Victorian Santa Claus

Bring back the magic of an old-fashioned Christmas. Create an authentic Victorian Santa with this fabulous Victorian Santa Claus craft. What could be a more unusual holiday santa than a real old-fashioned Santa created with directions and illustrations from an 1860s Harpers Bazaar magazine. This holiday Santa was first made over a hundred years ago. Make your own Victorian Santa to decorate your house for Christmas or to sell at a Christmas fair with the instructions provided below.

You can also print a large copy of this 1867 Victorian Santa Claus illustration for other Christmas crafts or as a coloring activitiy for children this holiday season. Download here.

Take five large pine cones, two for the Victorian Santa arms, two for legs, and one for the body; glue them together, and wind them round with wire.

Cut the Victorian Santa Claus boots out of wood, set them on a block, sharpen the upper ends, and insert them in holes bored in the legs.

Glue the Santa head and hands to an ordinary jointed doll's body and arms; make the beard and hair of flax, and fit a fur cap on the Victorian Santa head.

Put a girdle of dried moss round the Santa Claus waist, to conceal the wire, and knit tippet on the neck.

Fasten a paste-board basket, filled with candies and toys, on the Victorian Santa Claus back; throw a netted bag with nuts and lady-apples, over one shoulder; and put a miniature Christmas tree in one hand, and a nut-cracker and switch in the other.