Papercraft Christmas Village Advent Calendar

It's that time of year when people like to to do holiday craft projects. I like this papercraft project by the Woo! Jr Kids Activities website because it combines two Christmas traditions into one. First, it is an advent calendar. Second, it is a Christmas village. Another cool feature of this printable is it comes in both a pre-colored version and a color-it-yourself version. Happy crafting!

Other Holiday Papercraft:

Vintage Nativity Diorama
Christmas Toys Collection
Mini Santa Sleigh
Krampus Paper Toy
Geometric Reindeer

Vintage Dutch Village Papercraft

The kids' activities website, Woo! Jr, offers this vintage Dutch village papercraft as a free download. Originally drawn in the 1930's, this diorama depicts farm life in the Netherlands in the 1800's. The 3D elements in the set include two houses, a rowboat, a bridge, and a windmill with blades that actually spin. The 2D elements include townsfolk, animals, a tree, and (of course) tulips. The color-it-yourself papercraft template for the village in the form of eight JPG files may be downloaded here. There are a few instructions for the trickier parts of the model on the download page.

Other Architecture Dioramas:

Japanese Cityscape
N Scale German Village
Old West Fort
Little House on the Prairie Town
Mini Christmas Village

Little House on the Prairie Paper Models

The Little House on the Prairie television series aired from 1974 to 1983. The show was set in the late 1800's in the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. These delightful little models by PaperPrairie depict various Walnut Grove buildings as they appeared in the show. All the models are super simple, just the thing for those who are beginners at building paper models. Pictured in the photos are the Ingall's house, the Oleson's Mercantile, the Blind School building, the post office, and the Hanson Lumber Company building. Besides buildings, there various props like horse carts, ground textures, and backdrops. In all, there are currently 30 different printables available. Is that a Little House Christmas village I see on the horizon? ;)

Other Papercraft Buildings:

Half-timbered Medieval Town
Little North Pole Diorama
Vintage 1930's Village
Micro City by Digitprop
24 Mini Dollhouses

Papercraft Medieval Buildings

These papercraft European-style medieval buildings were created by a member of Cardboard Warriors, a forum dedicated to paper miniatures war-gaming. Although intended for miniature gaming, I think they would also work well as part of a Christmas village. Pictured are a guild hall, an inn yard entry building, and the "White Hart Inn". The PDF templates for the models may be downloaded here. Included in the download are cut files that may be used with a Silhouette Studio electronic cutting machine.

Other Papercraft Architecture:

Old West Saloon
Lincoln Bicentennial Paper Models
Hungarian Buildings
N Scale Commercial Architecture
Medieval Jousting Tents

Papercraft Christmas Village

 The Christmas Village Displays website offers a free collection of eleven simple papercraft buildings that are suitable to build with young children. Most of the templates in this easy-to-build set have only one piece. Pictured are a sampling of the buildings available in the collection: A hotel, a town hall, a clock tower, a flower shop, and a church. There are eleven paper models in all.

Other Christmas Papercraft:
Santa Sleigh
Tiny Nativity Scene
German Christmas Carrousel
Doctor Who Robot Santa Mask

Vintage Papercraft Village

In  1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper published a fifteen part series of papercraft buildings for children. Although billed as "fold-up houses", the collection also happens to include some commercial buildings as well. Because the models are monochrome, they somewhat remind me of architecture you might see in the black and white cartoons of the period in which they were produced. Scans of all 15 buildings in the series may be found here.

Other Vintage Architecture Paper Models:
Lincoln Cabin
Six Castles
Lone Ranger Frontier Town
Printable Dollhouse
Moorish School Building

Medieval Village Paper Models

Although this papercraft medieval village called "Inglemere" was created for use in RPG gaming, I can see it also being used during the holiday season as a Christmas village.  I really like the bold graphics! Except for the well, all of the components were designed by DeviantART member MadunTwoSwords. The printable templates for the village may be downloaded here. The collection of buildings includes a well, a bridge, a cottage, a tall house, a tower, a barn, fences, coniferous trees, deciduous trees, and even some forest critters.

UPDATE 7/2/2019: Madun's DA page has been deactivated. :( The link above now points to an archived version of his page.

Papercraft Advent Calendar Village

The first Advent calendars were used by German Lutherans in the 19th century as a way to anticipate the days leading up to Christmas. Advent calendars come in many forms. This particular calendar takes the form of a winter village. At the beginning of the Christmas season, treats are placed in each of the houses. Then once per day, according to the date on the roof, a house is opened to reveal the prize inside. Photo instructions on how to make your own custom Advent village may be found here.

Tiny Papercraft Christmas Village

This tiny papercraft Christmas village designed by Kallboys depicts the Christmas Market in the town of Mondorf, Germany. The two larger buildings shown in the diorama are the Castle-like Café Hafenschlösschen and St. Laurentius Church. The PDF template for the model may be downloaded here. In the build photo above by saltacornu the template was printed at half the size of the original.

Architecture Papercraft: 48 German Village Buildings

These three papercraft buildings are but a sampling of forty eight different free printable models offered online by a primary school located in the German state of Saxony. The school uses these models during the holiday season to create a miniature Christmas village. Each of the models is of a building that actually existed (or perhaps currently exists) in the town where the school is located. According to the school's website the scale of these model buildings are appropriate for use with N and Z scale model railroads. The papercraft templates may be downloaded here.