DIY Christmas Gnome Guide - The Inspired Decorator

Make your own Christmas Gnome for Day 9 of the 12 Crafts of Christmas

DIY Christmas Gnome

How cute is this Christmas Gnome? Are you as obsessed with them as everyone else is? I love Christmas gnomes and think they are adorable. You can make your own, customize it however you choose and love it up! Or gift it to a fellow gnomie. This may be the easiest craft yet in the 12 Crafts of Christmas Series. And check out the Frosted Christmas Ornament tutorial from Day 8.

Christmas Gnome Supplies

Styrofoam Cone (or other body material)

Felt

Fake Fur

2 Tiny Pompoms: white, and skin tone

Hot Glue

Make your own adorable diy Christmas Gnome using a few simple supplies.

Step 1: Glue Felt To Body

You’re going to be covering up your gnome’s body. But before you use glue, do a dry fitting to make sure your piece of felt will fully wrap around your gnome. Aim to cover the bottom half or three-quarters of the body. There’s going to be an awful lot of hair to hide any exposed upper body. Once your happy with how the felt will wrap fit your gnome, secure it with hot glue.

Wrap a piece of felt in your fav color choice as the suite on your Santa gnome.

Step 2: Trim The Felt

Trim off any excess felt from the bottom of your Christmas gnome. It’s best just to do it now instead of after so that your gnome can sit level as your work. And that extra felt may come in handy for the hat or other accessories.

Trim off the excess materials but save them to use as the hat for your Christmas gnome!

Step 3: Cut Your Fur

A note of advice: it’s easier to cut through the fake fur if you flip it over and have it’s backside up so you can see your cut line and not just hair. Use a pencil to draw out a large square (3″x3″) and a rectangle (2″x3″). Before you cut, make sure that the fur is going to be hanging down in the right direction. Gnomebody grows a beard or mustache sideways across their face.

Step 4: Shape The Facial Hair

To give your gnome extra character, don’t leave your patch of beard a square. Shape it into an actual beard shape, like a triangle or round it. You could really get creative with it. For the mustache, cut a triangle out of the bottom middle so that there are two strands of mustache hanging down on either side of the gnomes “mouth”.

Shape the fake fur beards into proper beard and mustache shapes

Step 5: Glue The Beard

Once again, it’s a good idea to do a fry fit to find the ideal position of your gnome’s beard. This beard was glued in place along the top of the felt and centered over the felt seam to make it look like a coat opening. Be sure to wrap the beard around the gnome to the back if it will reach. And when you’re happy with the beard placement, glue it in place.

Glue the gnomes beard into place. Now he's really getting into the spirit of Christmas.

Step 6: Add A Hat

Make a hat before adding your mustache so you can have a better idea of where you want your gnome’s “face” to be located. Using some of the cut-off felt, wrap it around the top of your cone body. Make sure it touches in the back and fully hides the styrofoam body. If your beard wrapped all the way around earlier, congrats. Your gnome has hair on the back of his head too! If yours didn’t wrap all the way, like mine, then make sure the hat overlaps the felt body. Glue it all in place when you’re happy. You can trim it up afterward too if seams didn’t line up how you want.

Using leftover felt, add a hat to the top of your Christmas gnome.

Step 7: Give The Gnome a Mustache

Now that your hat is on, decide how far down you want your gnome’s face to be. Go down about 2/3rds to give him a little bit of forehead room. even it’s covered in hair. When you’ve figured out your mustache placement, push some of the beard hair up in that spot. The idea is to glue the mustache underneath some of the beard hair so that it fringes overtop of the mustache and looks more natural. Add hot glue to the back of the mustache in a line along the top. Make sure the beard hair is pushed up some then glue mustache underneath.

Giveyour Santa gnome a long and flowy mustache using long lengths of fake fur.

Step 8: Add A Nose

Right above the mustache, in the center of the invisible gnome face, stick on the skin-colored pompom for a nose. Now, I’ve noticed that a lot of DIY Christmas gnomes have their noses underneath their mustache for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s a genetic mutation or they grow their eyebrows super long, but if you think it’s cute, go for it. I preferred an anatomically correct placement for the nose and mustache.

A gnomes nose can be made out of a wooden bead or a pompom like this little dude

Step 9: Give the Hat a PomPom

Every Santa Gnome hat needs a white pompom on the end. So go right ahead and add that finishing touch.

Top off your Santa hat with a pompom ball on your Christmas gnome's head.

Step 10: Gush Over Your Christmas Gnome

Congrats on making your first adorable Christmas gnome! Isn’t it adorable? And pretty straight forward to make. This craft is a lot of fun for all ages. Make a gnome army if you wish! Add a gnome to every stocking. Make them big or small. I’m making more in different colors! Now that you know the basics you can really play around with your gnome’s style.

While you’re inspired, go check out the other crafts in the 12 Crafts of Christmas series!

Christmas Gnome