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

Ladies, I cannot believe it is 4 more sleeps until Christmas. FOUR 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. 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 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 sweet baby face!

And here’s last year! The baby Jesus is what we added last year, and now it’s one of my favorites. And even though he’s 14, 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 footprints, 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 a couple of Christmas Eves ago 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!

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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That’s all for today, y’all! See you back here on Friday with our 2023 Christmas Card!

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