Christmas Finger Puppets

How to make the paper finger puppets

1. Pick the finger. Toddler, child or adult, or measure: wrap a strip of paper round the finger just above the middle knuckle, mark where it overlaps, and measure the strip with a ruler. The play sheet at the end of the PDF has a printed sizer strip for this.
2. Print at 100%. Choose “Actual size” in the print dialog and check the 50 mm bar at the foot of the sheet with a ruler. A band is only the right size if the sheet is. Card of 160 to 200 g/m² (60 to 75 lb cover) lasts a whole Christmas; copy paper works for one afternoon.
3. Colour first if you chose colour-in. Crayons and coloured pencils are best; felt pens can soak through thin paper and make the band soggy.
4. Cut round the solid line. Each puppet is one piece: the figure with its white border, the band and the grey glue tab. Leave the white border on; it keeps thin parts such as antlers and the halo from tearing.
5. Fold the tab on the dashed line, roll the band into a ring with the picture outside, and glue the tab under the far end of the band. Hold it for ten seconds. The ring now measures the finger plus 4 mm, so it slides over the knuckle without pinching.

How to sew the felt finger puppets

1. Print the felt pattern twice. Cut the two arches from the first copy as the pattern for the body; cut the hat, face, beard, ears and other details out of the second copy as patterns for the small pieces.
2. Pin and cut. Two arches per puppet in the body colour listed under it (front and back are the same size), then the details in their colours. Felt 1 mm thick is easiest; thick wool felt makes the tube tighter, so choose a size up.
3. Glue or stitch the details onto the front before joining, using the printed front as the placement guide. Fabric glue is fine for a child’s puppet; a few running stitches last longer.
4. Stitch front to back 3 mm in along the dashed line, round the sides and the top, and leave the bottom open. Blanket stitch in a contrasting thread looks good and needs no turning. Antlers, ears or wings that stick out can be slipped between the layers before you sew past them.

Finger sizes

A band that fits is the whole trick: too tight and a child won’t wear it, too loose and it flies off mid-play. The sizes are the circumference of the index or middle finger just above the middle knuckle, where a puppet sits. They are middle-of-the-range starting points, not a survey; fingers of the same age differ by 15% or more, so a measured finger always wins.

A worked example: a 6-year-old’s finger measures 45 mm round. Type 45 under “Measured” and the band prints 49 mm long from the tab fold to its end, plus the 10 mm glue tab, so the ring is 49 mm inside. The felt version stitches 24.5 mm wide, because a flat tube round a finger is half its circumference across.

The play: Where Is Santa’s Hat?

A two-minute play for ten finger puppets. One player can wear five on each hand, or ten children can take a part each.

Robin

Tweet, tweet! It is Christmas Eve at the North Pole, and everyone is busy.

Santa

Ho, ho, ho! The sleigh is packed. Now I only need my hat. Oh no! Where is my hat?

Mrs Claus

Don’t worry, dear. We will all help you look.

Elf

I will look in the workshop! (hops away and back) Only toys in there. No hat!

Reindeer

I will look in the stable. (sniffs) Hay, hay and more hay. No hat!

Snowman

Santa can borrow my hat! (bows) Oh. It is a bit small for you.

Penguin

I will slide across the ice and look. Wheee! (slides) Only snow. No hat!

Gingerbread

Run, run, as fast as I can, I will look in the kitchen! Mmm, cookies. No hat!

Polar Bear

(yawns) I am too sleepy to look. But what is this soft red pillow under my head?

Everyone

Santa’s hat!

Polar Bear

Oops. Sorry, Santa. It was so warm and cosy.

Santa

Ho, ho, ho! Now it is warm and cosy for me, too.

Angel

The stars are out. It is time to fly, Santa!

Reindeer

Hold on tight, everybody!

Robin

And off went Santa, with his hat on his head, while everyone else went to bed.

Everyone

Merry Christmas! (all the puppets bow)

Tips: the words in brackets are things to do, not to say. Wiggle the finger of whoever is speaking and keep the others still. Small children can just shout the two “Everyone” lines.

Questions

Are these Christmas finger puppets printable for free?

Yes. No sign-up, no watermark, no paid version. The puppets are drawn and the PDF is built on your own device, so print as many as a family, a nursery or a whole school needs.

Which puppets are in the set?

Ten, drawn for this page: Santa, Mrs Claus, an elf, a reindeer, a snowman, a penguin, a gingerbread person, an angel, a polar bear and a robin. Ten is one for every finger, which is how the play is written. For Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the kings, the nativity scene printable has a finger-puppet size of its own.

Will they fit a toddler, or older kids?

Choose Toddler and the band is 42 mm round inside, the figure about 3.5 cm tall. Two- and three-year-olds usually wear one on the index finger and need a grown-up to do the cutting and gluing. Kids from about five can cut the puppets out themselves with child scissors (the antlers and the halo are the fiddly ones); Child fits most of them up to about ten, and older kids with big hands are better off measured. The pieces are paper, so the usual rule applies: play together, and don’t leave a toddler alone with anything small enough to chew.

Is there a template for felt finger puppets?

Choose Felt pattern. Each puppet prints as two matching arches, front and back, with the stitch line 3 mm inside the cut line and the bottom left open, and the front shows the face and costume at actual size to cut the small felt pieces from. The felt colours are listed under each pattern.

How do I make a class set?

Type the children’s names, one per line. Each name gets exactly one puppet, with the name on a white label on the front of its band, and the puppets you ticked are handed out in turn: with all ten ticked and 23 names, the first ten children get one of each and the rest start round again from Santa. Pick a single puppet if the whole class should make the same one.

Colour or colour-in?

Colour prints the finished puppets, good for a quick make with very young children. Colour-in prints the same puppets as black outlines on white, which turns the sheet into a colouring activity first and a puppet show after.