Christmas Handprint Traditions

This Christmas we decided to start some new family traditions. We have a 2 year old and a 7 month old who are growing so fast and we wanted to make a few keepsakes that we can have to look at year after year at Christmas time.

We thought what better way to do this then by using our mini’s handprints to make Christmas handprint traditions with ornaments and other projects. Check out the three different options that we found to be simple and easy and will help us to remember how little our girls really were year after year.

Christmas Handprint Tree Skirt

This is my favorite of all the activities and something that I wish I thought of sooner. After Christmas this year I went out and bought a clearance Christmas Tree Skirt. The plainer the better for this project but because we bought clearance there weren’t too many options.

The goal of this activity is for the minis to add their handprint to a designated area of a Christmas tree skirt year after year. This is a project that we will plan to add to year after year. Then dates and ages can be added if desired to help see the growth of the handprints as well as the growth of the family in general. Our hope is that it will get easier and easier for the minis to add their handprint each year.

It is somewhat tricky to get a 7-month-old to put their hand full of paint flat on the tree skirt without them putting their hand in their mouth in the process. Luckily no paint was ingested in the process of this project. The handprints aren’t perfect but we tried our best and it turned out super cute. We can’t wait to see what it will look like next year after adding additional handprints.

Materials:

• A plain Christmas tree skirt
• Paint in whichever colors desired
• Permanent markers

Directions:

1. Unfold your Christmas tree skirt and lay it flat. Direct your child to lay their hand out and spread out their fingers. Use a paintbrush to paint acrylic paint on the palm of your child’s hand.
2. Have your child make sure their fingers are spread out and press their hand onto the tree skirt in the designated area (We started on the outside and plan to spiral their hands around and into the middle year after year).
3. you are like me you will want to keep wet paper towels nearby so that you are able to wash the paint off your child’s hand easier when finished with their handprint. Continue doing this with each child making sure to put the handprints close together.
4. Once the handprint has dried use a permanent marker to add the year above the handprints and your child’s names and ages below the handprints if desired. Once the tree skirt is dried all the way you can put it under the tree to enjoy and add to year after year.

Holiday Salt Dough Ornaments

We followed the recipe that can be found over at “Yummy Toddler Food’s” Blog. We found that this recipe was enough for us to make an ornament for our tree as well as ornaments for both Grandma/Grandpa’s trees as well. We even had leftover dough to make extra cut-out ornaments of gingerbread men and snowmen for our tree.

My mini loved helping me measure out all of the ingredients in the dough as well as roll out and cut out shapes. It was the perfect activity for a cold snowy day. The following day we painted our ornaments and labeled them with the years and ages of our girls.

Once dry, we wrapped up the extras in homemade Rudolph-shaped holiday bags for the rest of the family and gave them out as Christmas presents. The grandparents loved them and we love seeing ours hanging on our tree every day.

Holiday Handprint Canvases and Christmas Cards

My mini LOVES when I paint her hand so after completing the tree skirt activity she was begging me to paint her hand again. I went to the craft store and bought some different canvases and lots of different colors of paint.

Then together with my mini, we created a holiday Christmas tree, mistletoe, and reindeer with her handprints on the canvases. She loved doing these crafts and now we have keepsakes to hang around the house each year. This activity is a great one as it can also be used to paint on hands and create Christmas cards for family and friends.

Materials

• Blank canvases or construction paper
• Paint in different colors
• Permanent markers in different colors

Directions

1. Lay out your blank canvas. Have your child spread their fingers out. Using a large paint or foam brush paint acrylic paint onto the palm and fingers of your child’s hand. Then have your child press their hand down onto the canvas.
2. Very slowly have your child lift their hand up. Let the canvas dry. Then work together with your child to add details to their canvas. Finish the project up by adding names, ages, and dates to your child’s project with a permanent marker if desired.
3. If creating holiday cards fold a piece of construction paper in half. Then have your child put their painted hand down on the front cover of the paper. Decorate the inside and back if desired.

For additional fun Christmas and holiday crafts for kids be sure to also check out these Christmas character crafts as well as this decorative Christmas tree craft. Both of these are simple crafts that don’t use a lot of materials and great for all ages.