dear Santa...

{These are the tags that will come out of the advent calendar pockets each day...don't worry they're leftover gift tags I had made last year, but never used. There were exactly 25 of them, so what can I say? It was meant to be! I just added the numbers to each tag and an activity on the back.}

For Day 2 of our Advent activities (on Wednesday), our activity for the day was to write a letter to Santa and to make some Santa crafts. We had so much fun!! Austin is now at the age where he can actually DO the projects with us...without making too much of a mess!

**Disclaimer: Neither of these projects are from my own imagination! I like to borrow ideas and then tweak them if I need to. Follow the links to find the inspiration behind each of these projects.

SANTA PROJECT #1
~ Handprint Santa ~

Supplies needed:
white craft paint, paint brush, paper plate,
glue, misc. colored scraps of paper,
(not pictured: googly eyes)
circle punches (optional)

I had the kids paint each other's hands. They got a kick out of this!
Austin kept saying, "It tickles!"
I was impressed how well Austin painted Sissy's hand.
We used this as our card to Santa, so I folded a piece of green paper in half, so the handprint could be on the outside and the letter on the inside, like a greeting card. (Just make sure you have the handprint going the correct way. Austin's card ended up backwards...oops!)

The kids got to use my circle punches to punch out the pink cheeks, red nose, and black mouth. They loved using them! The original directions suggest using paint and your finger tips to make the circles.
Place the googly eyes on top of the handprint (upside down) and glue the cut out circles to make a face. Hand draw and cut out a Santa's hat and place a white circle on the tip of the hat.
Inside is each of their cards they "wrote" a letter to Santa (this year they just told me what they wanted to say since we're not quite in the writing stage yet).
I found a Santa letter template HERE that was pretty cute and decided to use that.
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SANTA PROJECT #2
~ Cotton Ball Santa ~

Supplies needed:
cotton balls, red (or pink) pom poms, googly eyes,
glue, scissors, red marker, red craft foam (or paper),
flesh-toned paper, and paper plates

Cut out a circle to fit inside the middle of a paper plate (turned over). The original directions say to paint the paper plate, but I decided to avoid the mess!
Glue cotton balls along the entire rim of the paper plate, but leave room at the top for a hat.
Place googly eyes, a pom pom nose, and a cotton ball mustache to make a face. Draw in a red line for the mouth. Leave room to place a hat cut out of red craft foam (or paper) and place a cotton ball on the tip of the hat.
For more fun Christmas craft activities, visit Liz @ Sugarplum Creations. If you have something to share, go link up and spread the inspiration to create something as we Countdown to Christmas!