The sweetest battalion: DIY Christmas skittles

19 Nov 2025

As the holidays draw closer, and the excitement of Christmas looms, it’s time to start adding festive touches to your home. This can also come in the way of interactive, fun games, like these DIY Christmas soldier skittles that can be fun for the whole family. Here is how you can make your own.

You will need:

• Pine dowel, 12mm diameter x 900mm long
• Pine dowel, 40mm diameter x 900mm long
• Pine dowel, 45mm diameter x 900mm long
• 18 wood spheres, 15mm diameter
• 6 semi spheres, 15mm diameter
• 2 wood spheres, 50mm dimeter
• Mire saw
• Sandpaper, including fine grit
• Wood glue
• Resene Quick Dry
• Paintbrush, including a small craft paintbrush
• Resene Colorwood wood stain in shade Resene Walnut
• Resene testpot paints in your chosen colours. Fleur used Resene Black, Resene Romantic, Resene Red Berry, Resene Gold Dust, Resene Double Villa White and Resene Madison

Step 1: Start by cutting the 40mm diameter dowel into 150mm long lengths for the body. Cut 6 of these. Next, cut 6 lengths of the 45mm diameter dowel into 50mm long lengths for the hats. Sand rough edges smooth and wipe away any dust.

Step 2: Cut the 12mm diameter dowel into 12 50mm lengths for the arms. Use wood glue to glue an arm to each side of the body dowel. It’s a good idea to sand one side of the arms flat so that there is more surface area to glue to the side of the body. Glue a store-bought wooden semi-round to the top of the hat (find these at a craft store).

Step 3: Prime everything with a coat of Resene Quick Dry. Once the primer is dry, give everything a light sand with a fine grit sand paper and wipe away any dust. Paint your soldiers in your chosen colours. Fleur painted the hats in Resene Black as well as the bottom portion of the body for the trousers, the faces in Resene Romantic and the jackets in Resene Red Berry.

Step 4: Add in the details in your chosen colours with a fine craft brush. Fleur used Resene Double Villa White for the belt, Resene Black for the jacket collar and cuffs, Resene Gold Dust for the buttons and belt buckle and a small amount of mixed Resene Romantic with Resene Red Berry to make a soft pink colour and dab this on the cheeks. Use a Q-tip to dab on the eyes in your chosen colour.

Step 5: Finish assembling the soldiers by adding 15mm wooden spheres for the hands and nose. Again, it’s helpful to sand a side flat to help with gluing them in place. Paint these with more of your chosen shade that you used on the face. Glue the hat in place and finish by painting on a hat chin strap. Stain, or paint, two 50mm wooden spheres with two coats of your chosen colour. Fleur used Resene Colorwood Walnut.

Wall painted in Resene Green Meets Blue.

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 19 Nov 2025