How to Make a DIY Christmas Village

This post was originally published in November 2017 and updated as of November 2022.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to make a DIY Christmas Village using wooden houses and craft paint! This is a such a fun project to display at Christmas time, and it’s even more fun to make!

How to Make a DIY Christmas Village

Seasonal villages are some of our favorite crafts to make (we’ve got the posts to prove it)! And while we love coming up with creative and unique ways to decorate and embellish holiday houses, there is nothing quite like a simple, metallic village to add some glam to your holiday decor.

With a little craft paint and some liquid gold leaf, you can make a beautiful village that you will love pulling out year after year!

Materials needed to make a Christmas village

Liquid Leaf 
FolkArt Home Decor Chalk Paint in White Adirondack
FolkArt Brushes
Houses
Bottle Brush Wreaths (similar)

How do you make a Christmas Village?

Watch the video tutorial for making a Gilded DIY Christmas Village (and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel), or read the steps below!

Step 1: Begin by painting the areas of the houses that you would like to be white. It’s a bit easier to start with the white because the gold leaf covers the white better than the white covers the gold. Apply your desired number of coats and let dry completely. 

Step 2: Once the white paint has dried, apply the gold leaf to the areas of the houses that you would like to be gold. Let dry completely. 

Note: You may be wondering if you can just use gold paint instead of Liquid Leaf, and you could! However, we have found that the finish of the Liquid Leaf gives a much richer, multi-faceted result that looks like real gold and acrylic gold paint can’t compete! 

Step 3: Paint your bottle brush wreaths to match the houses by lightly painting with them with white paint or gold leaf. Let dry completely. (You can also make mini wreaths from pipe cleaners like we did here.) 

Step 4: Attach the wreaths to the houses using a hot glue gun. 

That’s it! Making a DIY Christmas village could not be easier and the results are gorgeous. We love the subtle bit of glamour this village has (because of the gold leaf) while still being minimal. 

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Happy making!
Liz