Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Handprint Christmas Ornaments, Handprint Santa Card, Polar Express Bracelet, and More Fun Kids Christmas Crafts

Here are some highlights from the Christmas Crafts we made in my preschool class as well as with my own children last year.

Handprint Santa Christmas Cards
I loved how these darling Handprint Santa Cards turned out. My preschool classes all made them to give to their families, and then I had my girls make a bunch of the cards to give to their grandparents for Christmas. I put a little poem inside the cards that I changed a little bit for the cards we gave to the grandparents.
The poem said:
These aren't just 5 snowmen, or a Santa as you can see...
I made them with my hand which is a part of me.
Now every year at Christmastime when you deck your halls,
you can look back and remember Christmas 2010 when
my hand was just this small!
Merry Christmas

The cards were a vert big hit. CLICK HERE to download your own copy of the poem.
Perler Bead Ornaments

We love Perler beads in this family. We have had so much fun over the years making different creations. I love how creative my girls can get.  My girls decided last year to surprise my husband and I and they made us a bunch of Perler Bead ornaments for Christmas. It was too cute and oh course my favorite gifts are handmade gifts.

Snowman Handprint Ornaments
The Snowman Handprint Ornament have to be one of my favorite Christmas Gifts I have had my daughters or my preschool classes give to their families. My girls also made these special ornaments for all of their grandparents last year as well. I found these darling sparkly blue ornaments last year and I had a wonderful parent helper come in help the kids make these ornaments. We made the Handprint Santa Cards the same day so it was nice having an extra hand around.

To make the ornaments simply place your child's hand in white paint (or you could paint the white paint onto their hand using a sponge brush), then have them wrap their hand around the ornament (while you press each finger down to make sure all of their cute fingers show us), and then tie a ribbon around the top of the ornament and hang to try. Once the ornaments were all dry I went back and hand painted (using permanent markers) all of the snowman hats, faces, and scarves onto the ornaments. Because of the texture of the ornament I went through quiet a few black markers.

I had several parents and grandparents comment on how special these ornaments were to them!


More Christmas Fun

Last year I painted some cute yet simple ornaments to give to my family and some of our neighbors. We also had fun having a Christmas themed breakfast that included Christmas shaped pancakes (thanks to my hubby). For another simple craft I printed out s simple Christmas scene with a hill and a sled and then the girls had so much fun covering the paper with their cute Christmas foam stickers.
Christmas Bell Bracelets (The Polar Express)
 My preschools Christmas party had a Polar Express Theme. It was a lot of fun. I printed out Polar Express tickets and then lined the chairs up to look like a train. I then read the story The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (love it!) to them. I had them do all sorts of fun things while I read the story to keep their interest.

After we read the book the students had fun making their "magical" Christmas Bell Bracelets. In the story, those that could hear Santa's bells ringing, were those that believed in Santa and knew he was real. We had a lot of happy children ringing their cute bell bracelets during the rest of the Christmas party. This year my girls hung their bracelets they made on their Christmas trees (they each have their own little Christmas tree that they decorate with all of their own homemade ornaments).

I hope these ideas give a fun head start on the Christmas Season. Don't forget to CLICK HERE to read about my amazing 9 shop "Merry and Bright" Holiday Giveaway.

3 comments :

Mrs. Brown said...

Hi, have a question about your snowmen ornaments. I have made these for several years with my kiddos and am still trying to find the best markers to use to make the scarves, hats, buttons, eyes, etc. What have you found that works best? Would love any suggestions! Thanks! Kelly
kellybrown28021@gmail.com

Lindsey & Kurtis said...

I love the snowman ornaments. I think I'll be putting the cute little mister's hand in some paint this year. I hope you don't mind me copying your idea. :)

Lindsi B said...

Aw I love those Santa's!!! Would you please share this with our readers for Fun Stuff Fridays? http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/12/fun-stuff-fridays-4-3-weeks-long-for.html