Christmas
Making ornaments out of clay is both easy and mess free. All that you do to get started is to choose clay that will harden when dry. You want clay that will not become too brittle when hard either so look for a brand that is specifically meant to be dried. You may want to use a homemade dough recipe that you are familiar with. Also keep in mind that you may have some color options to choose from or you can add your own color to clay by using food coloring. Roll out your clay to about 1/4 inch thick. If you wish use a large star or other holiday cookie cutter to shape the outside of the ornament. Poke a hole in the top of your shape with a straw so that a ribbon can be strung through it and hung on the tree once the ornament is dry. Push your child’s hand down on each star to make the handprint. When dry, you can paint these ornaments or even spray them with glitter paint.
Thanksgiving
You can make a turkey or a turkey wreath out of handprints by simply using paint to make a handprint or by tracing the hand and then cutting the hand print out. Using the print of the thumb as the head of the turkey and the rest of the fingers as the feathers of the turkey, decorate your Thanksgiving bird. You can use the individual birds as decorations or as place cards for your Thanksgiving meal. Make a whole flock of Thanksgiving turkeys and arrange them in a circle to make a Thanksgiving turkey wreath out of handprints. This same concept can be applied to any holiday, just use handprint cutouts in the colors that best represent the holiday that you are decorating for (i.e. for Christmas use green and red construction paper hand print cutouts).
Easter
One of the most popular animals that we see around Easter time is the baby chicken or chick. Using nothing more than a thumb print you can make the body shape of a tiny chick or use a handful of fingertip prints to make a large group of Easter chicks. Draw the faces onto the chicks to complete the project. Easter is also a time when flowers are in bloom. You can use your hand prints to make a bouquet of blooming handprint flowers or try to make a print that resembles a specific spring flower. Lilies can be reproduced quite simply by positioning the fingers in a position that mimics the large pedals of this flower.
Halloween
Give your Halloween bag some character by re-using an old canvas bag and decorating it with handprints. Use the hand prints as the bases for the bodies of scary monsters. Or turn finger prints into pieces of candy by using markers or paint to color wrappers around the prints. You can make your ordinary handprints look much creepier by using a paint brush to elongate or distort the fingers on the handprints that you make. Use paint that glows in the dark to create an even spookier look.