I am sure this Rudolf craft is not new to all of you, but I still wanted to do it with my son and figured I’d share it! Any craft that uses hand prints is a great keepsake, every year you can pull it out and see how small those little hands were and how much they’ve grown!
- Gather your materials. You will need 3-4 pieces of construction paper or card stock, some googly eyes, a red pom pom, glue, red and green crayons and glue.
- Start by tracing your child’s hands on one piece of paper.
- Now trace their foot on another piece. Cut everything out.
- While you are cutting hand your child the white piece of paper and have them decorate it , older children can draw a nice scene or do a fun abstract like my son.
- Time to glue. Add the foot first if you have a little one, they can glue it
, then you can add the hands under it, and your child can press it down.
- Add the eyes
- Don’t forget the red nose!
- I trimmed our paper with pinking sheers and added a red backing so it would stand out against the white door we are displaying it on.
Christmas Books For Toddlers
All links in book lists are affiliate links.
Maisy’s Christmas Day by Lucy Cousins is about as simple as a book about Christmas can get which is why my toddler has asked me to read it to her 300 times. Maisy’s friends are all with her to celebrate and after opening gifts they sit down for Christmas dinner complete with paper crowns from their Christmas crackers. I like that the focus on sharing the day with people that matter .
Merry Christmas, Mouse! (If You Give…) by Laura Numeroff is an adorable little Christmas counting book. Most of the praise should really be on Felicia Bond the illustrator because the pictures take the cake on this one. The book follows the mouse as he decorates the Christmas tree, 1 Star, 2 angels, etc… It’s a perfect to read and then count the ornaments on your own tree. After reading it my son and I found 4 bells, and 3 trains on our own tree.
The Little Christmas Elf (Little Golden Book) by Nikki Shannon Smith is a sweet book not just about Christmas but also about perseverance, attention to detail and hard work. In this story the littlest elf is working hard but just sin”™t fast enough to get her teddy bear finished in time to be in Santa’s sack for Christmas. Santa delivers the bad news but encourages the little elf to keep at it and they will use the toy next year. She still doesn’t give up doing her best work even knowing Santa is already off to children’s homes everywhere. Right after she is done Santa comes back, a new baby was born and he needs that teddy bear! I loved the message and my son did too. Very sweet book
sandy says
We do these every year. I still have all my kid’s from their first Christmas! They are so tiny:)
CC says
too cute! We’ll have to try 🙂
Allie says
I was really contemplating not posting cause as a teacher this is such a standard, but then some mommy friends had never heard of it, so here it is!
Michelle Sybert says
ack! This is so cute!! I haven’t seen it yet!
lara says
Cute idea! I never thought of it before.
Allie says
Oh good , I am glad I posted our rather drunk looking rudolf 🙂
Beverly says
Oh, this is so cute. We will have to try this. I love anything with my son’s hand prints.
Christy says
I have seen this before but I completely forgot about it and never would have remembered without you. I use all of your ideas and am forever grateful to you. Thanks!
(fairy) Godmother says
Oh! Alexander and I are SO doing this tomorrow!
*~*Lis*~* says
So cute!!! We did hand and foot print turkeys last month otherwise we’d totally be doing this tomorrow morning!
Glamour Moms says
Oh I LOVE this!! I have to try it in the next couple of days!!!
IzzysMa says
so glad you posted this, ‘ve never seen it before. After work yesterday I got the stuff and when I got home my 2yr old and I got straight to it. It’s so cute and so simple.
Lucky Me! says
I totally forgot about this classic! I did this one when I was in school. Thanks for reminding me!
MaryAnne says
I hadn’t ever heard of this before. I did it with my daughter and she loved it, even if she picked out some goofy colors for the reindeer. I’ll post a pic on my blog later…
Meredith says
Thanks for the great idea! My 2 yr old loved this activity this morning!
Allie says
I will be checking to see the fun colored Rudolf! I should do a Christmas round up of pictures of children with crafts they’ve made from here…hmmmm
If you have a picture of your child you would like to share doing or displaying their craft ( or just the craft) email it to me and I will get them all together maybe as my Christmas Day post. Yeah I like that idea.
allie@notimeforflashcards.com
Carolyn says
We made this on the weekend, so cute!
Carrie says
I am so happy you posted this. My toddler has yet to go to school, so this is perfect for us. I plan to do it for our playgroup’s holiday party. I have a question for you. Our playgroup is split between people celebrating Christmas and Hunakkah. I am going to use the party to introduce both celebrations. Do you have a craft idea similiar to Rudolph, using handprints, that would be less Christmas themed. Perhaps a snowman. Thank you so much. I love your site and now that my son is 2 I will be using all of your ideas as much as possible!
Carrie says
Sorry…I was a little backwards…Hanukkah!
Ashlyn Brunson says
Oh my goodness! Memories are coming back! I remember doing this when I was in kindergarten. My mom still has this is an old cabinet at her house. I will have to show my little one my old one the next time we go to grandma’s house and we can compare. I’m sure he will be thrilled to make his favorite Christmas character in a craft!