This is a classic craft, when I asked my son what he wanted to make he said and I quote ” I just want to cut” he’s kinda into scissors right now. So while I did the cutting for the hand prints, he happily cut the red berries and got his wish to cut! Foam is tricky to glue with regular glue but not impossible. All you have to do is lay some parchment paper on top and throw a coffee table book to squish it for an hour or two. Also there is no reason you couldn’t use paper, I just chose foam because I had it on hand.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some green, red and white foam or construction paper, a marker, scissors, glue and a paper plate.
2. Start by tracing your child’s hand , instead of tracing it 10 times simply trace their hand once and use that as a template for the rest.
3. Cut the hands out.
4. Cut strips of red foam out.
5. Have your child snip the strips into smaller pieces. My son loves to cut things, then use it as garbage for his garbage truck toys. So this was a big hit.
6. While they practice their fine motor skills ( did you know that using scissors is great for that?) cut out the inside of the paper plate.
7. Add glue to it.  A lot.
8. Add your hands. I have a big confession it drove me bananas that he put most of the hands facing in. I preach about letting your kids direct their art, and not fixing it but dude it drove me nuts. I resisted changing it but admit to being very happy when he added a few with fingers pointing out. What can I say I am not perfect.
9. Add glue for the red berries. I did this glue.
10. Add the kid cut berries.
11. Let dry – remember parchment paper and a heavy book will do the trick if your foam isn’t sticking.
12. Add a ribbon and hang up!

Books

How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky is a fun and surprisingly practicle story about Santa and how he developed the skills needed for his one of a kind job.  It starts with Santa as a young man and as he keeps bouncing from job to job he aquires skills like going in and out of chimneys as a chimney sweep with ease and without getting dirty,  develops a relationship with reindeer as a zoo worker and gets chubby eating all the food at a all night diner gig!  There are more but i don’t want to spoil the story. My son loved it, especially once the elves showed up, which was when the toys did too! I know when i was a kid I wanted to know how Santa got his job, and there are movies dedicated to this so this book  jumped on the bandwagon and did a great job , it’s very cute!

The Night Before Christmas Board Book by Clement C Moore and illustrated by Bruce Whatley. I was so excited to share this poem with my son, but was not as excited to share some of the illustrations with him. Some of them freaked me out. The first picture of Santa coming out of the chimney was creepy! That said my son wasn’t at all afraid and loves this book. The illustrations are mostly done from funky perspectives and are beautiful but not the polished happy mall Santa that you may be expecting. My 3 year old didn’t pick up on Santa’s and the father’s exchange with a cowboy figuring but adults will enjoy the message that we are never too old to beleive and to be a part of the Christmas magic.