score along these lines. Scoring makes folding easier and much cleaner. If you have a Trim and Score Board in your craft stash you might want to use that over the straight edge and exacto knife.

STEP THREE – Cut Away Excess Felt and Glue

Carefully fold the body of the Christmas tree box to create the desired 3D shape of the house. Make sure your folds are clean and sharp. Apply a double-sided tape along the tabs (small flaps) where indicated on the edges of each template. You can also use a quick setting glue here but double sided tape is more forgiving and doesn’t require clamping and wait time.

STEP FOUR – Create Candy Wrapper Ends

Now that you have the fully formed Christmas tree box you can add your small Christmas gifts. If you have small kids (or adults in the house) that like to peek you make want to seal your tree boxes shut with some more double sided tape.

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make this EASY DIY Christmas countdown! Don’t forget to download our gingerbread and tree box templates below. We also include Cricut cut files if you have a Cricut machine.

If you love this DIY advent calendar be sure to check out our other Christmas crafts! We have TONS of EASY Christmas craft ideas to share!

FREE 3D Coloring Gingerbread House

Grinch Ornament DIY +FREE GRINCH Download

DIY Snow Globe Candle Gift +FREE Printable Labels

DIY 3D Christmas Cards +FREE TEMPLATES

DIY Vintage Ribbon Candy Ornaments

NOTE! Our DIY Christmas Village files are free to use for personal use only! Commercial use, profiting from, giving away, using as a part of a free giveaway, modifying to sell or give away is strictly prohibited. If someone you know is interested in using our files, send them to our website to download directly. By downloading you agree to these terms and conditions.

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