Christmas crafts

Reader’s Digest Santa

By editor ⋅ November 29, 2007 ⋅ Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Paperback or Reader’s Digest Santa Claus

If you remember making this fellow from folded Reader’s Digest magazines, chances are you were taught how to make it a few decades ago.  Many of you have emailed me to say that you remember making this guy…but you’re not sure exactly how, and could I please help you find the pattern?

Well, I looked - and I couldn’t find anything at first, except these brief instructions, with no photo, to make a Reader’s Digest Santa from the Santa Claus Museum. 

Thing is though, I actually found a Reader’s Digest Santa, buried in a half-price bin at my local thrift store, early this summer.  After all your emails, I recognized him right away - but the directions I came up with are for my own version, using a paperback book.  Of course, those paperback Reader’s Digest magazines will work well too - so choose the medium you’d prefer to recycle and give it a try.  You can vary the look by varying the folds on the pages.

My thrift-store Santa was obviously made by a child, and is decorated almost entirely in cotton balls.  I’d love to see what you can do with this project…so send me your pictures (and/or any changes in the directions) and I’ll add them to the Paperback or Reader’s Digest Santa page!