Christmas Hand-Print Art and an Easy and Beautiful Christmas Dessert!

Ladies, I cannot believe it is only two more sleeps until Christmas. TWO 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 AND a Christmas recipe, and I even have a handful of Santa Alerts at the end. I’ve started posting this same post every year, because every year at this time I get tons of questions about the art and the dessert.

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 got in on the fun a couple of times when he was younger to make the pieces even more special. This is a pic from several years ago.  Look at that sweet baby face!

And here’s 3 years ago! The baby Jesus is the latest we added a couple of years ago, and now it’s one of my favorites. At 14, he wasn’t really into the handprint art anymore, but he was willing to paint a canvas because he knows these canvases are my very favorite Christmas decorations to pull out each year. He’s very sweet to keep humoring me.

When he was little, Carter would do the hand or footprints, and then I would finish painting the canvases. The 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 (most can be delivered today or tomorrow)! 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 several Christmas Eves ago with their baby Jesus masterpieces.

And here’s a picture of sweet Carter many 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.

If you have little ones, I really encourage you to start this tradition with your kiddos. Not only will you have sweet memories of making the canvases together, but they will bring you tremendous joy every single year when you pull them out.

 

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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!

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!

You can find some pretty pie plates (with fast delivery) HERE and a super similar wooden board (that arrive tomorrow) HERE. You can have everything you need to make the presentation for this beautiful dessert in plenty of time for Christmas day or Christmas Eve.

 

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That’s all for now, ladies! Now go soak up some JOY and Christmas spirit!

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