This is the first edition of Minifigure build-its. Since Christmas is coming up, I'm going to teach you how to build a minifigure Santa Claus. First you need to gather your parts. The first part that tou need is a pair of red legs. You can find them in a lot of lego sets these days.
The next piece that you need is a torso.
The third piece that you need is a head. I used the head off the minifigure that came with set #3177 Small Car, but you can also use the head that came with the minifigure in set #8402 Sports Car. Even though they have the different expressions, it doesn't matter. The beard covers up their mouth.
The last two pieces that you need are the beard and cap. You can find the beard off of minifigures from old castle and wizard sets. The cap, unless you are a avid pirate fan, will be a little harder to find. It's not made anymore so you will need to find one off a old pirate set or you could buy one at http://www.bricklink.com/ 
Fianlly, you can put the minifigure together.