Easy Homemade Holiday Gifts for the Grands

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I love to brag on my sweet little Tiny, because, well, she almost didn’t make it, so, I believe I’m justified in taking every opportunity to share stories about her. Yes, you’re reading the right article – this IS about easy homemade holiday gifts for the grands, it just happens to star my Tiny miracle!

Finding gifts for the grandparents is always a struggle for me every year. But two years ago, I was inspired by a project that Tiny and I made. The Christmas hand print wreath.

Tiny (her online pseudonym – despite the fact that her name is in the picture below!) and her twin sister were born almost 10 weeks early and sick from a disease affecting identical twins called TTTS. We spent 12 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Palmetto Health Richland Hospital.

Because of our time in the NICU, which is part of our amazing Children’s Hospital, we were asked if Tiny could be a Miracle Child and represent the Children’s Hospital. As our hearts are truly committed to helping the Children’s Hospital in any way that we can, we said YES!

One of our first “tasks” – they are never really tasks, because being a Miracle family is FUN – was to make some artwork for the Festival of Trees. The Festival of Trees is a massive annual fundraiser the Children’s Hospital holds, and there is always artwork to be auctioned, made by the Miracle children. I wondered what art Tiny could possibly make, since she was only almost two years old! But the ladies at Tag it Art (which has sadly closed permanently) helped her create this beautiful wreath and the reindeer small wall print. Hard to believe what a baby can create with the proper help!

wreath
I. LOVE. THIS. My inspiration for creating hand and foot print paintings in the future.

Beautiful, aren’t they?

I didn’t think about that craft until we were actually at the Festival of Trees, and I saw her beautiful art. We had not gotten any holiday gifts for the grands yet, and I wondered if I’d be able to recreate something like this at home.

Turns out, there are all kinds of fun canvas art projects you can make relatively easily with your kids, and they make fantastic gifts for grandma and grandpa!

The tools are the same for each project:

  • White canvas in the size, shape, and quantities that you need.
  • Paint in a variety of colors – but be sure to get green, red, brown, blue, black, white
  • Sharpie to write on the canvas
  • Your children’s hands and feet and plenty of wipes to get the paint off when you’re done!

That’s it!

The directions are simple.

1. Figure out what design you want to make – either the hand print wreath (pictured above), the “Mistle Toes” (pictured at the very bottom), the Christmas mice (pictured directly below) or a variety of other cute animals and objects that can be made from feet and hands!

holiday gifts for the grands
Christmas mice made from footprints. (photo credit: Kim Toogood)

2. Paint the hands or feet of your child – be sure to cover completely and only do one at a time.

3. Have your canvas ready, and once you have painted said body part, quickly press the canvas up against the painted hand or foot.

4. Repeat as many times as you need. The hand print wreath requires at least 5-7 times in a circle. (Since I have three kids, I had all three of mine do their hand prints in different colors around the wreath, as seen below.)

wreath
My three children provided handprints for this and I filled in the rest.

Mine is not nearly as good as the one done by the pros, but I have about zero artistic ability. So if I can do this, anyone can! My oldest child did red hand prints. The middle child did green. The baby did two red hand prints in the bow area. And then I filled in the rest. I recommend painting the canvas background FIRST – I tried to paint it blue as an afterthought. But overall, it makes a lovely addition to their grandfather’s wall! And the kids were super proud of it.

5. Wash the kids and send them away so that you can finish the project by adding remaining artwork and words, like your child’s name, age or the year.

holiday gifts for the grands
Mistle Toes – so easy to create with footprints and mommy’s accents afterwards.

6. Let it dry, then wrap up and gift to the grandparents!

Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season!

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Alexa Bigwarfe
Alexa Bigwarfe is a mother to 3 wildlings who keep her on her toes. She is an advocate, activist, speaker, author & author coach, publisher, and podcaster. Her writing career began after her infant daughter passed away at 2 days old and she turned to writing for healing. Since then, she has used her writing platform for advocacy and activism to support mothers, children, and marginalized voices. She began a nonprofit, Sunshine After the Storm, to provide support, care, healing retreats, and grief recovery to mothers in their most difficult time. She is the creator and co-host of the Lose the Cape podcast, which features moms working to make a difference in their children's lives and has co-authored and published four volumes under the Lose the Cape brand. Her primary business is Write|Publish|Sell, a company dedicated to shepherding authors through the massive process of writing and publishing their books like a pro. She owns her own publishing house, Kat Biggie Press, and a children's book publishing company, Purple Butterfly Press - both dedicated to bringing stories of hope, inspiration, encouragement, and girl-power to the world. Learn more at alexabigwarfe.com.

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