Christmas village for a dome shadow box SVG
A small Christmas village in an arched window, the shape of a glass dome seen from the side: a crescent moon and stars, firs on the far hill, a church with a tall spire, a row of town houses and a house with a chimney, a Christmas tree with a star between a street lamp and a fir, and a horse pulling a sleigh past a snowman at the front. 6 sheets of card, cut and stacked with a gap between each, make the picture. The files are free, and every part of the scene can be moved, swapped or resized below before you download.
6 sheets at 8 × 8 in, zipped, with a note on putting them together.
Free for personal and commercial use, no sign-up. What you can do with it.
The 6 sheets
Sheet 1 is the back and sheet 6 is the front. Each one is a single piece with the same frame round its edge, so they line up when stacked. The colours shown are the “Snow” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 6, “Sleigh and snowman”, the slowest: at 1 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 6, “Sleigh and snowman”, fills the most of the view, 37% of it.
| Sheet | What is on it | Narrowest part | Seen from the front |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Moon and stars | A whole sheet with holes for: Crescent moon and 7 × Plain disc | over 2 mm | 24% |
| 2. Far firs | Rolling ground, with: Pine forest on a hill and Three Christmas trees in a row | 1.1 mm | 5% |
| 3. Church | Rolling ground, with: Church silhouette from the side | 2 mm | 10% |
| 4. Houses | Rolling ground, with: Village row of five houses and House with a chimney | 1.1 mm | 14% |
| 5. Tree in the square | Rolling ground, with: Christmas tree with a star on top, Lantern on a lamp post and Classic pine tree | 1.3 mm | 10% |
| 6. Sleigh and snowman | A gentle slope, with: One horse open sleigh and Simple two-ball snowman | 1 mm | 37% |
Measured from the files at 8 × 8 in. The narrowest part is the thinnest neck of card that holds anything on; sharp tips are not counted. “Seen from the front” is the share of the picture that sheet fills once the sheets in front of it are in place.
Will it cut at your size?
The download is 8 × 8 in. The scene maker above makes the same scene at any of these sizes; the thinnest part scales with it.
| Frame opening | Each sheet | Narrowest part | Depth needed | Fits a 12 × 12 in mat | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 × 6 in | 152.4 × 152.4 mm | 0.8 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed |
| 20 × 20 cm | 200 × 200 mm | 1 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed |
| 8 × 8 in | 203.2 × 203.2 mm | 1 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
| 23 × 23 cm | 230 × 230 mm | 1.1 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
| 25 × 25 cm | 250 × 250 mm | 1.2 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
Depth needed allows 3 mm of foam between sheets and 5 mm for the card itself and the backing.
Making this one
What the files are: six flat sheets of one size, five of them with the same arch cut in them. They stack in a deep frame as they are. For a glass dome, cut each sheet, then cut its frame away at the sides and round the top and keep the strip along the foot: every house, tree and figure stands on its own band of snow, so a sheet stays in one piece without its frame. Trim the back sheet, with the moon and stars, to the same arch. Then stand the sheets one behind another on the base of the dome, from the sky at the back to the sleigh at the front, each glued by its foot to a small block of foam board or a fold of card. The church is the sturdy sheet, at about 2 mm; the far firs and the houses are about 1.1 mm and the sheet at the front is the fine cutting, at about 1 mm.
- Cut all 6 sheets from 160 to 220 gsm card at the same size.
- Lay them out in order, sheet 1 at the back.
- Put strips of 3 mm foam tape round the border of sheet 1 and press sheet 2 onto it with the edges level. Carry on to sheet 6.
- Fit the stack into a deep frame with the front sheet against the glass. For a light box, run a strip of warm white LEDs round the inside of the frame behind the stack.
The zip includes these steps as a text file, each sheet as its own SVG and all 6 side by side in one SVG. More on paper, frames and lights is on the shadow box page.
The parts, on their own
Everything in the scene comes from the free SVG library, where each has its own page and file:
Questions
Will it fit my glass dome?
Measure the inside of the dome first. At 8 by 8 inches the arch is about 17.9 cm wide and 17.9 cm high, and the strip along the foot adds 1.2 cm to the height. The dome must be wider and higher than that inside, and because a dome is round the sheets at the front and the back have a little less room than the one in the middle. The other square sizes in the maker give an arch of about 13.4 cm at 6 × 6 in, 17.6 cm at 20 cm, 20.2 cm at 23 cm and 22 cm at 25 cm. At 6 × 6 in the scene still passes the check, and its finest sheet would be about 0.7 mm.
Is it a village to fold and glue into houses?
No. Nothing is folded: every sheet is a flat cut-out, and the depth comes from six of them standing one behind another, with the church behind the houses and the tree and the sleigh in front of both.
How is this different from the other Christmas villages?
This one has an arched window, with every part standing on the ground so that the frame can be cut away. The Christmas village scene fills a square frame, the Winter village scene has a round window like a snow globe, with a stone bridge, and the Christmas bauble village scene has a round window with a chapel and a bough of fir.
Can I sell boxes I make with it?
Yes. Finished pieces are yours to sell. The files themselves may not be sold or shared; send people to this page. See the licence.
Santa and snowman 
Pigs on the farm 
House on the hill 
Forest deer 
Christmas village 
Haunted house