Make Christmas art with your Children

Do you have those special Christmas cards or ornaments that either you made as a child, or your own children have made? It’s not the actual artistic merit that makes those so valuable and priceless to us. Few of us are Michelangelo, nor are our children Leonardo daVinci. The attribute that makes us hang onto popsicle glitter stars and play dough Christmas trees is this: they represent a memory and a relationship. We remember the moment we made that thing and the joy and pride we felt creating it. Or we remember the shining smiles on our kids’ faces as they presented that creation to us--perhaps wrapped up for us under the Christmas tree.

Making a tradition of creating Christmas art with children is an act of building and has three important benefits you don’t want to miss as you journey this road to your Christmas celebration. You don’t want to waste this opportunity to create together, because you are investing in the relationship you want to have with your kids in the future. That’s one reason family traditions are so important--they build relationships. Making Christmas art is just one tradition you can start today. 

Why go to the trouble of doing art together at Christmastime? I can think of at least three reasons:

First, we make art together to strengthen the relationship between adults and children, and between siblings as we make warm, silly, hilarious, and affectionate memories together. You are building a foundation for future years: connection with your family.  The time to build that foundation is now. Making something is often messy and sometimes funny. But the mess and the planning is worth it. You can laugh about that memory next year and yearly add to it until you have a tradition that will be built into your kids’ character.  I remember one year we decided to make Sculpey nativity figures. They were little blobs of clay arranged on our table-Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus…more or less recognizable, kind of lumpy, but everyone enjoyed making them and displaying them.

This Christmas tree I made out of clay in kindergarten and the one that one of our kids painted never fail to make me smile:

But the one that makes me laugh every year is this ornament from my daughter:

The second reason we want to make a tradition of making Christmas art with your kids is that adding meaning to the season as we think and create about the symbols of the holiday is easy and natural when you are creating together. When you are talking about the Christmas story and the many symbols you can incorporate into your art, you are connecting art to the meaning of Christmas. (it would take a whole other post to discuss all the symbols built into the Christmas story-but here’s one for example making a star shining that reminds us of the light that came into this dark world, the light of God’s love, light dispelling darkness.) Here's a star one of our kids made one year out of wire.

Finally, we create to give joy to someone else as we gift our creations, which helps form spiritual development-we reflect the heart of God to others as we share our art. One year our Christmas card was an angel painting that I let the kids make--we made a zillion of them to mail-and despite the painty mess to clean up, everyone still remembers that afternoon of painting and people who received those cards loved them! Our card was from this book, which is out of print but here's a similar one. 

Need a Christmas art idea to do with your children? 

Make a manger picture either to hang up or turn into a card. All your family will need is a piece of dark construction paper  and some white and yellow oil pastels. For making cards, I like buying a value pack like this one. (this comes in white, black, colors, and brown)

1. For a card, fold paper in half. For a wall hanging, leave whole paper.
2. Draw a rectangle.
3. Add a small and a larger half circle on top of the rectangle.
4. Add 2 X’s under the rectangle.
5. Add some short curved lines under the X’s and under the half circles.
6. Draw a star shape over the half circles however you want to:

1. V shapes around a tiny circle
2. Cross with X through it 
3. Circle with cross with X
4. 5 pointed star

7. Go over the star outline pressing hard. Go over the half circles (baby Jesus) pressing hard.
8. Using outward strokes, rub your finger in outward directions around your star and your baby. 

Give your card away, or frame and hang.

Merry Christmas to all of you! I pray that the joy of the Christ child will fill your hearts, homes, and family relationship with a growing love for each other and the neighbors around you. 

Make something and give it away this week, and you’ve got yourself the beginnings of a wonderful family tradition to strengthen your relationships and build emotional connections for the future. 

Interested in more drawing and art for kids ideas? Go to https://www.storygalorey.com/online-art-classes

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