Holiday Crafts for the Little Ones

I have a small in-home daycare that I decided to open a few years ago after having my son. He's considerably younger than my two girls, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to be home with him.  I also wanted him to have some friends and to interact with other children.  Our little buddies are all under 3 years old.  Two boys and two girls, one of the girls is only with us a couple days a week.  We have a small group and we like it that way.

Although the kids are young, we do crafts around the holidays.  What parent doesn't love having keepsakes of their little ones?  Little handprints and footprints are always nice reminders of how small and innocent our children once were.  

Pinterest is my go to site when looking for crafts.  There's lots of good ideas out there and other people have done the legwork.  Just do a quick search and there you have it, all kinds of ideas at your fingertips!


For Halloween we made Footprint Ghosts.  Very simple and not too messy.  Here's all you need:

Orange construction paper
Black Sharpie
White craft paint
Old rag
Wet wipes
and little feet (of course)

Cut the construction paper in half.  Write the child's name and the current year in the corner (so you know who's is who's).  Sit the child in a chair and put some white paint on the soles of their feet with an old rag.  Press the first foot onto the paper then wipe their feet off with wet wipes while the paint is still wet (for easier clean up).  Do the same with the second foot.  Once the paint has dried you add the ghost eyes and mouth and whatever other words or designs you'd like to add.  

For Christmas we made handprint ornaments.  These are a little more difficult than the footprints, because the kids can see the paint on their hands and either do not like it or want to close their hands.  These ornaments are so cute, though, that you can't let that stop you.  Craft paint doesn't dry that quickly, so if it's a messy handprint you have time to wipe it off and try again.  Here's what you need:

Solid colored matte or glossy ball ornaments
White craft paint
Black Sharpie
Orange Sharpie
Old rag
Wet wipes

The easiest way to do this is to have everything laid out and ready to use, so make sure the ornaments are out of their case.  With an old rag, put white paint on the palm of the child's hand. Place the ball in the palm of their hand and close their fingers around the ornament.  Have them open their hand slowly.  Set the ornament aside to dry and then clean their hand.  Once they are dry, add a black top hat, dotted smiley face, and orange carrot nose to each finger.  Then add their name and the current year to the palm of the hand.  There you have it, adorable snowman finger handprint ornaments!

As always, there is always knowledge to be gained with anything we do.  What knowledge did I gain, you say?  I found out that I can be patient in messy situations and I can create something adorable for my parents from my kiddos.

Have fun with this, it will be messy and you may need to redo a few of them but in the end you will have something cute to remind you of your little ones!