Paper Christmas Village

When we were younger, we would always go to my grandmother’s house for Christmas eve. There was just something magical about her house around Christmas time. All the vintage decorations, the shiny tinsel and twinkling lights, the homemade fudge – it all just lent to a the feelings of magic and whimsy. But one of my all time favorite decorations at my grandma’s house was her Christmas village. Beautiful and old, the ceramic houses, people and the lighted trees were just a treat to look at. I would imagine little scenarios for all the village people, who they were, where they were going this Christmas eve.

My grandma passed away many years ago, but I still remember Christmas eves spent at her home with loving fondness. I wanted to recreate some of that magic that I experienced as a child so I decided to make a modern Christmas village using paper and Silhouette design store files. You can find a bunch of awesome designs in their store HERE, in case you were wondering 🙂

Christmas Village Materials

• Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait
• Christmas village design files
• White cardstock
• Glue stick
• Battery-operated tea lights

The first thing I did was download all of the Christmas village 3D files from the Silhouette design store. I opened each one in my design software and sized it to fit on a 8.5×11 sheet of white cardstock.

Then I just set my cut settings to ‘cardstock’ as the material and moved my blade up to 3. Then i jus sent it through my CAMEO.

I pulled away the remainder of the cardstock that wasn’t cut and then carefully peeled my village and tree shapes off my cutting mat. Most of the little window cutouts stuck  to the mat so I didn’t have to worry about them, but I just punched out the rest that didn’t come out with my finger.

Now to put it together! These pieces form a chapel. When you cut out the design, the CAMEO puts in little dotted fold lines so you know where to bend the paper. Just fold and glue and you’re good to go! The files don’t come with instructions on how to fold them and put them together, but they are pretty intuitive and I didn’t have any problems constructing them!

I just repeated this process for all sorts of different buildings and trees. It was actually pretty relaxing! I just put on a Christmas movie and folded and glued away. I just love how all the buildings and trees are as white as snow 🙂

My fireplace hearth became the home for my little Christmas village. I just love how the little snowy houses look against my wood round fireplace insert! It’s not quite as magical as my grandma’s village, but I’m glad it reminds me of her and looks modern and cute!

The intricate windows and tree branches just really make this Christmas village special. I stuck battery-operated candles in some of the bigger buildings. The end result is a pretty glow that just fills me with cheer 🙂

This would also work really well for a Christmas village that kids can play with – no big investment, so no worries if they rip up a piece or two! Make all the magic but without the worry of keeping kids away from priceless ceramics!

I’m so glad I made this little village – it’ll remind me of my grandma and fond Christmases past for years to come!

Have a very Merry Christmas, everyone! I’ll be taking a break for the holidays but I’ll be back in the new year with lots of new fun DIYs, crafts, trends, and more! xoxo