One of the reasons I love the Christmas holiday is the traditions.

I love reviving old family traditions, and making new ones.  I love remembering fondly the things that I did as a child at Christmas time and the things I couldn’t wait to do again.

As an adult, I get to make sure our family participates in our traditions and make new ones.

Christmas Crafts!  Part Two

It is no secret I love hand and foot print art.  Last year we made these Mistletoes plates.  We gave them to some family as gifts.  I had thought we might make them again, but decided I wanted to do something different.

We made salt dough ornaments with the kids fingerprints to give to family.

OK, admittedly, I am not as pleased with them as I was with the plates.  Mostly because you can’t tell the difference between Ian’s & Sid’s thumb prints.

They are really easy, and I could make  a lot of them all at once.  Ian is much more cooperative with these projects than Sid is.  So I needed something that I could quickly make a lot.

To make these Christmas Tree Fingerprint Ornaments you will need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup water (+/-)
• rolling-pin
• cookie sheet
• paint (or food coloring)
• ribbon
• thumbs belonging to your favorite kids

Preheat oven to 250°.

Mix salt and flour together, add water a little at a time until a dough if formed.  If using food coloring to color ornaments add to water prior to mixing with four & salt.  Knead until dough becomes elastic, smooth and stickiness is gone, adding little bits of flour as needed.

Roll out dough to 1/4″ thick on a greased surface.  Use Christmas tree cookie cutter to cut out ornaments, I was able to make about 15.  Poke a hole for the ribbon at the top of the tree.

Have kids use finger/thumb prints to make ornaments on the cut out trees.

This is a good assembly line project.  Ian just went through and put two prints on each one.  I did have to tell him not to put them on the edge.

Little guys might need some help or persuading to get their thumbs on there.  Sid was not very enthusiastic about this.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 2 hours.  Remove from oven and allow to completely cool before painting.  I used whatever craft paint I had on hand.  One was acrylic and one was enamel, both worked fine.

Thread a length of ribbon through the hole and tie in order to hang up.

There is no ornament on a tree better than the ones your children make.  At least, according to me.

What are your Christmas Traditions?