12 Days of Christmas Treat Boxes
Hello Crafty Friends! Today is day 8 of my annual series “12 Days of Holiday Crafts” and I’m sharing how to make these festive 12 Days of Christmas treat boxes. These cute boxes can be made with your cutting machine and feature a cut out design on top of each lid. The designs include the number of the day, plus the item from the song, “The 12 Days of Christmas”.
When finished, each box measures 3″ x 3″ and is a great size for treats, candies and tiny gifts. You can choose to back the cover of each lid with cardstock or clear plastic, giving a peek to what is inside the boxes. I chose to back each of my colorful boxes with silver glitter paper which gives the boxes a fun sparkle.
You can make these boxes in a number of different color schemes including the traditional red and green Christmas colors. My boxes are made from colorful sheets of cardstock from Park Lane that I found at Joann Fabrics.
What to Gift?
At 3″ square, these boxes are a great size for candy, sweets, and small gifts. Choose customized gifts that the recipient would love, like small sewing notions for your sewing friend. Or keep it simple and include tiny gifts from the Dollar Store or Target Dollar Spot that anyone would enjoy receiving. Leave a box a day for someone special or package all 12 boxes together with ribbon or in a gift basket and request the recipient opens one a day.
You can follow along with the numbers by including the same number of items in the box. For example, 1 bottle of nail polish on Day 1 or 12 chocolate Kisses on Day 12.
You can also choose items that match the “theme” of the day. I love the suggestions from Jen at Healthy, Happy, Impactful. She gives a list of ideas for each day. While some of the ideas will be too large for these boxes, many will fit like pear-flavored jelly beans for day 1 or chocolates turtles on day 2!
I love creating treat boxes especially for the holidays! They are such a fun craft to make with your cutting machine. These boxes were inspired by my 12 Days of Christmas Gift Tags. A project I created a couple years ago that I have wanted to turn into boxes ever since I made the tags!
How to Make the 12 Days of Christmas Gift Boxes
Supplies Needed:
- PNG Cut Files
- Cardstock – I used Park Lane Brights Solid Core Precision Cardstock for the boxes and silver paper from a DCWV Glitzy Paper stack. You could also use Grafix Clear Craft Plastic to back the lids and give a peekaboo to what’s inside.
- Double-sided tape or another strong adhesive- I used 1/2″ Scor-Tape and 1/8″ Score-Tape
- Scoring board
- Cricut cutting machine – Cricut Explore, Cricut Maker or Cricut Joy
- Cricut tools, standard cutting mat and brayer
Choosing the Paper
These boxes can be made in any color scheme of your choosing. For my boxes, I decided to make them bright and colorful using a different color of the rainbow for each box. I have made similar boxes for Valentine’s Day using red and gold paper that would be pretty for Christmas too!
The paper should be between 65lb and 80lbs. The heavier the paper the more sturdy it will be for heavy items. Choose a paper that is solid core rather that white core. White core paper is exactly as it sounds – the core is white and the color is printed on both sides. I find when I cut intricate designs using white core paper I end up with white paper fuzzies in the corners of my design. Solid core paper is a solid color throughout the entire sheet including the core and I find it works better with intricate designs like on these boxes.
The box lids can be backed with thinner paper or with clear craft plastic like I did for my Autumn Treat Boxes.
Assembling the Boxes
Step One: Start by cutting the boxes out from Cricut Design Space. The files come as PNG files, so after importing them into Cricut Design Space you will need to resize them to following the instructions that come with the files. You can also resize them to make them larger or smaller!
Step Two: Score the boxes using a scoring board. If you are using a Cricut cutting machine you could use the score line files and score the boxes with your scoring tool. Even though I have a Cricut, I actually prefer to score them by hand. I find I get deeper score lines which makes folding them easier and more even.
Next, gently fold the tabs along the scored lines. Use a bone folder to crease the tab fold lines.
Step Three: Fill in the cut out designs on each box lid. Each box lid comes with an intricate box design. It can be backed with a piece of cardstock or with clear craft plastic or acetate. Use double-sided tape to apply the square piece of paper or plastic behind the lid.
Step Four: Use double-sided tape to adhere the box pieces together. I used 1/2″ Scor-Tape on the flaps for the bottom of the box and the box lid.
Repeat for each of the 12 boxes until all of the are made. I like to work in an assembly line but I recommend you make one box all the way through to start with so you can troubleshoot if you run into any problems before cutting and starting all 12.
How to Download the 12 Days of Christmas Boxes
If you would like to purchase the cut files for these 12 Days of Christmas Boxes, they are available in my Etsy shop. Thank you so much for supporting my small business :)
