Make a Dancing Santa Claus Wall Decor

Create a Dancing Santa that’s full of holiday cheer! This festive project features a Santa Claus figure made from cardstock with accordion-folded arms and legs that jiggle and sway with movement.

Inspired by vintage holiday wall hangings, this playful decoration is perfect for adding a touch of nostalgia to your seasonal décor. Follow my step-by-step instructions and use the free cut files to bring your own Dancing Santa to life and spread the joy of the season!

UPDATE: Now Santa has a dance partner - Mrs. Dancing Santa - Design No. 182 in the free Paper Glitter Glue library.

What do you need to Make the Dancing Santa?

Download the free pattern from the Paper Glitter Glue library - Design No. 178 and Design No. 182 for Mrs. Santa
Cardstock - Lightweight cardstock such as 65# cardstock works best
Glue - Bearly Art Glue
Ink to give dimension to the cheeks
A way to cut out your pattern - I used my Cricut Maker. It works with all the Cricut machines except the Cricut Joy

Steps to Make the Dancing Santa

1. Download the free pattern for the Dancing Santas - Design No. 178 (and don't forget Mrs. Santa as Design No. 182)
2. Cut out all the pieces for the Santa figure
3. Make the Santa face first following the instructions to layer the face correctly
4. Adhere the face to the main body
5. Decorate the body with a belt and buttons
6. Accordion fold the arm and leg pieces
7. Glue the trim to the boots and mittens
8. Adhere the mittens to the arms and the boots to the accordion folded - legs
9. Glue the arms to the body
10. Glue the legs to the Santa body
11. Adhere the tab for hanging to the back of Santa's head
12. Hang your Santa somewhere prominent, a door, for example so everyone can enjoy seeing him dance when the door is opened or closed

Making the Layered Face is the most challenging part

You can see all the layers in the video, but to make it easier for you, I've included 2 PDF sheets outlining the layers for the face. Mrs. Dancing Santa has the PDFs so you can construct her just as easily.

I've also include a second sheet outlining these layers.

1. Glue black oval background to larger white face piece so the pupil and eye lines are visible.

2. Center the skin tone face over the white piece lining up the lines below the eyes. Glue.

3. Ink the cheeks for contrast. Adhere the cheeks just below the eyes.

4. Glue the tiny eyes in the cut out eye section of the pink face.

5. Place the beard piece which has the mouth cutout in and line it up with the edge of the white background piece. Try to make sure that the mouth lines up as well. There is a “spare” mouth piece if it doesn’t show up well.

6. Glue the hat trim and the pom pom in place.

7. Glue the white eyebrows just over the edge of the hat trim.

8. Glue the mustache over the cheeks and the white beard.

9. Glue the nose just above the mustache. 

10. Once the face is done, glue it to the red background piece - the body of Santa

Decorate the body

Glue the belt, the belt buckle, and the buttons to the Santa body.

Make the Arms and Legs

You can get an idea of what I mean by accordion folding from the photo below.

Fold along all the score lines for the arms and legs. Fold in an accordion fashion so Santa’s arms and legs can “dance” and jiggle.

The arm pieces are slightly curved at the top to mimic the curve of shoulders.

Adhere the white trim on the top of the mittens and boots - making sure you have right and left mittens as well as right and leg boots.

Glue the mittens to the shorter arms and the boots to the longer leg pieces. Again pay attention to right and left (always a challenge for me). 

Complete the Dancing Santa

Adhere the arms to the red Santa body paying attention to the curve of the shoulders.

Next, glue the legs in place on the lower body.

Glue the hanging tab to the back of Santa's head.

Be sure to hang the Santa somewhere he can move

Displaying your dancing Santa on a door is perfect because he can dance whenever someone opens or closes the door. Have fun making with the dancing Santa figure.

And add Mrs. Santa so he has a dance partner!

Questions?

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Leave a comment or email me - [email protected].

I hope you can put your creativity to use today. Have a good day.

Lucy