These fun character gift cards are the ideal way to send a small festive treat, such as a chocolate coin, along with your Christmas card. Download the free Santa template, free penguin template and free polar bear template to get started! Each design contains a small pocket that can be attached with sticky foam pads and concealed when the character’s arms are folded. To hold the arms in place when the card is shut, simply tie with ribbon in a coordinating colour. Download the penguin card template, polar bear card template, and the Santa card template for easy homemade Christmas cards, designed by Sue Hughes.
You can adapt the designs by creating a larger pocket to hold gift cards, or removing the pocket completely. You could even use these characters as place cards for your dining table, as friends and family come to feast on Christmas day – just add a paper hat and a hilariously bad cracker joke to the pocket, then you’re ready to go! And if you like this project, check out our selection of Christmas crafts for the whole family and all skill levels.
If you want to add a little extra definition to your character cards, try inking round the edges of the card sections, or add hand-drawn details to your designs. Mix things up by using our free patterned papers for details like the pocket on the Santa template.
Let’s make the Santa Christmas card! Mount a 15.5×11.5cm white card base with a slightly smaller piece of pale-blue card. This will leave a thin white border around your blue card and will form the background to your Santa. Using the 
Using the 
Cut out Santa’s face, beard and hat. Attach the face to the card using double-sided tape or glue, then attach the beard with sticky foam pads, and then the nose, moustache and hat on top of this – also with sticky foam pads. This will build up a three-dimensional face for Santa! Draw two dots for Santa’s eyes using a black pen (or stick-on googly eyes!). Use sticky foam pads to add the coin pocket and top with a sentiment if you like.
