DIY Santa's Toy Workshop or Xmas Hotel

1 How to Make Santa's Toy Workshop

1.1 Finished Toy Workshop and Disclaimer

The basic cardboard and wood frame is a very versatile party backdrop that can be redesigned and reused for a variety of different parties. We ourselves have used it to create a wild west jail, a haunted castle, Santa's toy workshop and a Christmas reindeer hotel. 

As we ran both our Is Santa Slayed? and our Murder at the Christmas Party murder mysteries after our wild west and horror parties, we decided to reuse both the frame and the cardboard rather than starting afresh and buying new cardboard. (I reuse materials wherever possible!) 

These instructions are written for you to create this Toy Workshop without first creating either the jail or the haunted castle.

1.2 What You Will Need to Make Your Toy Workshop

1.2.1 Materials for the Main Toy Workshop Structure

• Cardboard: 4 double-wall cardboard sheets 1000 - 1200mm thick. This extra-thick cardboard helps to give the workshop wall stability.
• Additional cardboard for roof: approximately 1800mm (5 foot 9 inches) long by 460mm (18 inches) tall. Alternatively, use smaller overlapping sheets of cardboard. The total length of the cardboard should be the width of your workshop wall.
• 2x4 plywood for frame: 4 strips. These should be slightly smaller than the width you wish your workshop to be and slightly less than the height of the bottom of the sloping roof. (This allows the cardboard to visually cover the frame at the lowest part of a sloping roof.)
  • For a 180 cm (5 foot 9 inches) high x 220cm (7 foot 2 inches) wide workshop, we used two strips for the walls that were 4 foot 10 inches (147cm) and two strips for the base and top that were 80 inches (204cm). These strips overlapped.
• Additional wood for the base - a piece of wood approximately 6 inches wide to run the length of your frame to give the frame stability. We used the base of an old bed frame. This was placed on the floor behind the wall.
• Poles or strips of wood to be placed behind the workshop wall to connect the top and the base to lend stability to the structure. These should be slightly smaller than the height of the roof so that they are not visible from the front. I recommend 6 poles or strips of wood to be placed on either side of both windows and either side of the door but you might be able to use fewer, possibly just two either side of the door. (I used poles from an old gazebo that a neighbor kindly donated.)

1.2.2 Materials to Give a Magical North Pole Feel

A selection of red festive wrapping paper to make the "bricks" or "stones" for the main wall. Choose paper textures, colors, and designs that complement each other while still providing contrast.

A selection of green festive wrapping paper to make the roof tiles. Again, choose complementary colors, textures and designs and optionally include a couple of designs to add a contrast of colors. (I used a mix of green designs but also added in a couple of fawn and green designs to provide contrast.)

1.2.3 Materials for the Optional Chimneys, Sign and Pillars

These steps are optional but they DO make a difference to the look of the finished decoration:

• Two chimneys: 4 kitchen rolls or 8 new toilet rolls or 2 matching cylindrical shapes.
• Toy Workshop Sign: Oddment of cardboard approximately 52 x 42cm. (Size could vary.)
• Pillars next to the door: two tall thin cardboard boxes for the base of the pillars, 4 kitchen rolls or 8 toilet rolls for the middle of the pillars, 2 red baubles or alternative for the pillar tops.  To decorate, you will need white cloth (or white paper) and red tinsel, masking tape, or ribbon to create the candy cane stripe effect.

1.2.4 Optional Extra Decorations Fit for Santa and His Elves

• Fake snow or fake cobweb material to simulate snow.
• White foil curtain and paper and/or lace snowflakes for the background.
• Red or green foil curtains for the door and windows.
• Fairy lights to be placed behind the curtains to give a warm glow.
• Boxes or box files to be wrapped for the "crates".
• Elf costume hats to give the illusion of elves working behind the "crates".
• Christmas baubles to hang over the windows.
• A selection of teddies, soft toys, or other children's games.

In addition to this, you may wish to create other decorations of your choice. For example, an inflatable Santa or snowman would be a great addition.  Instead of the backdrop of white snowflakes, you might use the type of painted backdrop that we used for our Christmas hotel murder mystery. (See section 2 below.)

1.2.5 Tools

• Stanley knife for cutting cardboard.
• Hack saw for cutting the vertical poles to size.
• Saw for cutting the plywood.
• Drill for drilling holes in the base and top.
• Nails or screws to hold the frame together.
• Staple gun for stapling the cardboard to the wooden frame.
• Needle and thread for tying the cardboard to the supporting poles or strips of wood.
• Sellotape or glue for attaching wrapping paper.
• Masking tape to hold cardboard together.
• Masking tape, extra wide Sellotape and/or push pins for holding foil curtains in place.
• String to hang the sign.
• Cotton to hang the baubles.

1.3 Making the Toy Workshop 

1.3.1 Main Toy Workshop Structure

1.3.1.1 Arrange the Cardboard on the Floor

Arrange the four sheets of cardboard landscape-fashion so that the longer 1200mm edges are at the bottom and top. It is best to overlap these sheets for structure strength. (I overlapped by about 20cm but decide how long and tall you want your workshop to be.)

Add the additional long sheet of cardboard to the top to make the roof. Position this so that it is slightly taller than the wall.

Note: the illustration below shows how the roof will look once the corners have been cut with a Stanley knife.

Measure the size of your overlapped cardboard sheets. (See illustration above.) Ensure that this size will fit into your room space.

1.3.1.2 Cut Out the Windows, Door and Roof

With the cardboard overlapping as shown above, use a pencil or pen to mark where you wish the windows, door and roofline to be.

Important: if you wish to create a uniform size and arrangement of bricks, then you should first calculate how many rows of "bricks" you will have and how many "bricks" you will have per row. Starting every second row with a half brick, carefully outline in pencil the rows and columns;  this will then give you the outline of each brick. (See 1.3.2 below.) Then position and size your windows and doors accordingly.

Note: I chose to have the windows and door slightly covered by the roofline. This was largely because I made this Toy Workshop after using the structure to represent a Horror Castle for my "Murder at Horror Castle" game and I wanted to cover up the curved top to the windows and door. I do, however, like the overhanging roof as it gives the structure a more 3D effect than if a single piece of cardboard were to create both the wall and roof.

Once you have outlined in pencil, use a Stanley knife to cut the windows, door and roof. Ensure that your furniture and carpet are protected.  (I put a piece of plywood underneath the cardboard I was cutting.)

At this point, the cardboard sheets are not attached to the frame.

1.3.1.3 Make the Toy Workshop Frame

John made the Toy Workshop frame by using wood that we had in our garage. If you do not have spare wood, then buy 2x4 plywood.

To give the frame stability, use a wide piece of wood for the base. This will go behind the workshop wall and so is not visible. (We used a piece of an old bed frame that was approximately 6 inches wide.)

Screw 2x4 pieces of wood on top of this wide base to make the sides and top of the frame.

1.3.1.4 Add the Vertical Poles or Strips of Wood for Additional Stability

Unlike a wild west jail, these poles do NOT need to be evenly spaced as they will NOT be seen. If you do not have poles, then use 2x4 plywood strips.

I used 6 poles so that I had a pole on either side of the door and on either side of both windows. (These poles were given to us by a neighbor; they had been part of a gazebo he no longer wanted.) You might wish just to use poles on either side of the door.

Place poles so that they are a few inches away from the door and window so that they are not immediately seen.  (The cardboard will be tied to these poles.)

Use a tape measure and a felt tip pen to mark where the poles or plywood strips should go on BOTH the base and the top of the frame. 

Important: these measurements MUST be accurate so that the poles/strips will go through the top slot and then into the bottom one.

Drill holes in both the top and the base. The top hole must go completely through the wood so the pole/strip can pass through. It is best if the bottom hole only penetrates part through the wood so that it is easier to transport the structure without the poles/strips falling out.

Thread the vertical poles/strips through the top hole and into the hole at the bottom while the frame is OUTSIDE your home. This is because it may be difficult to find space to do so indoors. (The workshop is 6 feet tall and the poles/strips are just under 6 feet tall; not many rooms are over 12 feet in height!)

1.3.1.5 Attach Cardboard Sheets to the Toy Workshop Frame

Use a staple gun to attach cardboard sheets to the wooden frame. 

Use a staple gun to attach overlapping cardboard sheets together.

Use a needle and thread - and also masking tape - to attach cardboard sheets to the vertical poles/plywood strips. Optionally also use masking tape to attach cardboard sheets together.

Use a staple gun to attach the roof to the wall at the points where the top of the wooden frame is.

Use a staple gun to attach the top of the roof to the cardboard; optionally secure with masking tape.

Tip: I used masking tape behind the wall so that no outline was seen. By using the masking tape behind the wall, rather than in front, this does not damage the cardboard should you wish to reuse this structure in the future.

1.3.2 Decorate For a Magical North Pole Feel

Now comes the fun part. Decorate the cardboard with strips of festive wrapping paper to represent "bricks".  

For the wall: use strips of red wrapping paper. Start every second row with a half brick as this looks more attractive. You may wish to sketch this in pencil on the cardboard first to keep straight lines. (If your lines are not 100% straight, then this could add to the charm, however. After all, who is to say that North Pole buildings are uniformly correct? Wavy lines could look more like the olde-worlde stones. )

Tip: I found it easiest to create strips of wrapping paper that were a couple of inches larger than I wished. I worked from the bottom left and Sellotaped each new brick in place. I overlaid each new "brick" of wrapping paper over the one to the left and over the one below. This allowed me to fix each brick in place at the top and right of each wrapping paper sheet while minimizing the amount of Sellotape that was visible.

Tip: I arranged my "bricks" of wrapping paper so that they went over the joins in the cardboard.

For the roof: use strips of green wrapping paper. Again, start alternate rows half a brick in as this looks more attractive.

For the doorstep: cover with wrapping paper.

1.3.3 Add Chimneys, Sign and Pillars

Now that you have your basic toy workshop shape, and you have decorated it with festive paper, it is now time to add a few architectural details to add visual interest. Note that I found it easiest to do this step after adding the wrapping paper as I then had a better feel for what color schemes to use for the chimneys, sign, and pillars.

Chimneys: these can be made out of any cylindrical shape. I used two kitchen rolls per chimney and Sellotaped them together so that they were double the height of a single kitchen roll. I then covered them in green wrapping paper and rested them on the wooden frame behind the workshop wall. I used masking tape to hold them in place.

Toy Workshop Sign: I used the Toy Workshop sign in the mystery game's Decoration Kit. (Non-customers  could create their own or even write "Santa's Toy Workshop" on cardboard with colored marker pens.)  I mounted this sign on cardboard covered in wrapping paper. Then I used masking tape to attach a long length of string to the back of the cardboard sign and hung this string over the top of the roofline. I then used more masking tape to attach the string to the back of the roofline and a single pin to keep the sign in place. (This attached the sign to the roofline with no visible staples or Sellotape.)

Tip: knot the string ends to prevent them slipping out of the masking tape.

Note: choose how high you wish this sign to be. I decided that placing the top of the sign a couple of inches above the bottom of the roofline added interest.

Candy Cane Pillars Beside the Door: I couldn't resist incorporating a candy cane element.

• Pillar base: I used the two long oblong boxes that the wrapping paper had come in. I covered these in a piece of a white sheet. I then used thick red tinsel in diagonal lines to create a candy cane effect.
• Pillar middle: I Sellotaped two kitchen rolls together and covered them in a piece of a white sheet. I then used slightly thinner red tinsel in diagonal lines to create a candy cane effect.
• Pillar top: I used fake snow to create a base for a red Christmas bauble.

Note: instead of tinsel, you could use red masking tape or red ribbon.
Note: fake snow (see below) can be used to cover up any joins in the cloth at the top of the pillar base or middle.

1.3.4 Optional Extra Decorations Fit for Santa and His Elves

Backdrop: it is the North Pole, so I hung white foil curtains from the cornice. I then hung white paper snowflakes (from YNOUU) over this. I added a few snowflake lace doilies (from Andibro) for a more subtle effect.

Tip: if I had created this again, I would have hung a white sheet behind the tinsel curtain to create a whiter backdrop.

Fairy lights: I ran a long string of fairy lights behind the toy workshop wall. I ran the fairy lights around each window and around the door frame. I used the spare length of wire to loop the lights behind the door. These added a magical twinkling glow to the workshop and I would highly recommend that you add these to your structure as they really do increase the visual attractiveness.

Tip: it is easiest to do this step before adding the foil curtains. Just allow space so that you can hang the foil curtains in front of the loops of lights so that it appears that these lights are somewhere behind the curtains.

Curtains for windows and door: I hung red foil curtains from the wooden frame behind the wall. (I also used these curtains in my Christmas murder mystery party.) 

Fake snow: I used a mix of fake snow and some soft white cobweb material that I had bought for my horror murder mystery party. (Cobweb material was a polyester fiber.) I draped this over the roof, sign, chimneys, pillars and window sills. I also added some to the two small wooden shelves under the light fittings to make these shelves less visible.

Note: the fake snow obviously looks more like snow than the cobweb material and it is ideal for flat surfaces. The roof edges and window sills of this structure are narrow, however. They are essentially the thickness of the cardboard with wrapping paper added. For this scenario, the fake snow looked better when it stayed in place but the cobweb material stayed together as a strip and was easy to drape over the roofline without sections falling away.  If I were creating this again, I would buy a snow blanket roll.

Tip: this fake snow or cobweb material could also be used to cover up any little ridges or imperfections in your wall structure.

Crates of toy materials: as this is a toy workshop, I thought it appropriate to have "crates"  of supplies for making toys. I wrapped different boxes in green and red wrapping paper. I then used the crate labels supplied with the mystery game to turn these box files into "crates" of supplies. (I wrapped up box files as they were easily available. You could wrap up cardboard boxes instead.)

Elves: I added two homemade elf heads behind the crates to create the impression that Santa's little helpers were behind them. The elf heads were two elf costume hats from Bristol Novelty Store on Amazon. I stuffed these hats with tissues and also paper pompoms to fill them and allow them to stand upright. I rested them on small upended cardboard boxes so that the hats were just visible behind the crates. (An alternative would be to place these hats on dolls' heads.)

Toys: a selection of teddies and soft toys finished the look. I placed these behind the crates. I also placed additional teddies behind the red foil curtain of the doorway to give the impression that work was going on behind the door.

White sheets: finally, I covered modern furniture around Santa's toy workshop with simple white sheets.

1.3.4.1 Alternative Optional Decorations

Santa: I didn't have an inflatable Santa so I chose not to show good old Father Christmas but he would be an obvious addition. 

Snowmen, reindeer and other North Pole inhabitants: use these if you have them.

North Pole sign: create a candy cane signpost and use the arrow printouts in the game's decoration kit to point to different locations mentioned in the murder mystery. See candy cane signs.

Presents: wrap up different cardboard boxes in festive wrapping paper and bows to represent the finished presents ready to go to children throughout the world.

2 How to Make a Christmas Reindeer Hotel

"Murder at the Christmas Party" is set in the Rizzi Reindeer Hotel on the aptly named Yuletide Mountain. The hotel features an over-the-top Christmas theme and festive lights that the owners claim can be seen all over the mountain. The hotel prides itself on being "whacky, tacky and fun, fun, fun".

We therefore decided to make the main party space feature a hotel entrance festooned in a riot of Christmas wrapping paper, festive baubles, tinsel and Christmas tree lights. 

We made this hotel in a similar fashion to Santa's Toy Workshop above. However, as the hotel claims to be "whacky, tacky and fun, fun, fun", we used a mix of brightly-colored wrapping paper and added tinsel, fairy lights, festive baubles and some novelty Christmassy glitter party glasses. We also added some costume reindeer antlers to the roof.

In order to add some extra festive "wow", we painted a festive scene on two light blue flat double sheets. We painted a large moon to be visible above the hotel roof with reindeer and Santa's sleigh flying across the night sky; two large Christmas trees were painted on either side so that they framed the hotel structure.

Tip: if you buy light blue sheets rather than white sheets, it takes less paint to create a colored backdrop. We used two light sky-blue double-sized sheets from GC Gavebo Cavalia.

Tip: paint waves in different shades of blue and blue-purple to simulate clouds in the night sky while adding lots of interesting colors. Don't put too much paint on the brush and simply drag it across the sheets in a wave pattern.

Tip: use different shades of green for the Christmas tree needles in order to add depth and life. Allow each application of paint to dry and then paint on top and to the sides of previous needles.

Tip: to draw the sleigh and reindeer, you may find it easier to copy a picture (in a book or online). I drew a draft sketch on large white paper first so that I was familiar with how to create the reindeer body and legs.

As with the toy workshop above, we added a large wrapping-paper-covered sign to the top of roof so that it stood above the main line of the roof - thus adding visual interest. (We printed the A3 (tabloid) size version of the "Rizzi Reindeer Hotel" sign that comes with the murder mystery game then glued this on top of the wrapping paper.)

In "Murder in the Christmas Party", Rudolph is proud that his lights can be seen all over the mountain. We therefore taped the fairy lights to the outside of the hotel and chose lights that changed color every few seconds.

The Christmas reindeer hotel with guests for our group photo: