Easy Handprint Reindeer Craft for Preschoolers
Who loves a cute Reindeer Craft? I do! I especially love reindeers, or Rudolph Crafts that have handprint antlers. SO FUN! And a super cute way to create a little handprint Christmas Keepsake for Grandparents (or Mom and Dad!!). Your toddler and preschoolers will love creating their own handprint antlers and combine these with some popsicle sticks to make this cute holiday craft.
Now, as you can probably see from the images.. I couldn’t quite decide if OUR reindeer should have some Christmas Baubles on it or not. I love how they BOTH look. So I guess it is a question of time and supplies for you. When working with younger kids (especially toddlers), you often have to do the cutting out for them, whilst they get to have fun with sticking! So if you want to cut the paper Christmas lights (I layered the paper and them all in one go), why not! Or keep it simple and leave your reindeer be!
This is part of a collection fo Christmas Handprint Crafts AND Craft Stick Crafts. I couldn’t resist combing these two themes together. We love saving all our ice lolly sticks – washing and drying them for crafting… and over the years, I realised that we had accumulated rather a lot of them. So this holiday season, I got a little popsicle stick crafting mad… in fact.. we have a whole set here:
We made some Handprint Popsicle Stick Angels some Handprint Christmas Gnomes (but also some Fall Gnomes) and of course our cute Handprint Popsicle Stick Reindeer today! But you can also use popsicle sticks to make these cute Christmas Popsicle Crafts – the Button Popsicle Stick Snowflakes and the Popsicle Stick Suncatcher Stars and regular craft stick stars.
But I digress! Back to the task on hand and our cute Handprint Reindeer Craft for preschoolers!
Supplies needed for Handprint Reindeer Craft:
- 3 popsicle sticks per reindeer
- A tracing of your child’s hands
- Two toned brown paper (though of course youc an make your reindeer any color you wish)
- Scraps of colored paper if you wish to add Christmas lights or baubles
- Scraps of white paper & a black marker pen for eyes
- A red pom pom! You can use a piece of red paper instead!
- Pair of scissors
- Glue stick
How to make a Handprint Popsicle Reindeer Craft:
A video tutorial is also available on auto play.
The handprint antlers
Start off by prepping the child’s handprint antlers. If you are working with older children, the handprint antlers are likely to get quite big… so you may want to use some jumbo craft sticks instead, or instead of the craft sticks, use some brown card or corrugated card!
Trace one hand on some folded paper and cut out – you will cut two out at the same time. Alternatively, you can print your child’s hands using paints. And then roughly cut these out once fully dried. If you would like the preschooler to practice their cutting skills, it is probably easyer to roughly cut out a print, than to cut out an exact trace!
How to make the reindeer’s head using popsicle sticks
Make a triangle shape with your popsicles on your other piece of brown paper. This is a great time to discuss triangles and shapes with your preschoolers.
Once laid out in the right place, take each popsicle stick in turn and using plenty of glue stick glue, glue in place.
Next cut out the triangle reindeer face. Place with your handprint antlers.. and already the reindeer craft is coming together!
Reindeer Face and Assembly
Now cut out some circles or ovals for the reindeer’s eyes and draw on some black pupils with your marker pen. Of course you can use googly eyes or sticker eyes instead. I like this method as it is eco friendly!
Play around with positioning the features on the face. I thought we may add some rosy cheeks but then decided against them.
Once you are happy with the layout of your reindeer craft, glue in place with more glue stick. A good amount of glue stick will secure the pom pom too.
The basic reindeer craft is finished! I then had a play with some paper to see if I wanted to add some Christmas baubles/ Christmas lights:
I cut out several layers of colorful construction paper in one go and then add some black details with my felt tip pen!
I decided that YES I like the colorful bauble addition, but wasn’t so sure about the string. The string would work, if you create this handprint reindeer as a collage!
Isn’t this popsicle reindeer adorable? As mentioned, I think this set of popsicle crafts is great for preschoolers, as you can explore the triangle shape with them, as well has fun with keepsake handprints.
Don’t these two look adorable together?
Aren’t they are great way to explore triangle shapes with preschoolers? So fun AND they make a great keepsake Christmas craft too.
In the meantime, why not check out the rest of our collection of Reindeer Crafts for Preschoolers! I adore the simple origami reindeers included, as well as the clever orange slice reindeer ornament. TOO CUTE!! Or if you are after some more Christmas Handprint Crafts or craft stick crafts, check this collection:
