One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is making simple handmade gifts and crafts with my kids. And to tell you the truth, they love it too!! So this year when I was trying to figure out what to give to the 18 teachers my children have between school, therapy and church, I wanted something they could help create. That is how the toilet roll Santa was born.
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I will admit, I didn't just use toilet paper rolls for this project. Mostly because we didn't think of it until it was a little late to collect 40 toilet paper rolls. (That's a lot of toilet paper to use in just a couple weeks.)
So instead, I used a couple toilet paper rolls, a few used wrapping paper rolls and several of my leftover cardboard rolls from my Cricut vinyl projects.
Which worked out really well. I simply sliced each of these rolls using my Cricut True Control Knife and we were set to start crafting.
Another fun part of making these toilet roll Santa's was that the kids could do almost the entire project themselves. Other than cutting down the rolls, I had to do the hot glue since I didn't want them burned.
But they painted, glued and filled them with goodies themselves. And they loved doing it! It was also fun to watch them deliver their Santa pants bags to their teachers.
To help me keep track of whose pants were whose, I made some simple tags for each pair of pants. But you could also grab our Printable Teacher Gift Tags to help you personalize each pair.
Now one other item, if you don't want to cut out all your pieces by hand, I did do all the measurements and cut out my Santa pieces on my Cricut Maker. I have the file in Cricut Design Space for anyone that wants to grab it.
Toilet Roll Santa Pants
- Toilet Paper Rolls
- Cherry Red Acrylic Paint
- Red ribbon
- Black and yellow cardstock or construction paper
- White Felt
- Cricut True Control Knife
Watch our DIY video at the top of the post, but make sure your ad blockers are off so you can see it.
Step 1
Paint all your toilet paper rolls red. You don't have to paint the inside, just the outside. Let them dry.
Step 2
Cut out the belt in black construction paper size 10.5 x 1.25". The belt buckle in yellow construction paper is 2.25 x 2.25". Cut the bottom circles out of white felt circles that are 1.8" round.
To save on time, you can cut out all your pieces with a Cricut machine using my Santa Pants Treat Bag pattern on Cricut Design Space.
Step 3
Hot glue 2 toilet paper rolls together along one side. Making sure they are secure.
Step 4
Hot glue the black belt around the outside of the Santa pants by overlapping the two ends of the belt piece.
Step 5
Using a glue stick, put glue onto the belt buckle and glue it to the middle of the belt. I found that just gluing the 2 sides that touch the belt was enough.
Step 6
Hot glue a felt circle to the bottom of each toilet roll Santa pant leg. Make sure the felt covers the entire opening. Or, you may end up with treats on the floor. (Not that I speak from experience or anything.)
Step 7
Cut 2 pieces of ribbon that are about 10" long. Tape one ribbon inside the front and the back of one pant leg. It should look like suspenders. Repeat with the other leg. The hardest part is making sure they are the same length so you can carry your Santa pants.
Step 8
Fill those pants with little treats and candy. Don't forget to add a fun tag.
Now, aren't these the cutest little toilet roll Santa pants you've ever seen? I seriously can't get enough of them. And every teacher that has gotten one has smiled and thought they were really fun.
My favorite part though is that my children had the chance to create something fun and give a gift to their teachers that they were proud of and could say they helped create.
