Do you remember the toilet roll tubes from last week’s Play Academy? No-one guessed what they were for! Not an advent calendar, not snowmen but in fact a frosty winter village, for some small world play.
How to make a model Christmas village
We started by cutting our toilet roll tubes into different sizes so we could have a variety of houses and then painted them all white. We used acrylic paint as it covered the cardboard better than our water-based poster paint.
The next step, once the paint was dry, was to draw on the windows and doors of our houses using pens and pencils.
A little strip of craft glue along the window ledges and floor meant we could add a layer of frosty glitter.
We thought about using rolled up semi-circles of card to make turret-style roofs but they were a bit tricky for the children to manage by themselves, so we opted for cake cases instead. A rim of glue around the top of the tubes was all we needed to hold them in place. You’ll see some of the houses have windows cut out of them using a craft knife rather than being drawn on. I like the idea of lighting these up from inside – maybe using a battery tea candle if we can find one to fit.
We added more frost to the roofs of the houses, glittering all the way.
This winter village works so well as a collaborative project. Even very young children can join in with the painting, drawing and glitter shaking. I love how all the houses are different and having lots of children joining in means you get lots of houses to play with in your little town.
We added a few snowmen, made from a little pieces of cotton wool, so we can pretend the children who live in the houses have made them.
The finished village is set up in the playroom now, ready for lots of imaginary small world play and we’re planning on adding an ice rink and some Christmas trees too.
More Christmas craft ideas
If you like this winter village you might enjoy our other junk model ideas and the crafts in our Christmas play archive
This post is joining in with the Thrifty Families Blog Carnival
happily shared with your green resource and thrifty thursday and it’s playtime and today’s creative blog and show and tell and link and learn and the sunday showcase and sharing saturday and friday’s nature table and for the kids friday
Ahh, that was your big secret!
It`s absolutely wonderful!
Wish I could live there and have a party with snowmen 🙂
Aw! That’s cute! My girls will love making this!
The many uses of toilet roll tubes – so cute! I love Christmas villages.
Ah…love these. The frosty look is so pleasing. Just carried me away to a wonder land.
And yeah, agree – it can be a wonderful collaborative project!
After a wonderful b’day party based on collaborative art theme, a Christmas art party with such a project will be so much fun!
What a wonderful Christmas village. I would love it if you would share it at my sharing party at https://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/12/sharing-saturday-8.html. Thank you!
Thank you Carrie – I’ve linked up 🙂
Your Christmas village is wonderful! I love the white paint and the glitter, what a great project, I have pinned this to my Pinterest board 🙂
Thank you April – I love Pinterest for collecting ideas, don’t you?
Thank you for sharing, Cathy!
This will be great as a follow on from the books we are reading at the moment….”Snowmen at night” and “Snowmen at Christmas”, by Caralyn Buehner and Illustrated by Mark Buehner. Thankyou for the great idea.
Such a darling little village =)
I love this, what a lovely Christmassy idea. x
Such a fun idea! Thanks for sharing!
You know how I love TP Roll crafts!!! Love your village. It is gorgeous. And the snowmen are adorable.
Thanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
Oh my goodness those are TOILET PAPER ROLLS? This is amazing! I’m pinning!
Thanks so much for sharing at Thrifty Thursday this week! This is SO PERFECT for it!
I’m going to save this craft for after Christmas… maybe on a dreary midwinter day when we need some inspiration! L.O.V.E it!
Congratulations! Your post has been featured on T.E.A.C.H @ Cachey Mama’s Classroom. Go to this link to see and get your featured button: https://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/2011/12/teach-featured-postspins.html
Lori