Fab 5 Christmas Art Projects

I thought this year I would share some of my favorite Christmas projects that we have done. We have some that we do each year and I tried to add a few new ones as well. Some are faster than others but all will be super cute and can quickly fill your walls with holiday cheer.  Happy Christmas art making - I love this time of year!

1. Christmas murals (mini and full): Find these at my favorite art site! These murals do take some time as the full mural has 30 pages to color and is 36″ by 60″ when complete. For US$5.00 you can download the PDF file; it's worth every penny. Printing and coloring is pretty fast (depending on how careful your artists are...); then tape the pages together from the back. 

http://artprojectsforkids.me/product-category/pdf-store/

2. Nutcracker: When we started doing nutcrackers, I drew them and had the kids color them.  Now each year they draw their own. It is a highlight for all of us to see how much better they get, and of course the boys love adding guns! There is usually a variation on this project each year at artprojectsforkids.org.

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/search?q=nutcracker

3. Nativity Silhouette: Once again, we have done this project for several years and they make great gifts and are easy to put in a frame. This project has several steps, so you can do a little at a time over a few days, or watch a Christmas movie in between steps!

http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2008/12/how-to-make-nativity-silhouette-a...

4. These are the top two projects that I hope to do this year. I think they would be fun to bring out each year. They're perhaps a little messy but my kids' handprints are getting so big I really hope to capture them forever.

http://www.ucreatewithkids.com/2010/12/tutorial-hand-print-christmas-tre...

This one looks very simple and gets great results. You make a snowflake by putting tape on canvas and then paint the background. Seriously, you can do this!

http://tenkidsandadog.blogspot.com/2010/01/preschool-snowflake-masterpie...

5. I just tried this project and we're enoying it. It was not very messy because I did have glitter glue; it would be more messy if you don’t, but it would work fine without glitter (so don't let that discourage you if you're not a glitter person, like my husband!). It does require lots of cutting for the Mom, but I really enjoyed the outcome. We put small inexpensive activities to do with each other each night and I’m looking forward to lots of fun memories together leading up to celebrating Christ’s birth. 

http://www.se7en.org.za/2011/12/02/se7ens-easy-advent-banner

Merry Christmas everyone!