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Santa Paper Bag Puppet Craft [Free Template]

With Christmastime quickly approaching, we’re winding down our series of fun Christmas crafts for kids!

But, we couldn’t end things without making at least one more Santa Claus craft.

This Santa paper bag puppet craft is a fun and simple paper craft that’s suitable for kindergarten and elementary-aged children.

Check out our detailed directions or watch our step-by-step video tutorial to see how to make this Santa Claus craft with your kids or students.

Also, be sure to browse through all of our Santa activities for kids.

Santa Claus Puppet Craft

santa paper bag puppet craft image collage with the words paper bag santa

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We’ve made quite a few brown paper bag puppet crafts because they’re just so easy and cheap to make!

The other day we finally ran out of our giant stack of brown paper bags and had to run to the store for a new pack.

We got 100 bags for just $1.99! Are you kidding?! That’s about 2 cents per bag.

And that’s why this craft is so economical to make!

To be honest, we did “splurge” by using vibrant and thick card stock, but if you need to keep on a tight budget, just go with construction paper.

Supplies

  • Brown Paper Bag
  • Colored card stock (in red, black, skin colored and yellow)
  • White card stock
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Santa puppet template (download form located at the end of the page)

Directions

Download the Santa puppet craft template, print and cut out the pieces.

Hands holding paper bag Santa craft template

Take the face piece and glue it to the top flap of the paper bag.

Hands gluing Santa face on paper bag

Glue the red Santa’s coat to the bottom of the paper bag.

Hands gluing red paper to paper bag Santa

Place Santa’s coat trim vertically in the middle of the red coat and glue in place.

Hands gluing white paper onto paper bag Santa craft

Position Santa’s belt horizontally in the middle of the bottom and secure with glue.

Hands gluing black belt on Santa craft

Glue the yellow Santa buckle in the middle of the belt, then glue the smaller black rectangle in the middle of the buckle.

Hands gluing belt buckle onto paper bag Santa craft Hands gluing buckle inside onto paper bag Santa

Place Santa’s beard at the top of the red coat and glue in place.

Hands gluing Santa beard onto paper bag craft

Put the mustache slightly below the eyes and glue down.

Hands gluing Santa mustache to face

Glue the pink nose in the middle of the mustache.

Assemble Santa’s hat by gluing the white trim to the base of the hat.

Hands gluing Santa hat together

Glue the white puff to the tip of the hat.

Hands gluing Pom to Santa hat

Place the completed hat on Santa’s head and glue in place.

Hands gluing Santa hat to paper bag Santa craft

Isn’t this cute Santa puppet craft so easy to make?

We already talked about how we love paper bag crafts because they’re so economical to make, but there’s also another key reason:

They double as entertainment!

Paper Bag Santa craft
Santa paper craft

After your kids make their very own Santa Claus puppet, they’ll want to play with it.

Encourage your child to put it on and talk with Santa. You can have them pretend to be Santa too! The possibilities are endless.

And, it’s a creative, screen-free activity. Double win-win!

Santa paper bag crat

Christmas Unit Study For Kids

You can’t just stop at one Christmas craft, right?

If you’re doing them at home with the kids, why not spend extra time this holiday season bonding over more Christmas crafts and activities?

The first things we like to start with are books! Books are a great way to introduce a new theme to your child and there are so many amazing Christmas children’s books!

Below are some of the top Christmas books to read to your kids!

Dasher: This wonderfully illustrated Christmas book for kids gives you the back story on one of Santa’s favorite reindeer, Dasher! Girls will especially love to read this since Dasher is a girl.

Construction Site On Christmas Night: Fans of the fun characters of the construction site books have to add this Christmas-themed story to their collection. See how the trucks get ready for Christmas!

How To Catch An Elf: Kids everywhere love the silliness of this Christmas story. The rhymes and the illustrations will draw the kids in as well. This is a Christmas book kids will want to read every year!

Santa Claus puppet craft

We also love crafting! It’s not only fun but helps kids with scissor skills, following directions, and so much more. Add in more projects with some of our top favorites:

Santa Claus puppet craft

Download our free printable Santa worksheets for a fun way to work on letter S recognition, handwriting, and scissor skills! It’s perfect for at home or in the classroom.

These Christmas do a dot printables are our go-to activity for preschool and kindergarten children. It’s an easy way to use dot markers with kids who are working on fine motor skills, letter recognition, counting, and visual discrimination. Check them out!

Ready for a fun Christmas game? This roll a reindeer game is a great way to get kids excited about the holidays. It’s fun, it doesn’t require any materials you don’t already have on hand, and they can play with their siblings or friends! This activity will help them build fine motor skills and taking turns as well as color recognition.

These Christmas pattern block mats are a fun way to help kids practice their fine motor skills and learn about shapes and colors. This is an excellent introductory STEM activity for young children!

Share With Us

Did you create your own paper bag Santa with your children or students?

If so, you have to share them with us! (Ok, you really don’t have to, but we’d honestly love to see them).

Take a picture of your final project and post them on our Facebook wall or in our private Facebook group!

More Christmas Ideas For Kids

Santa paper bag craft

Santa Paper Bag Puppet Craft For Kids

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Make this cute and simple paper bag Santa craft with the kids this Xmas!

Materials

  • Brown Paper Bag
  • Colored card stock (in red, black, skin colored and yellow)
  • White card stock
  • Glue stick (this one is our favorite)
  • Santa puppet template (download form located at the end of the page)

Tools

  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Download the Santa puppet craft template, print and cut out the pieces.
  2. Take the face piece and glue it to the top flap of the paper bag.
  3. Glue the red Santa’s coat to the bottom of the paper bag.
  4. Place the Santa’s coat trim vertically in the middle of the red coat and glue in place.
  5. Position Santa’s belt horizontally in the middle of the bottom and secure it with glue.
  6. Glue the yellow Santa buckle in the middle of the belt, then glue the smaller black rectangle in the middle of the buckle.
  7. Place Santa’s beard at the top of the red coat and glue in place.
  8. Put the mustache slightly below the eyes and glue down.
  9. Glue the pink nose in the middle of the mustache.
  10. Assemble Santa’s hat by gluing the white trim to the base of the hat.
  11. Glue the white puff to the tip of the hat.
  12. Place the completed hat on Santa’s head and glue in place.

Did you make this craft?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Free Santa Template

 Santa Craft Template

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Karla

Tuesday 19th of December 2023

Hi There,

I downloaded this and wanted to make it but there is no Santa's coat piece, is there an alternate version with this included?

Sam

Tuesday 19th of December 2023

Hi! Yes, this is an older post when we didn't make a template for the base of the paper bag (in this case, the coat). We recommend you to just trace the bag on the paper and cut it out to the size you have ◡̈

Paula

Sunday 22nd of December 2019

why do I have to add my email address everytime? Once should be enough.

Sam T

Thursday 26th of December 2019

Unfortunately, it's just the way the system is currently set up. BTW, you won't get multiple emails thought!

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