50 Ways To Use Peg Dolls

Wooden Peg Dolls are a beautiful, simple, and timeless alternative to today’s plastic, ugly, disposable toys. They can provide hours of imaginative play, unencumbered by the need for endless batteries or expensive accessories and add-ons. But peg dolls aren’t just for play. Here are fifty ways that I’ve used peg dolls, and you can too!

More Ways to Use Peg Dolls

I’ve been painting my heirloom wooden peg dolls or “peeps” for close to a decade now, and I have just as many adult collectors as children who enjoy my creations. What are they doing with them if not playing with them? There are so many ways to use peg dolls that I thought up fifty uses pretty quickly. So, whether you’ve collected peg dolls from a favorite maker, or if you’ve made some yourself, take a look at these ideas for fifty creative ways to use peg dolls that you maybe haven’t thought of.

For Playing

Of course, I can’t leave out the most obvious use for wooden peg dolls, playing! Here are just a few ways to play with peg dolls. I always have a little bag of peg dolls handy for when boredom strikes.

1. For doll house people
2. For good old-fashioned make-believe
3. As people for old fisher price houses, school house, hospital etc.
4. With Lincoln Logs
5. As favorite book/movie characters
6. As special “purse toys” to bring out when you need the kids to play quietly like in a restaurant, at Church, or waiting rooms

For Celebrations and Traditions

I love using Peg Dolls for family traditions and celebrations like Birthdays and Weddings. Here are some more ideas on how to use peg dolls in your celebrations.

1. Wedding Cake Toppers
2. Birthday Cake Topper
3. Anniversary Gift
4. Graduation Gift
5. Baby Shower Decor
6. Bridal Shower Decor
7. Stag and Doe Decor
8. Party Favors
9. Loot Bag Alternative
10. Place Cards
11. As a Baby Announcement!

For Learning

Peg Dolls can add so much fun to learning! As homeschoolers, we’ve used peg dolls to help with math and as a method for narration. I’ve also had teachers order them from me for their classrooms, daycare centers for preschool learning, and even a therapist for play therapy.

1. For Learning about the weather/ seasons/ planets etc.
2. In a sensory bin
3. Play Therapy
4. Math Counters
5. Narration Tool
6. Game pieces
7. Story Telling
8. Sunday School

For Display

I love having peg dolls around the house. Even when the kids leave them strewn about the floor they look cute. I painted our family as peg dolls and they’re displayed in a little house shaped shelf in our school room. I also like to paint peg dolls for my kids to remember a special event or memory. Last year we took our older kids to see “Les Misérables” on stage in Toronto. The tickets were their big Christmas gifts and so I painted each of them their favorite characters as peg dolls to open on Christmas morning. They now live on our bookshelf, but the great thing is, they’re not breakable so the three year old can still play with them.

My favorite way to use peg dolls as decoration is to display them in our Christmas village. When my kids were younger, I would give them a few peg dolls every year to add to their Christmas village collection. Now we display them every year and the kids still like playing with them and arranging them in the village. Another tradition we look forward to, is setting up our peg doll Nativity set. I love that the kids can play with it and there’s no need to worry about it breaking. Here are some other ways to use peg dolls in your decor at home.

1. Family Portrait
2. As a way to commemorate a Memory
3. As an unbreakable Christmas village (See how I made “the Christmas Angels HERE and find the pattern HERE)
4. Nativity Set
5. Pet Portraits
6. Plant Buddy
7. Bookshelf Literary Characters
8. Seasonal Display
9. As an “Elf on the Shelf” alternative

Other Ways To Use Peg Dolls

Probably my favorite way to use peg dolls is for gifting, and over the years I have gifted many many peg dolls. There are just so many things you can do with them. Here are some more ways I’ve used and gifted Peg Dolls over the years.

1. Christmas Ornaments
2. Baby’s 1st Christmas Ornament
3. Wedding gift/ first married Christmas Ornament
4. New Home Ornament
5. As a Necklace
6. As a Keychain
7. As a Zipper Pull
8. As a Car Ornament
9. On a tooth fairy box
10. On a Trinket box
11. As a ceiling fan pull
12. As a pocket “worry” doll
13. As a miscarriage loss/grieving memorial
14. Blank peg dolls in a painting kit gift
15. As an Easter Egg filler
16. For Stocking Stuffers
17. As a Rubber Stamp Handle
18. As a Custom Teacher gift

Interested in painting your own peg dolls? See my process for painting “The Christmas Angels” HERE and find the pattern HERE.

Whew! That’s a lot of Peg Dolls! How about you? Are you a peg doll collector or maker? Do you use peg dolls for anything besides playing in your home? Let me know in the comments if you have any more ideas!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lindi Joe