Reindeer Template

How to make the 3D reindeer

1. Measure your card. Type its thickness (a 300 g/m² card is about 0.4 mm, grey board 1 to 1.5 mm, a cardboard box 3 to 4 mm; a pack often says, or measure ten sheets and divide by ten). Every slot is cut that thickness plus 0.3 mm, so the pieces slide together without tearing and still hold.
2. Print at Actual size (100%, not “Fit to page”) and check the 50 mm bar at the foot of the sheet with a ruler. For box cardboard, print on paper and trace each piece onto the board, or glue the print onto it.
3. Cut out the six pieces, then each slot: the white notches. Cut down both long sides of a slot with a craft knife and snip across its end; a slot that is only a single cut will split the card.
4. Push the body down onto the legs. The body’s two slots open downwards and meet the slots that open upwards from the top of the front legs and the back legs. Each pair of slots is exactly as deep as the body is tall at that point, so the legs end flush with its back.
5. Slide the collar onto the chest, its lower slot over the slot at the front of the body’s back, then the head’s neck slot onto the collar’s upper slot, and last the antlers into the slot on top of the head.

At the default 22 cm the reindeer is 12 cm long and fits on one sheet; its feet stand 4.4 cm apart side to side and 5.6 cm front to back, so it stands on a mantel or shelf without glue. A drop of glue in each joint makes it permanent.

Questions

Is there a free printable reindeer template PDF?

Yes. Every make on this page is free, with no sign-up and no watermark. “Download PDF” makes the whole thing as an A4 or US Letter PDF (the page picks the size your device’s language suggests; switch it under Paper), every piece at true size with at least 8 mm of white round it so home printers do not clip it. “PNG, 300 dpi” saves the sheet you are looking at as an image. The 3D reindeer fits one sheet up to 22 cm tall; from 23 to 30 cm it takes two sheets, a 40 cm one three.

How wide are the slots, and why does the thickness matter?

A slot narrower than the card crushes or tears it; one much wider lets the reindeer lean. So the page cuts every slot to the stated thickness plus 0.3 mm, and checks it before it draws the sheet:

The antler tine tips are about 2.4% of the height across: 5.3 mm at 22 cm, 3.6 mm at the smallest 15 cm, which is fiddly with scissors. In box cardboard keep it at 30 cm or more, where the tips are 7 mm and a 3.3 mm slot still leaves the antlers strong.

Can I get a reindeer template with no face?

Yes. Under Face, choose “No face”: the stand-up reindeer, the ornament, the silhouette and the 3D head print without eyes, mouth or a coloured nose, as a plain shape to paint, decorate with glitter or leave Scandinavian-simple. The Bright nose design keeps its red nose, because the nose is the design. The Colour-in design prints black outlines on white for children to colour.

Can I cut a reindeer out of wood?

Choose Silhouette and type the height in millimetres, from 50 to 1200. “DXF” and “SVG cut file” save the outline at exactly that size for a laser cutter, CNC router or a cutting machine (DXF opens in Silhouette Studio’s free edition, which does not import SVG; cut lines are on layer CUT). For a scroll saw or jigsaw, “Download PDF” tiles the outline across sheets (a 300 mm reindeer is 203 mm wide and takes 4 A4 sheets; a 900 mm yard reindeer takes 12) with overlap marks to tape them, then you trace it onto the board. Be honest with the saw: the antler tine tips are about 2.2% of the height across, 6.7 mm on a 300 mm reindeer, so for 12 mm plywood make it 600 mm or more.

Can I make one for every child in a class?

Type the names one per line (up to 40). You get one reindeer, ornament or headband per name, with the name printed on the body or on the front of the band, and every piece labelled with its owner so sets do not get mixed up. A name that would print smaller than 9 pt at the chosen size is flagged so you can shorten it. Leave the box empty for one reindeer without a name.

What size antler headband should I print?

Measure round the head just above the ears and type it in. Typical sizes are about 50 cm for a child of 3 to 5, 52 to 53 cm at 6 to 10, and 55 to 58 cm for adults. The band is that length plus 25 mm to overlap and staple, 38 mm tall, printed as strips that glue end to end (marked “glue A here”), with dotted boxes showing where the antlers and ears go: the antlers 17% of the way round from the front on each side, the ears a little further back. The antlers grow with the head, from 11 cm tall on a 40 cm band to 15 cm.