Cardboard Gingerbread-House Garland

Make this idea your own

Make a tiny festive neighbourhood using clean packaging. These houses stay flat, with no tricky roof joins, and children can invent their own windows, doors and pretend icing.

Materials

• 1 large clean cereal box or similar thin brown card
• Ruler and pencil
• Child-safe scissors
• White water-based paint pen or paint and fine brush
• Hole punch
• 1.5 m cotton twine

Step by step

1. Open the box along a seam and lay it flat with the brown side facing up. Remove glued tabs and discard greasy or damaged sections.
2. Draw six rectangles, each approximately 8 cm wide and 7 cm tall. Above each rectangle add a triangular roof rising another 3 cm. Cut around the complete house outlines.
3. Draw doors, windows, roof tiles and dotted borders in white. Keep patterns simple and leave space near the top corners for holes. Let paint dry completely.
4. Punch a hole at each upper corner of the rectangular wall, at least 1 cm from the card's edges. Adults can help where card is stiff.
5. Thread twine through the two holes of each house so the cord runs behind it. Space houses evenly, knotting on either side if they slide, then tie short loops at the ends and hang indoors.

Useful tips

• Write family names above the doors.
• Make your own varied house outlines; no purchased template or cutting machine is needed.

Safety and storage

Supervise cutting and hole punching. Keep long cord away from young children and hang clear of doors, heaters and flames. These are cardboard decorations, not edible gingerbread.

Editorial DIY draft — make a sample before publication.