These holiday house decorative gift boxes are affordable DIY decorations, luminaries, creative gift wrapping, and craft projects all in one. They’re also a sweet reminder that there’s no place like home for the holidays!
All you need is some cardstock or paper and our holiday house decorative gift boxes template. Download the templates, print, cut, and fold and glue the little houses together to turn them into boxes. The roof and body of the house are separate so you can lift off the top and slip our printable gift card template, a gift card to a store, or small present—whether it’s foil-wrapped candies, or a box holding an engagement ring—inside, turning the house into a gift box.
Once the box is complete, you can cut and paste extra decor, from snow-covered trees to wreaths to chandeliers, onto the house and in the windows so they look like they’re inside.
Decorate eight holiday house decorative gift boxes and you’ve got a neighborhood holding presents for eight nights of Hanukkah. Or, fill 24 with notes, trinkets, or sweet treats and turn them into an advent calendar!
Gift boxes are just one of the fun options for these houses! They’re also cozy holiday decor for creating a winter wonderland indoors. Raise the roof, drop in a battery-operated flameless candle and set them on the table or mantel as luminaries; cut out the windowpanes and the house will have an even cozier glow.
Write each the name of each person at your holiday dinner on the door of one, put it on their plate and it becomes a placecard—fill it with candy and it’s a favor, too!
And don’t limit yourself to the holidays!
These boxes are also fun decor ideas for:
- Engagement parties
- Baby showers
- Housewarmings
- Playroom decor
And if you want to give them a more summery vibe, or have them match the color palette of a party or decor of a room, print them out on colorful or pastel card stock or paper instead of winter white.
Whatever the occasion, don’t forget to leave several blank templates on the table for kids to color. Or, leave finished houses and let the kids cut, and paste accessories onto the houses as if they were paper dolls! Our templates include holiday decor and lots of decorative add-ons such as chandeliers.
“Holiday House” Decorative Gift Bags
One final option: instead of building boxes, turn white favor bags into homes by printing out the bag roof, windows, and doors from our template, then gluing or taping windows, trees, and other accessories onto the bag. You can pair the houses with other decorative gift bags like ones made to look like snowmen.
The decorating possibilities are endless, but all remind us of one thing: There’s no place like home!
What You’ll Need:
- Holiday Home Decorative Boxes Template
- Cardstock or Paper (we used white)
- Glue or double stick tape
Optional:
- Markers, crayons, or paints for coloring
- Flameless tealights if using as luminaries
How-To
Step 1 Download Holiday Homes Decorative Boxes, print. If you’re coloring in our templates, do so now, before folding them into boxes.
Step 2 Fold! Start with the base of the house—it’s floor and walls. Cut out the template along the dotted lines, creating flaps as indicated on the bottom. Then, fold along the solid lines on the sides and base of the house. Add glue, glue dots, or doublestick tape to the side flap of the house and glue the walls shut. Fold the short flaps of the floor in, add adhesive to them, and fold one of the long flaps in and stick it to the short flaps. Then, add adhesive and stick the final flap closed, completing the floor.
Step 3 Now, do the roof. Cut out the template along the dotted lines. Fold the flaps you created in toward each other and fold the 4 sides of the roof along the solid lines. Add adhesive on the flaps and adhere the sides of the roof to them, creating a trapezoid shape. If you’re turning this the house into a gift box or place card, print and cut out the gift tag template and adhere to the roof, or write the guest’s name on the roof.
Step 4 Decorate! You can color on accessories or cut out our windows, bows, wreathes, trees, menorahs, chandeliers, or cozy critters and paste them on. Other options include adding a chimney (just cut out the template along the dotted line, fold in the flaps, and glue the sides and the base of the chimney together, then glue the base onto the roof). The chimney is open so you can place Santa’s boots sticking out of it if you like. To add those, cut a slim paper rectangle, about 1.5” X ½ and fold it to create an L shape. Glue the boot to the top of the L, and the bottom of the L to the base of the chimney, and it will look like Santa is diving in to deliver presents!
For more cozy holiday decor ideas, click here.
