With Christmas just around the corner, we all get busy searching sending Christmas cards and gifts to our loved ones. The beauty of having a baby or a toddler at home, gives you an abundance of opportunities to turn Christmas cards into a fun afternoon activity to do with your mini-me(s). Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, is an all-time favorite of mine and he also serves as the theme for this cute holiday greeting.
The making of the card takes about as long as the song “Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer” and thus makes sure, that the short attention span of a baby or toddler is not maxed out. Thereby you create a win-win-situation. Unique and personal Christmas greetings that keep the holiday spirit in your home intact without any emotional breakdown from the little ones, when things take too long and keep them from their otherwise busy kiddy agenda of running around, getting into things or making chaos in the house.
I love this card, because it doesn’t only create a very personal card that especially grandparents will love, but it also gives you the opportunity to create a cute little memento of the size of your munchkins feet that year. Baby footprints are otherwise we typically only take when the mini-me is still a newborn, but it is a nice reminder of how much your little one has grown to do a foot print once a year.
What you need to make one card
- 1 baby or toddler
- Thick paper card
- Braun finger paint
- 1 red pompom per reindeer
- 1 pair of joggle eyes per reindeer
- Glue
- Black marker
Since little children are not exactly known for their patience and (especially if they are younger than 2 years) a certain inability to stay in one place for long, I recommend you set up camp in the bathroom or on a large blanket that you don’t mind getting any color stains. Otherwise you might add an involuntary new style element to your home in the shape of brown little footprints on your floor.
I recommend using finger paint for this activity as it’s easy to remove from your child’s foot and is also not a health hazard as these products are generally child friendly.
Apply the paint on one naked foot using your finger and then let your mini-me put their foot down onto the Christmas card. It’s easiest, if you let your child stand up for this as it gives you more control and the footprint is then also applied onto the paper more evenly.
After you let the paint dry, draw the reindeer antlers with a thick black marker. The face of the reindeer is the ball of the foot, therefore start adding the antlers half an inch/1-1.5 centimeters below the toes.
Next apply glue to the red pompon that will become the reindeer nose and glue it right onto the middle part of the footprint. Then, glue the eye joggles next to each other in the middle of the ball of the foot.
Aaaand you are done.
If you have more than one child, why not simply have an entire group of reindeers on your card, one per child. It will look super cute with all the little Rudolphs in different sizes.
P.S. With all this “hard” work to create unique and cute Christmas cards with your little ones, you should treat yourself to some cookies and eggnog. Click here for my Christmas specials with healthy recipes for low carb, healthy recipes that help you make the most out of the season without creating calorie-related regrets later.