Guide

Make your own magical Secret Santa door

19.11.2019

Translation: machine translated

This year an elf is moving into our house. I have made a suitable door for him. I'll show you how to do it so that you too can give an elf a home.

Suddenly there it is, this colourful door on the wall outside the children's room. It looks like someone has climbed the ladder. Slippers lie in front of the entrance, a few crumbs on the floor and a handwritten letter. This is how the time with the little elf could begin. A time with a lot of magic, because you never get to see elves. The door is firmly locked from the outside. He only comes out when everyone in the house is fast asleep. The elf watches over their dreams, scares away monsters, brings small gifts and occasionally plays a few tricks. It is a time full of surprises. This tradition with the gnome doors at Christmas time originally comes from Denmark. The little elf with his characteristic red nose moves into many households there at the beginning of December. This year, one of these little gnomes will be taking up residence in my home too.

What you need for the door and ladder

For this craft you will need chipboard, wooden handles, cord, a colourful straw, spray paint, wood beads, double-sided adhesive tape, power strips and things to decorate. A jigsaw, pencil, scissors and adhesive tape to help you with your crafting.

Varnish

CHF21.90 CHF54.75/1l

Knuchel Super Primer

Grey, 0.40 l

Adhesive pads

Quantity discount

CHF5.40 per piece for 4 units

tesa Powerstrips

Craft beads

CHF3.80

I Am Creative Wooden beads mixture

Varnish

CHF21.90 CHF54.75/1l

Knuchel Super Primer

Grey, 0.40 l

Quantity discount

Adhesive pads

CHF5.40 per piece for 4 units

tesa Powerstrips

Craft beads

CHF3.80

I Am Creative Wooden beads mixture

Here we go

Use the jigsaw to cut out the desired shape (house, rectangle or round arch) and size from the chipboard. Then spray the wooden handles and chipboard with the appropriate colours. Once the paint is dry, transfer the outline of the door to the chipboard using a pencil template.

Place double-sided adhesive strips on the marked area and glue the wooden sticks all the way to the end. You can attach another wooden stick vertically as a door handle. Decorate the upper part of the "house" as you wish.

For the ladder, attach two pieces of string of the same length to the back with adhesive tape. Now cut four pieces of string of the same length for the steps. Tie these to the other two long pieces of string at regular intervals and attach a wooden bead to the end of each step. Then use power strips to attach the Secret Santa door to the wall of your choice.

To make the door look more lively, you can place various decorative objects in front of the door. You can change these decorations from time to time as you wish. Small trees, mushrooms and doll's house utensils such as brooms, chairs and rugs are ideal for this.

When the elf moves into the house, nothing stands in the way of your own imagination and that of your children. The children can draw or make something for the elf and leave it on his doorstep. The little elf will leave something behind from time to time: a story, a biscuit or a small gift. Every day will start differently with the house inhabitant. With this in mind, I wish you a wonderful, enchanted Christmas season and lots of fun with your house elf.

7 people like this article

Yvonne Moser

ramon.schneider@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm more of a thinker than a doer. Yet I'm still always active: crafting, sewing, writing to-do lists, daydreaming, counting clouds, digging into soil, comforting my two little ones and collapsing into bed after a long day. If it were up to me, each day would have a few extra hours... I wonder if that would be enough.

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