I’ve been making these super cute Santa napkin holders for years now – aren’t they adorable?
I made this out of felt but fun foam also works (it’s nice to punch holes and lace it together) and although not as durable to hold up over the years, you can even use construction paper. I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue but a glue gun or other white glue will also work. If you really want to be sure it holds up, Aleene’s Fabric Fusion is another excellent choice.
Begin with a base piece (the backing/foundation of the napkin holder) that looks like Santa’s hat with a pompom on top. This can be out of red or white.
You’ll also need a smaller hat piece out of red – it should basically be a triangle with the top cut off and should be the width of the backing piece but to only cover the upper third of the back piece, right under the pompom shape (see the first picture to see what I mean – this is the piece that becomes Santa’s hat).
Next you’ll need a piece that’s pink or flesh coloured – it will form the face and should be a rectangle with the top edge rounded. These two pieces get glued onto the background only at the sides so that the napkin will be able to go inside.
Cut out a red piece that’s kind of shaped like a lightbulb and glue this on roughly in the middle of the face to form the nose and mouth.
Over the mouth and nose, glue on a white piece shaped like a mustache.
Then of course you need to give Santa some eyes. I just cut these out of some blue felt but googly eyes work really well too.
Finally, you can add any embellishments you like. As you can see, I added a little sprig of holly to his hat. You can bling it up with glitter and sequins. I added a piece of quilt batting to form the pompom on his hat but you can also use white pompoms or cotton balls. A red pompom adds dimension when added to the nose. You can also use pompoms, cotton balls, or quilt batting to add dimension to his mustache as well. When you tuck the napkin inside of this, it forms his beard.
Don’t have any white napkins? Do you have some red ones instead? Well here’s a variation that uses the red napkins to form his hat and his coat.
These are the pieces needed for this variation. The white rectangles are pieces that I glued onto the back to form a ring that would hold the napkin. (Note: you could just use one long strip but I didn’t have a piece of white felt long enough so I used two rectangles instead).
Here’s the variety of Christmas napkin rings I have presented over the past several days. If you missed the previous ones, check out this post https://creativecynchronicity.com/2010/12/christmas-napkin-rings-from-todays-intheseao/ where you’ll find all the details and the link to the In the Season show where I demonstrated how to make them.
Lisa says
These are so cute! This looks like it would be fun for me and my Granddaughter to do together.
Thanks for sharing!
Bonnie Cantrell says
This is cute, I might have to share it with my daughter’s school as a cute project idea.
Angela Williams says
My daughter loves to do arts and crafts so we will have to pick up the supplies and try this out. Cute!
Donna L. says
This looks like fun to make and so cute!
Crystal Rogers Walker says
I will do this with my Grandkids, what a fun craft for Christmas, we are going to have fun fun with this one, thank you for such a awesome blog and craft
Veronica Lee says
Aren’t these the cutest things ever!!! Love them!
Rita Leonard says
very cute. The kids would love this
Alan says
These look cool to make
bianca roman says
This is such a cute and fun way to brighten up the kid’s table on Christmas! I will have to show my son and see if he’d like to do this with me!
Janet W. says
This is adorable! What a cute craft that my grandsons would enjoy helping me make!
Rosey says
It really turned out so lovely. I like to make cute crafts like this for the holidays too.
KC says
These are super adorable. I always make place holders/name card for Thanksgiving. Maybe I should try thses for Christmas.
Pat Schwab says
These are really cute and would be a great craft to do with kids. They would also make a cute gift.
Jen Rodrigues says
This looks like fun thing to do and creative as well. Thanks for sharing.
Rita Leonard says
such a cute idea for a diy with my granddaughter
Calvin says
Super easy and very nice decor for the christmas holiday
Meme says
This is so. cute. I don’t have any felt but I am so glad you said you can use foam and i love the hole punch lace idea because my kids would love to help me make this. It also will make cute grandparent gifts.
robin s. says
This is such a great kids craft idea. I am always looking for fun easy craft activities or my four year old.