2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest

1. Ken - The Frosted Manor

What better way to begin displaying this year's contest submissions than with this beautiful house Ken made! It is as fine a glitter show as we've seen in a while. Lovely job!

2. Melanie - McKenzie Child's Steeple Church

Melanie's beautiful church aspires to the heavens! Guided by the lovely angel on the left. Isn't the church delightfully framed by the golden trees?

3. Cathy - Snug and Warm Christmas House

You can tell so much about people from how warm and welcoming their house is. This house Cathy has given us exudes warmth and joy and Christmas spirit! Aren't the garland decorations beautiful!

4. Cheryl - Holly Lane

Here is a wonderful set of houses! Each is unique, each is festive, each is colorful! Santa and the snowman are both very happy, and we are too!

5. Helle - Irish Cottage

Helle's magnificent little cottage is exquisitely displayed in this four picture collage. It is a virtual clinic on showing off one's creation to best advantage. Applause, Helle!

6. Melanie - Gingerbread Family House

You can just see the joy with which this gingerbread family shows off their beloved abode! Isn't this just the perfect gingerbread scene?

7. Pam - Lovely Christmas Ornament

This incredible Christmas ornament/medallion contains a beautiful little house with snow and trees, surrounded by glowing silver braid. So creative!

8. Ken - The Winter Estate Ornament

Have you ever seen a cooler estate contained within an ornament? Ken has done an amazing job with this! It almost has a snow globe aspect!

9. Cathy - The Jordan Family Estate

The Jordan Family Estate conjures dreams of crystal, somehow. The snow effects are magnificent, and the lighting just wants to draw us in, ever closer, for a more intimate view. Just lovely!

10. Cheryl - It's GO TIME

We know deep down that making all of those toys and gifts must be a Herculean undertaking. How much more wonderful to see what a delightful energy the workshop projects. Doing that blessed work is a labor of great love and joy, as it should be. Magnificent, Cheryl! Great share.

11. Melanie - McKenzie Child's House

There are entries true to the Christmas spirit, but perhaps none more so than this submission from Melanie. The house seems perfectly suited to the scene, with the details complementing the whole so well. Lovely.

1. Village - Leesha - Dreaming of a White Christmas in the Tropics

Here is the overview of Leesha's spectacular Village in the Tropics. Sited on three levels, it is a tour de force of creative exploration.

Here are closer views of individual houses in Leesha's beautiful village! Enjoy!

2. Karen - Village - Village Advert Calendar

Here the top picture shows all of the houses,, with the bottom three pictures showing different views, including one of a house open with treats within. What a beautiful village!

1. JOC1 - Melanie - Gingerbread Houses 2020-2025

We could not imagine a more delightful submission to kick off our Joy of Creation items this Christmas season! Melanie, what a beautiful, creative display! The house at top right is a free-standing contest entry!

2. JOC2 - Edel - Christmas Warmth on a Frosty Night

Edel's incredible house demands lengthy scrutiny to appreciate so many details. Often houses feature glitter, but this is almost more of a glaze phenomenon. I believe I see Frosty, himself, nestled by the tree!

3. JOC3 - Debbie - Battery Tea Light Gift Card Box

Just wow! Enjoy these views of Debbie's spectacular Gift Card Box! Isn't that magical?

2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest Rules

Holiday season is full upon us, and now it's time to celebrate with the next crafting challenge! I'm excited to announce the 2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest, where you can showcase your creativity by designing and submitting your own handcrafted miniature house inspired by Christmas and the Winter season! If you love Santa, Christmas wreaths, egg nog, Christmas or Winter scenes, this is your chance to share your artistry and win some fun prizes!

NEW FOR 2025! By popular demand, for the first time we are having a dedicated Village category in the Christmas House competition. Almost every contest, some of the most stunning entries are complete village scenes. Historically, they may have been handicapped by just having a single view on the contest page, which just may not show all they offer. This year, up to three photos will be posted for village entries. They are consistently some of the most inspiring craft displays we ever see, so now they will have a category unto themselves. We also hope to encourage more submissions of this type. They convey a spirit that single houses simply cannot, as they are all about people and community. Just as the holiday season should be. See the rules for that category, below.

Here's a great entry that Nora made in 2024. The Classy Christmas Cottage is a Christmas delight!

🏆 How to Enter

Submission Opens: December 1, 2025
Entry Deadline: December 19, 2025
Winners Announced: December 23, 2025

To enter, create a miniature house that embodies the spirit of Christmas or Winter. You can use cardstock or cardboard as the main material for your house, submit a photo of your creation along with a brief description of your design to my private Facebook group or email the photo to me - [email protected]. More details below.

Design Inspiration for Christmas House Contest

We welcome submissions of Christmas/winter houses with festive features of every kind, including but not limited to children, pets, poinsettias, Christmas cacti, wintry trees, and seasonal delights.

ENJOY! FUN IS WHAT IT'S ABOUT! The first day to enter the contest is December 1, 2025. Your entry must be in by midnight on December 19. I will announce the awards on December 23. We'll announce the winners here.

Remember the entry dates start December 1 and the deadline is December 19, 2025. Winners announced December 23.

And thanks in advance for entering. This is going to be FUN!

Prize List for the 2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest:

• First place - $100 Amazon gift card
• Second place - $75 Amazon gift card
• Third place - $50 Amazon gift card
• People's Choice award - $25 Amazon gift card
• Whimsical award - $25 Amazon gift card, to a submission that characterizes a whimsical version of the Christmas season (rather than realistic version of a house)
• Innovation award - $25 Amazon gift card, for the submission with the most novel innovation. That can be part of a house or structure, or it can be an embellishment, or anything else super creative you can think of.
• Two Kid's awards for two separate divisions (10 and under, and ages 11-16) - $25 Amazon gift cards
• Village award - $25 Amazon gift card, to a submission that displays a village of houses and other structures to seasonal effect

(The Whimsical and Innovation awards will go to submissions that did not win in the top placings category, to expand the winning possibilities. Obviously any entry can win the overall awards, so they would win one of those and not a category prize.)

I reserve the right to expand prize categories and awards, and I always do this. Even I do not know what those special awards will be until I spend some time with the submissions.

Rules for the 2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest

1. Have fun

Really, the entire purpose of this is to have fun and to share the fun. Simply make a house that expresses a Christmas or Winter season theme or atmosphere and enjoy the process, the fine company.

To emphasize this point, the contest period is now open to what we call "Joy of Creation' submissions, of which we received 21 for this year's Halloween contest! That's a new record several times over! Every year we seem to have members who just want to participate in the creative challenge, not the contest itself. We applaud this mindset, because it reflects the spirit of our group so well, where satisfaction is found in creation of little houses and scenes and in the sharing of that with friends.

The Joy of Creation Option

We enthusiastically welcome and encourage Joy of Creation submissions because you may not be interested in competing for prizes - you just like to create and share. We want to see and appreciate what you make. In addition, we are not setting any limit on such submissions. Just please add the tag #JoyOfCreation when you post them. For that matter, these submissions can also be items too large for contest qualification, creations from previous years or even creations that are not houses. Express yourself! Do please name them.

You are all so creative and imaginative, you're an inspiration!

2. Name Your Design

First NAME YOUR DESIGN! This helps the judges (and contest visitors) remember each design. It also adds to the design.

It's much better for those viewing your creation if it has a name. Some of the names of submissions in prior contests are incredibly creative. Naming your design enhances your submission, and is an avenue of creative expression in its own right. (There is no penalty for forgetting to name your house, it just means I will have to name it and it may be less imaginative than a name you could include. Naming your house is a creative opportunity unto itself.)

Please write a sentence or several sentences about your creative process, your inspiration and the like. People request this because they want to learn from you. Inspiration is contagious.

3. Three Ways to Enter the 2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest

a) Post your house in the Paper Glitter Glue Facebook group with the tag #2025MiniChristmasHouse. Please join this Facebook group so you can enter there. It's the best way to enter. (This is best way to insure your submission is captured without issue.)

b) Email me a photo on or after December 1. The address is [email protected]. Please include the title 2025 Mini Christmas House in your email title so I can find the photo easily in my email box and include it as an official submission.

c) Follow me on Instagram and post your 2025 Christmas house and tag me @lucyf7b on Instagram.

We start listing official entries on December 1st. Your house does have to be made during the 2025 calendar year (not necessary for Joy of Creation submissions). If you are submitting a village for the Village category, structures in the entry may be from previous years, except, at least one house must be from this year.

Finally, after you have submitted your house and we get the entries all posted here, please check to be certain that I have faithfully captured your submission(s)! Email immediately if I missed something or made an error with it!

4. Permission to Post Your House Photo on my website and on social media

In submitting your creations, you are giving me permission to post a picture or pictures of your project on my website and social media just like I did for the Halloween house contest. I love to share your projects because they are all so remarkable. This allows all site visitors and guests to see your creations, which can help inspire them in turn. Usually we post only your first name with each house with no personal information. If two members with the same first name post submissions, I usually add a single initial to differentiate them as being from separate people.

5. Size Limitation for the 2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest

Here are the size limitations:

Base - no limitation on the base so you can landscape as much as you want, but the size of the house does have limitations

House height - no taller than 12 inches tall

Width of House - no wider than 12 inches

Depth of the House - no deeper than 10 inches

Villages or small groups of houses are welcome as long as each house is no bigger than the measurements listed above.

Note: It is much harder to take in all the details in one photo. We need one good photo for the judges to look at except in the Village category. We are allowing 3 photos for the Village category. Post as many as you like in the Facebook group, but for the judging we usually have room just to include one photo here.

6. Use any pattern you like

For your entries, you can use your own pattern, my patterns here on PaperGlitterGlue.com, patterns from my friend, Jackie of A Cottage in the Forest, Tim Holtz houses, or even a purchased pattern.

7. The house must be made of cardboard or cardstock

Your house needs to be paper-based - made out of either cardboard or card stock. No wooden houses. But you can use other materials for the base, landscape, and embellishments.

8. Creativity and Originality are emphasized

Creativity and originality are important and will be emphasized in judging. Hint: Let the fun shine through!

Also creativity in naming your house helps to make it more special. Please tell us a little bit about your house - how you made it, what inspired it, etc. We all love to read about the creative inspiration behind your projects. We are delighted to note that people are becoming much more creative with house names. It is a very welcome trend.

9. You may enter up to 3 houses, but the houses must be unique and constructed in 2025

Up to three submissions, all of houses created in this calendar year. (Again, note, this rule does not restrict submission of 'Joy of Creation' houses, which are not eligible for prizes. That does not compromise our appreciation of them and you! And, you may submit as many Joy of Creation items as you like.)

10. Rules for submissions for Village category

Houses made in prior years may be included in villages submitted this year, but if you submit the same village for more than one year, it should include at least one house created in 2025. Though this is somewhat arbitrary, there should be at least three houses/house-like structures to constitute a village. You need not specify that your submission is a village. Village submissions are eligible for the overall. You may also enter one of the houses as an individual house. However, we only give one award per person.

Note: Donna's North Pole in the South village DID win the overall in 2023.

11. How to Vote for the People's Choice Award for this Year's Contest.

You will have one vote when you post a comment at the end of this post AFTER ALL THE ENTRIES ARE IN, VOTING STARTS ON lDecember 20th midnight on December 21st . And you have another vote on my YouTube channel. Subscribe to get notifications of when we post the contest video. So! Two votes per person, if you choose to exercise them. Please note this is intended to be about fun and creativity, not competition. Vote for your choices, but please don't 'stuff the ballot box.'

12. If you win a prize ...

Please contact me by email so that I can get it to you expeditiously! Send Email

GET THE KIDS INVOLVED MAKING A MINIATURE CHRISTMAS HOUSE!

We always love to see house submissions from your children (in TWO categories this year! Ages 10 & under and 11-16. Please include their first name and note their age with the submission so I can get them properly entered in the correct category). Allow their youthful creativity to flow. The names of the children's submissions will be placed in a hat and drawn randomly. Those submissions aren't - and should not be - competitive. They should have fun with no other concerns! But we love encouraging them to exercise their imaginations and creative skills.

Note: Prizes in children's submissions in the two age categories will be by a random drawing. No competitive pressure! No value judgments.

So that is the Miniature Christmas House Contest for this year. Whatever you do, enjoy it! Enjoy making your houses and sharing them. That's what it is all about.

Deadline for submissions for the 2025 Miniature Christmas House Contest is December 19th

Deadline for photo entries is December 19 and the winners will be announced on December 23.

And if you want to be inspired ...

Here are links to previous Christmas House contests:

2021 https://paperglitterglue.com/2021-miniature-christmas-house-contest/

2022 https://paperglitterglue.com/2022-miniature-christmas-house-contest/

2023 https://paperglitterglue.com/2023-miniature-christmas-house-contest/

2024 https://paperglitterglue.com/2024-miniature-christmas-house-contest/

Questions? Email me - [email protected]