Friday, December 4, 2009

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!

20 comments:

Sherry said...

Love BOTH of those projects!!! I think we will do the handprint for my mommy group so the little ones can participate too! :)

Amanda said...

I love them both! I saw the first one in an e-mail recently from Family Fun, they are perfect! Madison has been plowing through her holiday projects so I am sure we will get to do these too!

Kelli W said...

SUPER fun Santa crafts! I really like the letters to Santa...Henry is old enough now to write his own, so we may have to try that this year! Eli is still to little to do painting without making a huge mess! But we are going to paint at some point over the next few weeks anyway!

Rhonda said...

How fun! I love the tags and projects you did! I love the idea of some fun activities to do to count down Christmas. I did that for the summer and it was great! I'm gonna remember that for next year. We do a lot of it anyway, it would be nice to have it organized! ;O)

Love the Santa card!!

Crystal said...

Very cute crafts! We love making stuff in our house.

vicki said...

Mikayla and Austin,
You did a great job on your Santa letter and face. Looks like you were having lots of fun!
See you soon....Love,
Grammy

boosmom said...

I love it, we made the same Santa handprints this year, on the green paper - how funny!

Sugarplum Creations Blog said...

Those handprint Santas are ADORABLE! Such great ideas, Heidi! The girls would love this craft :)

Dawn said...

Thanks for the ideas-they're both adorable! My 4 yr old will love gluing on cotton for a beard. The handprint would be great for cards for grandma and grandpa.

He & Me + 3 said...

What fun crafts. Very cute.

Chanin said...

Such cute ideas! I am planning on doing a cotton ball Santa too!! It is a classic!

Connie said...

Those are such great projects for the kids!

Thanks for sharing.

Kelli said...

What fun projects. I love that they painted each other's hands. Tags are a great idea to write down the activities...and with 25 it WAS supposed to be!

Foursons said...

Cute projects and I see no reason to paint the plate. Smart Mom!

The cards are a great idea for letters to Santa- I may be stealing it.

Unknown said...

Love these kids crafts - they are great!

silly eagle books said...

This is really cute--my daughter was obsessed with handprint turkeys a few weeks ago, so she will be thrilled to use her skills to make santas!

Moore Minutes said...

The hand one is SUCH A GOOD and creative idea!! Who would have thought? And the cotton ball one brought back such warm, good memories because I did that when I was a kid.

You're such an amazing Mom...always doing these GOOD things with your kids. Thank you for the inspiration. :)

Jen @ tatertotsandjello.com said...

What fun activities. I love it!

Hey, is it too late to join your Christmas party? I have a little project that I did -- I could post about it tomorrow.

XOOX
Jen

mindy2780 said...

I love the santa faces. I added it to my advent calendar, it is something both my 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old can do!

Emily said...

I love the handprint idea...I'm so doing that with my kids. That's cute about them painting each others hands!

 
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