How does the topper maker work?
- Type the names — one child per line. One line or sixty: each line is one finished topper with that name printed on it.
- Pick the poem, the bag size and the paper — A4 or US Letter, at true size.
- Download the PDF, print at 100 per cent, cut, fold, staple. The dashed middle line is the fold; the poem half goes to the back of the bag.
The optional from line — Grandma Judy, Miss Rivera’s class — prints on the poem side of every topper, exactly where you would otherwise be handwriting it thirty times. That is the honest difference from the fixed PDFs: everything you would have written by hand is already printed.
What goes in the bag?
Magic reindeer food is oats, and the sparkle is optional:
| Version | In the bag | On the topper |
|---|---|---|
| Classic sparkle | porridge oats + red and green sugar sprinkles | Bedtime sparkle or Sleigh trail poem |
| Animal-safe | porridge oats, nothing else | Kind to birds poem, with “oats only · no glitter · kind to birds” printed on it |
The animal-safe version exists because what lands on the lawn does not disappear: birds find it in the morning. The big craft sites warn against glitter themselves (checked 2 October 2026) — this tool is the one that ships the safe version as a finished artifact instead of a warning.
What size are the toppers?
| Preset | Topper, unfolded | Per A4 / Letter sheet | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craft bag | 3 in wide × 3¼ in tall | 6 | 3 × 4¾ in craft bags |
| Snack bag | 6½ in wide × 3¼ in tall | 3 | Ziploc snack bags, 6½ × 3¼ in |
Both print at true size when you choose 100 per cent or Actual size in the print dialog — never fit to page. The topper is exactly as wide as the bag, so it folds over the top cleanly. A mono printer loses nothing: line art and type, no photographs.
How do I fold it onto the bag?
- Cut one topper out along the solid border.
- Fold it in half at the dashed line — a fingernail along the fold makes it crisp.
- Fill the bag, press the air out, and close the zip if it has one.
- Slide the folded topper over the top of the bag and staple once on each side, through both layers of paper and bag.
Six toppers, six bags, one sheet: a class set is an assembly line the children can run themselves — one scoops oats, one holds the bag, one staples.
The Christmas bench around it
The toppers join the other made-here Christmas things: the Christmas wish list the kids fill in and you print finished, the photo gift tags with a photo inside each tag, wrapping paper with their names repeating across the sheet, and — the same print engine in the kitchen — leftover labels with the use-by date worked out. The Christmas page lays out what to start when.
The full walk-through — the three recipe versions and the wildlife cautions behind them, bag sizes, all three poems, and the class-set math — is in the guide How to make magic reindeer food.
What this tool does not do
It does not fill the bag — oats, a spoon and a staple are yours. It does not sell you a physical kit; the toppers print on whatever paper you have. And it does not need an account or an email address; the download starts the moment you click.
Questions
How do I make magic reindeer food?
Spoon porridge oats into a small bag — about half full looks right — add red and green sugar sprinkles if you want the sparkle, and fold a printed topper over the top. Cut the topper out, fold it in half at the dashed line, slide it over the filled bag and staple once on each side through both layers. That is the whole job: the tool types the names, picks the poem and prints the toppers; the oats and the staple are yours.
Which poem should I pick?
All three are written for this tool, and each prints in full on the back of the topper. Bedtime sparkle is the classic rhyme — sprinkle on the lawn before bed on Christmas Eve. Sleigh trail is the second classic, written for the night the stockings go up. Kind to birds is the animal-safe version: it says on the topper itself that the bag is oats only, with no glitter.
Is glitter safe for birds and other animals?
The big craft sites print the caution themselves: no glitter outside, because what lands on the lawn gets found by birds and other animals (checked 2 October 2026). The safest version of the craft leaves the glitter out entirely — that is what the Kind to birds poem and its oats-only note are for. Sugar sprinkles are the classic middle way, and plain oats alone work too.
What bags do the toppers fit?
Two true-size presets. The 3-inch preset fits the 3 × 4¾ in craft bags the big printable sets name (checked 2 October 2026) and prints six toppers per sheet. The snack preset fits Ziploc snack bags, which measure 6½ × 3¼ in on the maker's own product page (ziploc.com, checked 2 October 2026), and prints three per sheet. Print at 100 per cent — actual size — never fit to page, or the fold comes out wrong.
Can I make a set for a whole class?
Yes — that is what the name box is for. Type one name per line, up to 60 names, and every line becomes one finished topper, one sheet after another: 30 children on the 3-inch preset is five sheets of A4. A class set with each child's own name printed on it is the thing the fixed PDFs cannot do.
Is anything uploaded from this page?
No. The names, the poems and the PDF are all built inside your browser, and no request carries anything you typed. Your names and choices stay saved in this browser for your next visit — clear this site's data in your browser settings to remove them.