DIY Santa Hand Print Ornaments

Aren't kid hand prints the cutest!?

As a mom, I know that they melt my heart.  Actually, they've always melted my heart - as a teacher, an aunt, a friend and a mom.

Every year I like to do several Christmas crafts with my kids at home.  I love to craft and be creative.  This year I tried extra hard to come up with Christmas arts and crafts because both kids have been home since Thanksgiving doing school at home.  That means no art, no Christmas programs and no Christmas fun and games with their friends. Boo!

I think I found my very favorite Christmas craft ever!

We made Santa hand print ornaments this year and they turned out are darling.

I had seen some hand print Santa ideas on pinterest, but they all involved clay.  That makes a really heavy, fragile ornament that is difficult to hang plus it's complicated to work with.  

I decided to try to make Santa hand prints out of cardboard.  

If your house is like mine, you've got an abundance of delivery boxes this time of year.  I've also felt a tug to use up the supplies I already own instead of going out and purchasing everything new when I get the urge to do a project.  This project cost me $0 because I already had the items in my craft closet.

 

Supplies:

one cardboard box flattened and labels removed

skinny marker

red, white, black paint

sparkly pom poms

glue gun

twine

scissors

Directions:

1. Trace kid hand prints on cardboard.  Be sure to leave room to cut around them.  I traced 4 per child.  Two for us and two to giveaway to grandmas.  I traced each hand print to ensure that they were really accurate.  Then I had each kid write their name inside their hands.  I added the date.

2. Cut out kid hand prints with a quality pair of scissors.  It took me about 30 minutes to cut out 12 hand prints.  It takes a little muscle to cut through cardboard.  However, it's totally doable with regular scissors.

3. Time to paint!  Your Santa faces will turn out best if you give each layer time to fully dry.  That will allow for the colors to remain bold and not mix.  I gave each big kid a paper plate to paint on and then I painted Leo's.  Paint the Santa beard first, add a fluffy brim for his hat and a bit of fluff on the thumb for the pom pom on his hat.  Let this dry.

4. Come in with the red paint to finish his hat.  Once that is dry add some white paint on top to make the brim of his hat look authentic and furry.

5. Time for Santa's face.  Paint a pinkish face, dot on eyes and a nose and then paint on his mustache.  We liked the layered look.  I didn't take many pictures during these steps because it was all hands on deck!  We went slow, took our time and took turns to ensure we painted really cute Santas.  Think of it as a step by step art class.

6. Once all of the paint is dry, cut twine the length you need and hot glue it into the back of the hand print.  Two dots of glue seemed to hold on the twine really securely.  Let them dry completely, flip over and glue on a pom pom if you want to.

Ta da!  I love these Santas!  They look great with hand prints of all sizes - baby to big kid!

The cardboard worked perfectly!  It was sturdy, held up wonderfully with paint and hot glue and the Santas look so cute on our Christmas tree.  They really make a statement.

Do you have any cute little hands that would enjoy making these?  It would be the perfect thing to do over Christmas break to capture their tiny little hands exactly as they were for Christmas 2020.

Let me know if you have any questions!  Or tag me @polkadottyplace if you share them on IG.

Santa Brunch, Snow and More!

We had a really festive week this week.  We kicked off the week with a Santa Brunch.  We've been doing this tradition for years.  It's always a favorite event on our December calendar.  We were thrilled when our club announced they'd still be holding a Santa brunch in spite of COVID and assured us it would be wonderful.  They were right.  Things were a little different, but they were able to capture the Christmas magic like usual.

We were assigned a table like always and then dismissed to do certain activities at certain times.  This ensured that we were distanced and gave everyone their space.  No one felt rushed and we got plenty of quality time with Santa, the elf and reindeer and at our table.

This elf was hilarious.  He told really funny jokes and had the parents & kids cracking up.  His beloved reindeer smelled of cinnamon.  That smell lingered on all of our hands well beyond our time with him.  The kids thought it was the coolest.  They retold his jokes and stories all week - What do you call a selfie with an elf?  An elfie.  He also told the kids that Donner stubs his toe every year on our roof so we need to fix that before Christmas.  They were amazed.

Santa was amazing.  He was by far the most genuine Santa that has ever come to our Santa brunch.  He looked like the real deal from head to toe and I was glad that he opted for a face shield vs a mask so we could hear him more clearly.  He talked to eat of the kids.  They wore masks up close and they were mesmerized by him.  

He asked what they were wishing for this year.  He said he'd see what he could do about those army guys, Nerf guns, dolls and crinkly toys.  He was also really great at guessing their interests based on their initial requests.  They were amazed.  Later Olive told me that Santa could finish her sentences and knew just what she wanted.  He did the perfect job of not promising them all of those gifts, but he said he'd pick out something special just for them as well as a surprise or two.  They left feeling more excited about what Santa might surprise them with more than their wishes.  It was precious.  I don't know how much longer we'll have these kind of magical moments so I'm soaking them in 100% right now!

I was really glad that despite all of the craziness of 2020, that we were able to do something normal.

The reindeer came around to say hello and Leo was not sure what to think of him.

We usually stop at the cookie decorating station, but this year, they made each kid a cookie decorating to go kit.  I think it might have been more fun that the cookie station.  We got to take our time, each kid got to decorate their cookies and we had leftover supplies to decorate more cookies with later.  Leo wasn't interested in the cookies.  But he did look super handsome in his candy cane stripes.

I made this kids some Charcu-TREEs for lunch one day.  They loved them!

Indiana Snow!  We woke up to snow on Wednesday morning.  We don't always get the snow that they predict for us so it was a nice surprise to wake up to.

The kids walked out in their pjs to check it out and then bundled up a little more after breakfast.  We discovered Fletcher had outgrown his snow boots that just fit him a month ago when we checked and it took us a bit to locate all of our other snow gear. 

Fletcher loves to help so it's fun to see him doing all this big brother stuff.  Lately he's been asking for more jobs or asking to do things himself.  He volunteered to feed Leo for me.  What a sweet guy!

My parents came in town for a quick visit.  We had a blast.  I always love having them visit and it was fun for them to see the house decorated for Christmas.

Doing school at home with two little brothers is challenging.  Here's Olive Google Meeting with her class.  Asking to hold Leo.  Fletcher wanting in on the action and me here for tech support.  Luckily they were just doing fun stuff - holiday bingo, snowflake facts, and just chatting.  We can't wait for school to resume in person in January!

We ordered the kitten Christmas collars and they are so cute!  They weren't 100% sure about them, but we couldn't get over how cute they looked for Christmas.  Meowy Christmas!

Need an easy Christmas food for your kids - Pizza Trees!  Mine loved it.

Did you see my post earlier this week for Peanut Butter Swirl Bark??  It was easily the prettiest dessert I've ever made and it was SO GOOD.  I'm going to be making a second batch this weekend.

Do you ever buy supplies for a DIY project and then let them sit for 5+ years!?!  I bought this frame with the intention of adding a new Santa picture to it every year when Olive was a baby.  She's 7 now so it was time to get this done.  I gathered all of my favorite Santa pictures since 2013 and had the best time doing this project.  I just love looking back at all of these moments.  I think this will easily be one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  I ended up with 3 blank spots for a few more memories in the years to come.

I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you about these Nerds Gummy Clusters.  They're poppable and so good.  If you like gummy candies, Nerds or the combo you'll love these.  They are much easier to eat than Nerd ropes. 

We've been making an effort to bundle everyone up and get outside.  We'll go on short walks or long walks depending on what everyone is up for.  The fresh air is good for all of us.

Happy Friday!  I hope you have some fun plans for the weekend.  We're planning to do some Christmasy things and watch Notre Dame win on Saturday :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

Christmas House Tour

I genuinely enjoyed decorating for Christmas this year.  Last year, I did the minimum because I was pregnant and tired.  This year, it just felt right to go all out for Christmas.  We didn't buy a lot of new decor.

Here's my PSA for the holidays: You don't have to spend tons every year on holiday decor to love what your decorations.  You don't have to buy in to all the links, swipe ups and affiliate options that are thrown your way on social media.  Just buy a few new things every year that you love and over time you'll end up with a decoration collection that you really enjoy.

Let's get this tour started from the moment you walk up to my house.  You'll notice that I love traditional red and green for Christmas.  I'm not a neutrals girl.  So every year I try to add new classic red and green pieces to my collection.

I love my blue door and berry wreath.  

We picked out the perfect real tree for our house.  It's such a pretty tree and smells great.

The kittens are very curious about the warm lights and love to bat around the ornaments.

We moved our tinsel tree from the playroom to the bay window this year.  It looks so pretty here.  It's filled with silly ornaments, kid ornaments and ornaments from my childhood.

Kevin's Nana made him this Christmas tree and Santa when he was a kid.  I love having these vintage items in our decoration collection.  I made sure to put them in a new spot where they'd get lots of attention this year.  They look great with my bottle brush trees, galvanized houses and I think they've found a spot where I'll leave them every year.

I really love our mantle this year.  It came together perfectly.

The kittens have been very well behaved little ladies.  Snuggling baby Jesus and overall very interested in all this Christmas decor business.  The big front window is always a cat hot spot.

I'm added some sentimental holiday decorations this year.  This sled was always on display growing up.

The big kid zone.  I decided to have them share a tree this year.  And it was a tough sell at first for Olive.  Thankfully, she came around and their rainbow tree is a favorite.  They really love their room.  I'll have to give you a proper tour of it in the new year.

Leo's first Christmas tree came together perfectly.  it's so sweet!  I smile every time I walk into his nursery. 

Merry Christmas!  It's such a cozy time of year.  We've got snow in the forecast for the week and everything feels so festive.  I'm excited for the rest of the month.