Turn Your Empty Toilet Paper Rolls Into Adorable DIY Christmas Decor

Don't be so quick to toss your toilet paper rolls out! As most DIY fanatics know, there are various ways to reuse toilet paper rolls around the house. Instead of buying new decor for Christmas, why not craft some instead? You can easily create adorable mini winter hats filled with a chocolate ball to use as decor on a tablescape or side table, or even as a special stocking stuffer. You probably already have most of the necessary materials. With a little patience, you'll be able to craft this creative Christmas decoration.

For this DIY, you'll need toilet paper rolls, scissors, yarn, a book, and a round chocolate or candy of your choosing. Opt for classic holiday colors like red, green, and white. A medium-weight, worsted yarn works best for this project. As for the candy, one of the best options to help create the hat shape will be Ferrero Rocher chocolates. They're the perfect size to fit snugly into the mini hat. Other types of round candies work, too — just make sure they fit into the hats. 

Prepare for this craft by making mini cuffs, cutting your toilet paper rolls widthwise into small circles. Each toilet paper roll should yield about 5 or 6 cuffs. Now, wrap your yarn around a book 30 to 40 times, forming a nice surface area of overlapping yarn. Cut it at the edge of the book. You should be left with a bundle of 6 to 8-inch strands of yarn.

Now that you have your materials together, start by folding a piece of yarn in half to create a loop. Thread that loop through the center of the cuff. Next, take the two ends of the yarn and feed them through the loop you created. Pull tight to secure. Continue this all the way around your toilet paper roll cuff until it's completely filled. Take all the yarn tails and feed them back through the cuff. Place a chocolate ball in the center. Now gather up all the yarn ends and tie them off with a short piece of yarn so they form a little dome. You should have the beginnings of a hat shape, with long strands of yarn at the top. Carefully snip the yarn ends close to the top to form a small poof. 

There are plenty of ways to personalize this craft. If you want a striped hat, use different colors of yarn during the wrapping step. Say you're incorporating red and white. Do so by wrapping the colors around the book 15 to 20 times each to create your bundle. You can also opt to use tinsel to give your mini hats a festive sparkle. Cut 6 to 8-inch strands of tinsel and loop them onto your cuff between every three or so pieces of yarn. Get creative and add a touch of winter magic to your home decor this season!