Christmas crafts for kids that make gifts grandparents keep

Grandparents keep almost everything a grandchild makes. Some of it lasts longer than the rest. A painted macaroni necklace goes in a drawer. An ornament with a small handprint and the year on it goes on the tree every December for years.

The gifts that last share three things: they have a place to live (the tree, a shelf, a wall), they carry the child’s name and the year, and an adult does the parts that need a steady hand. Here are three, plus a calendar that gets them finished before the last mail day.

Handprint ornaments in air-dry clay

This one takes about four days, most of it waiting.

1. Roll a ball of air-dry clay on a sheet of parchment to about a quarter inch thick.
2. Press your child’s hand into it, fingers spread, and lift straight up.
3. Cut a circle or an oval around the print with a butter knife, using a small bowl as a guide.
4. Poke a hole at the top with a drinking straw for the ribbon.
5. Write the name and year with a toothpick beside or below the print.

For a younger child, or a smaller ornament, use a thumbprint or two instead of the whole hand.

Crayola says its air-dry clay generally takes 24 hours to dry to the touch and 72 hours to dry completely, and that the size of the piece and the room it’s in can change that. Leave the ornaments on the parchment somewhere they won’t be moved, and turn them over once they’re dry to the touch so the backs dry too.

Paint them only when they’re completely dry. Crayola says thoroughly dry pieces can be painted with tempera, acrylic or watercolor. Let the paint dry overnight, then thread a ribbon through the hole.

Clear ornaments, filled with the year

Clear plastic ornaments that open into two halves turn into a small time capsule. Fill one with:

• Strips cut from a drawing or painting your child made this year.
• A small photo trimmed to fit, facing out.
• A note in your child’s handwriting, or yours if they’re too young: their name, their age, the year and one thing they loved this year.
• Paper confetti from a hole punch, in their favorite colors.

Snap the halves together and tie a ribbon through the hanging loop. This is the fastest of the three, an afternoon with no drying time, which makes it a good backup if December gets away from you.

One framed drawing, every year

Ask your child to draw or paint something for a specific grandparent: their house, their dog, the two of them doing something together. A drawing made for a person means more than one picked from the pile on the fridge.

Put it in a frame with a mat sized for 8.5 by 11 paper, the size of printer paper. The mat covers about a quarter inch on each edge, so keep the child’s name off the very edge. On the back, write the child’s name, their age, the date and what the drawing shows, in the child’s words if possible. “Grandpa and me fishing” is the kind of caption nobody remembers in ten years unless someone writes it down.

A frame also starts a tradition. Next year, a new drawing goes in the same frame, and last year’s goes behind it.

Let your child make the decisions

The gift feels like theirs when they choose the colors, the drawing, the ribbon and who gets what. The adult handles the knife, the packing and anything that would be frustrating to redo. If the handprint smudges, roll the clay back up and try again. Kids usually find the second try funny.

Plan backward from the delivery date

Most of the time goes into drying and shipping, so start with the date the gift has to arrive and count back:

• Shipping: check the carrier’s holiday deadlines and leave a few extra days.
• Clay ornaments: three days to dry, plus a day for paint.
• Filled ornaments: one afternoon.
• Framed drawing: one evening, once the drawing is done.

Starting in mid-November leaves room for a do-over. Pack ornaments in a small box with crumpled paper on every side, and wrap the frame in a towel or bubble wrap inside the shipping box.

Label everything

Every gift gets the child’s name and the year, somewhere permanent: the back of the clay, a note inside the clear ornament, the back of the frame. It’s the one step that turns a craft into something a family keeps.

What to actually buy

The clay. A 5-pound bucket of Crayola Air Dry Clay, in natural white, resealable, so you can close it between batches.

The ornaments. Twenty clear plastic fillable ornaments, 4 inches across, each made of two matching halves that separate for filling.

The paint. A Crayola washable kids’ paint set of 12, six classic colors and six glitter colors, for the paintings that go in the frame and get cut into strips for the ornaments.

The frame. An Americanflat 11 by 14 inch frame with a mat for 8.5 by 11 paper, in white, with shatter-resistant glass and hanging hardware for either direction.

Who this is not for

• If the grandparents’ walls are already full, choose the ornaments, which live in a box eleven months of the year.
• If your children are toddlers, do the handprint and a framed scribble. You press their hand into the clay, and an adult does the rest of the clay work.
• If December is already full, make the filled ornaments in one afternoon and skip the clay.

Start on any Monday

This week, write down who gets a gift and the date each one has to arrive. Choose one or two of the three.

In mid-November, start with whatever needs drying. Handprints go first, on a weekend morning, and get painted the following weekend. Fill the ornaments and frame the drawings in between, then label everything and pack it to ship.