Bring alive the popular holiday show with this cute DIY Nutcracker Bookmark for Christmas! Perfect to give as gifts or catch up on holiday reading!

Some of my favorite TV shows are period dramas, like ‘The Crown’, or ‘Bridgerton’. That was a time when everything looked beautiful, and craftsmanship was highly prized. In fact, even something as basic as a nutcracker was made in the shape of dolls!

Yes, what we know today as nutcracker dolls were once really used to crack nuts! Today, the Nutcracker is more of an icon, especially the ones that resemble soldiers and are popular around Christmas. Early nutcrackers didn’t look like the ones we have today – the current color scheme was probably adopted in line with traditional Christmas colors like red and white. 

These days you’ll find nutcrackers in all sizes and with varying amounts of detail. Did you know that the average handcrafted nutcracker is made from 60 separate pieces? Well, today we have a handcrafted nutcracker too, but it doesn’t have as many pieces, and is a lot easier to make. It’s a DIY Nutcracker bookmark, made from nothing but craft paper!

DIY Nutcracker Bookmark for Christmas

Supplies required:

• Cardstock Papers in different colors
• Craft Papers in different colors
• Marker Pens

How to make the DIY Nutcracker Bookmark:

1. Download and print out the template for the DIY Nutcracker bookmark. The template contains parts for the nutcracker, including his head, arms, legs, body, hands, hat as well as details of his outfit.

2. Trace and cut out the pieces for the nutcracker from craft paper. Use a variety of colors to make the bookmark bright. Traditionally, the nutcracker’s outfit has large doses of black and red. Go with a light pink, tan or salmon color for the skin. 

3. Assemble the basic parts, like attaching the neck to the head, the hat and it’s brim, as well as the cuffs to the sleeves.

4. Attach the neck to the top of the shirt. Glue the belt buckle with the belt and stick the boots on the pants.

5. Now glue the pants to the bottom of the shirt. Attach the sleeves on either side of the shirt.

6. It’s coming together nicely! Stick the nutcracker’s shoulder pads on either side of the top of his shirt.

7. Glue the hat on top of the head. If you like, you can add a few strips of shiny paper to make the hat more festive. Similarly, add thin strips as detailing on the shirt and boots.

8. Stick on the moustache and teeth, and finish off the remaining facial features with markers.

That’s it – your DIY Nutcracker bookmark is done!

To use the bookmark, simply insert the bookmark behind the page you want to mark, slipping the page under the arms.

There you go, easy as pie! Or perhaps we should say ‘plum cake’, considering the season? These bookmarks take very little time to make and are ideal to gift teachers and classmates before going on Christmas break. The holidays are usually a busy time, with lots of family gatherings and gift-related tasks, but do take out some time for reading too. With cute little Christmas themed bookmarks like this DIY nutcracker bookmark, you can keep the festive spirit going!