12 Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Crafts for Kids, From Easy to Ambitious

At some point in December, every house has a bag of empty cardboard tubes that nobody wants to throw away. Good. Keep them. They’re about to become Santa, a reindeer, a snowman and half a dozen other things.

These 12 toilet paper roll Christmas crafts go from easy to ambitious. The first six suit kids from about age 3, and most of them don’t need paint at all, because our free printable wraps do the coloring for you. The middle four need some cutting. The last two are bigger projects for older kids, or for a slow afternoon when everyone’s home. You’ll need glue sticks and tape. No hot glue, anywhere.

No rolls? Some schools don’t allow them in class. A paper towel roll cut into thirds works the same, or you can print our wraps on card and roll them into tubes.

What’s in the Free Printable Pack

Easy Crafts (Ages 3 and Up)

Little kids can handle glue sticks, stickers and paint, so these are mostly wrap, stick and draw.

1. Roll Stamp Christmas Tree

This is the one where the roll is the tool, not the craft. Squeeze a roll slightly so it’s oval, dip the end in green paint and press it onto paper in a triangle shape, one row of circles at a time. Start with five at the bottom and work up to one. Add a brown trunk and a yellow star once it’s dry. It’s quick, a bit messy and very satisfying.

2. Toilet Paper Roll Santa

Wrap our Santa printable around a roll and glue it down along the seam. Then add his beard from the add-on sheet. If you’d rather paint, do the bottom third red, the middle pink and the top red again for the hat, then glue a strip of white paper where the hat meets his face. Draw the face last.

3. Reindeer

Wrap or paint the roll brown. Cut out the antlers from our printable (or trace your child’s hands on brown paper, which is cuter and gives you a keepsake). Glue the antlers inside the top of the roll so they stick up. Add a red circle nose. Kids like to give these names, so let them write it on the back.

4. Snowman

The easiest of the lot, really. Wrap the roll in white paper, draw on three buttons and a face, and glue a strip of fabric or colored paper around the neck for a scarf. Our printable includes a little black hat that slots over the top. Make a few in different sizes by cutting the rolls shorter.

5. Gingerbread Person

Use our brown wrap or paint the roll a light brown. Kids draw the white icing lines with a white crayon or a paint pen, add buttons, and glue on the arms and feet from the add-on sheet. Lined up on a windowsill, a row of these looks like a bakery shelf.

6. Penguin

Paint or wrap the roll black, then glue a white oval on the front for the tummy. Add the orange beak and feet from our printable, plus two small black flippers on the sides. Penguins aren’t strictly a Christmas thing, but nobody’s ever complained, and they’re great if you want something that works all winter.

Medium Crafts (Ages 5 and Up)

These ones need some cutting and a bit of patience, so they suit kids who can use scissors on their own.

7. Elf With a Pointed Hat

Wrap the roll in our elf printable, or paint the top half skin colored and the bottom half green. Roll the half circle from our pack into a cone for the hat and tape it closed. Glue it onto the top of the roll. Cut two pointy ears from the leftover card and tuck them under the hat brim. Every elf ends up with a slightly different expression, and that’s half the fun.

8. Snowflake Ornament

Flatten a roll and cut it into rings about half an inch wide. You’ll get eight or so from one roll. Pinch each ring into a petal shape, then glue six petals together at their points to make a snowflake. Paint it white or silver, and hang it with string. An adult may want to do the cutting, since the card can be tough.

9. Mini Christmas Tree Ornament

Press a roll flat and cut a zigzag along one side so it looks like a tree’s edge. Paint it green, add sticker ornaments, and thread a ribbon through a hole at the top. It’s small enough to hang on a real tree, which kids love.

10. Pillow Gift Box

Press one end of a roll flat, then push it in so it curves inward on both sides. Pop a small gift inside, like a hair clip or a handwritten note, then fold the other end the same way. Wrap the box in colored paper first if you want it to look finished. These make great little teacher gifts.

Bigger Projects (Ages 8 and Up, or the Whole Family)

These take more rolls and more time, so start saving tubes now.

11. Christmas Countdown Wall

Collect 24 rolls. Glue them side by side onto a big sheet of cardboard in a tree shape, or just in rows. Pop a small note or activity into each one (“bake cookies”, “watch a Christmas movie”, “call grandma”), then cover both ends with tissue paper and number them 1 to 24 with our printable labels. Each day, someone pokes through one end. Start it on December 1, or just count the days you have left.

12. Homemade Christmas Crackers

In the UK, crackers are a Christmas dinner must, and toilet rolls make perfect ones. Put a paper crown, a joke and a little treat inside a roll. Wrap it in a rectangle of wrapping paper about twice as long as the roll and twist both ends shut with ribbon. Ours skip the bang snap, so they’re safe for little hands. Just shout “bang” when you pull them.

A Few Tips Before You Start

Toilet paper roll Christmas crafts are cheap and easy, but a few small things make them go smoother. Glue the wraps on with a glue stick along the seam, not all over, or the paper wrinkles. Press seams down for ten seconds. And if a roll’s crumpled from sitting in a drawer, roll it gently the other way first and it’ll straighten out.

One more thing. Write the date on the bottom of each roll. You’d be surprised how many of these end up back on the shelf every year.

Download the Free Printable Wraps

The free PDF has six character wraps, add-on pieces, an elf hat cone, countdown numbers, a cracker kit and a tube template for when you’ve run out of rolls. It’s everything you’ll need for these toilet paper roll Christmas crafts, and it prints on US Letter and A4.

More Christmas Crafts and Printables

• Christmas crafts for kids
• Christmas crafts for toddlers
• Preschool Christmas crafts
• Paper snowflake template
• Winter crafts for kids

FAQs

What can you make with toilet paper rolls for Christmas?

Santa, reindeer, snowmen, gingerbread people, penguins and elves are the classics. You can also make snowflake ornaments, a tree stamp painting, gift boxes, a countdown wall and homemade crackers. Most need only a glue stick, scissors and our printable wraps.

What are easy toilet paper roll Christmas crafts for preschoolers?

The roll stamp Christmas tree and the snowman are the easiest. Wrapped characters like Santa and the gingerbread person also work well, because the printable does the hard part and kids just glue and decorate.

How do you make a toilet paper roll Santa?

Wrap a roll in our Santa printable and glue it along the seam, then add the beard. Or paint the bottom third red, the middle pink and the top red, add a white strip for the hat trim, and draw his face.

What can I use instead of toilet paper rolls?

Cut a paper towel roll into thirds, or print our tube template on card and roll it into a cylinder. Both work for every craft in this post.

Are toilet roll crafts safe for toddlers?

The rolls themselves are fine with an adult close by, but skip small add-ons like googly eyes and pom poms for children under 3. Our Christmas crafts for toddlers post has ideas made just for that age.

How do you stop the printable wraps from wrinkling?

Use a glue stick along the seam only, not over the whole wrap, and press it down for a few seconds. Card holds its shape better than printer paper, if you have it.