Christmas Hand-Print Art, a Christmas Home Tour, and an Easy and Beautiful Christmas Dessert

Ladies, I cannot believe it is 3 more sleeps until Christmas. THREE MORE SLEEPS. My word this year has flown by. And the month? Wasn’t it Thanksgiving just yesterday?

Well, today is about all things festive. We’re talking Christmas hand-print art, a Christmas recipe, and a Christmas home tour!

The majority of today’s post is actually a blog post from 2020, but I get requests every year for a Christmas home tour, and I decorated my house the same this year as last (and the year before). I also always get questions for a post link to our handprint art, so here you have both in 1 place!

Please enjoy this festive little post….

CHRISTMAS HAND-PRINT ART

Let’s start out with my favorite Christmas decorations in our home, the hand-print art that our family has made together over the years.

Making these canvases is definitely one of my very favorite traditions. We started with the Christmas tree when Carter was 3, and we’ve obviously done several since. He loves doing them, and I love thinking about him having these when he has his own family. Chris and I get it on the fun too sometimes to make the pieces even more special. This is a pic from several years ago.  Look at that baby face!

And here’s this year! The baby Jesus is what we added last year, and now it’s one of my favorites. Even though he’s 13, I think I might be able to squeeze at least 1 more canvas out of him that he paints. He knows they are my very favorite Christmas decorations to pull out each year, so he’s sweet to keep humoring me.

When he was little, Carter would do the hand or foot prints, and then I would finish painting the canvases. Last year’s baby Jesus in the manger was all Carter.  I showed him an inspiration picture I’d found on Pinterest, and he ran with it.

Here’s a straight on shot of all of them for you to get a good look!

I basically just search “hand-print art” on Pinterest and then use the images I find as inspiration. Most of our canvases are all paint, but the Santa face and the snowmen family also incorporate scrapbook paper that I added with Mod Podge. The Christmas tree is all of Carter’s 3 year old little hands on top of each other, and the Christmas lights are his fingerprints! The snowman family is all of our feet (with scrapbook paper scarves and hats), and the red birds are mine and Carter’s hands.

You can pick up canvases at a local craft store (I get mine at Hobby Lobby), or you can order canvases of varying sizes HERE. We just use regular ol’ acrylic paint, and we hang them up with these handy dandy velcro strips, which are totally easy to use and don’t leave any residue behind.

Here are the proud artists last Christmas Eve with their baby Jesus masterpieces.

And here’s a picture of the proud artist several years ago. My foot is Mary, Chris’s foot is Joseph, and Carter’s foot is the angel. Carter’s hand-prints are also the animals.

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CHRISTMAS DESSERT/APPETIZER

Each and every year, one of my favorite traditions is attending the girl’s Christmas party that Shay hosts. Several years ago the theme was Ugly Christmas Sweaters, we all brought appetizers, and I won the recipe contest!

This recipe could easily fall under both “dessert” and/or “appetizer”.

Click HERE for the recipe. If you can even call it that. You layer 3 items: Softened cream cheese, caramel, and Heath pieces (without chocolate). I bought the caramel sauce in a tub by the apples in the produce section, and I bought the Heath pieces already chopped up like that in the baking aisle (by the chocolate chips).

I piled up the layers in a pretty pie plate, placed the plate on a wooden platter, and surrounded it with red and green apples. A big shout out to Jill (one of my high school besties) who gave me the recipe. She said it was always a crowd pleaser, and boy was she right.  Love you, Jill!

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CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR

And although I didn’t take these pics this year, my house looks just about the same.

There’s pretty much nothing I love more than being cuddled up on the couch during the Christmas season with my family. Stockings are hung, a fire is typically going, and twinkle lights give a glow to everything. But we’ll get to the family room in a minute…let’s start in the kitchen!

I grew up with my mom pulling a nutcracker collection out every year at Christmas, but I’d never had any of my own. When I saw this little guy, I scooped him up immediately because I loved his little pinecone hat and skirt.  He looks so regal!

I like to set up little vignettes, and the wooden tray was the perfect station to house some festive plates and mugs.

This little flocked tree makes it feel like Christmas and the cozy reindeer makes me smile.

This entire station has us ready for cozy nights at home, just soaking up family time together.

Festive kitchen towels are an inexpensive way to freshen up a space as the season changes.

There are several little touches I added throughout the family room as well.

My favorite little area just might be the live poinsettias in this vintage red box.

And who doesn’t love a truck with a tree.

Pom Pom garlands and a Merry Christmas banner make the mantle so festive.

Carter loves decorating the tree, so he always gets in on the fun.

One of our favorite traditions as a family is adding a new ornament to the tree every year for Carter. We always pick something that signifies the year in some way.

This makes decorating the tree each year extra special because we get to take a walk down memory lane! We always write the year on the ornament, so as we are decorating, we can remember when and why we bought the ornament. This was from my girl’s trip to NYC. We all picked up an NYC ornament at the flagship Macy’s on 5th Avenue!

Here’s another old pic, but I had to post it again since this was the last year Carter wore Christmas pajamas.  I sure do miss those days.

I just love how everything is sparkly and cozy at night.

He looks so little here!  I promise to crank out a new home tour next year.

    

Carter has always loved Christmas decorations, and so I always look forward to spending this time with him. When he was 2 and 3, he cried his eyes out when we had to take the tree down in January. No more tears when we have to take it all down, but his eyes sure do sparkle when we get to put it all up.

That’s it for today, y’all!

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