Hand and Foot Reindeer Craft

When the winter holidays roll around, create crafts with your children to celebrate Santa's reindeer. Crafts keep kids entertained and are an excellent outlet for holiday excitement. Reindeer hand and foot crafts are easy enough for preschoolers, but offer older children the versatility to decorate. Hang your decorations around a Christmas tree or post on the fridge to show off your child's work.

Hand and Foot Reindeer Face

Trace your child's foot on a brown piece of construction paper, and trace their two hands spread wide onto white construction paper. You have the makings for an adorable reindeer face. Let your child cut out the hands and feet. The foot is the reindeer's face, with the heel part as the chin and the toes as the top of his head. Glue the two hands to the top of the reindeer's head, fingers pointed upward, to give him antlers. Let your child decorate the reindeer by affixing two googly eyes and a pom pom for a nose with tack glue. Draw a little mouth on your reindeer and he's ready to hang for decoration. Make eight so you can decorate with Santa's whole team.

Reindeer Antler Hat

Spread a child's fingers wide on craft foam and trace around his hand. Make a second hand tracing and he can have his own reindeer hat. Cut out the hands. Craft foam is very lightweight and cuts easily, so it is an excellent material for a child to work with using a rounded-edge scissor. Tack glue the bottom of the palm, fingers pointed up, on the sides of a Santa hat or ski cap. If you prefer, make a headband out of paper that snugly fits the child's head and glue the hand antlers to the headband.

Reindeer Hand and Foot Prints

Paint your child's foot with brown paint. This might get a bit messy if your child is ticklish so cover the area with a drop cloth. Give the child a piece of big paper to stand on and make a brown footprint, which will be the reindeer's face. Paint your child's hands light brown or white to press on the paper, fingers spread wide, to give your reindeer antlers on top of his head. Hand over the paint brush so your child can decorate his reindeer by painting its face.

Alternately, just paint your child's hand and make a hand print. Turned upside-down it will resemble the body of a 4-legged animal with the thumb as a long neck. Paint little antlers coming off the tip of the thumb, and a small face on the tip of the thumb. Let your child paint a holiday scene around his reindeer.

Reindeer Hoof Paint Marks

Hoof prints can be made with either hands or feet. Spread them across windows or paper with washable tempera paint, or your front walk with washable sidewalk paint. Put out a disposable plastic paint with a little paint on it. Instruct your child to make a fist and press the pinky finger side of his hand into the paint. Use as a stamp to press on surfaces. the U-shaped impression will look like a hoof. Alternately, show your child how to stamp his heels in the plate and walk. His heel prints will look like reindeer hooves. Note they will be pointing in the opposite direction than he is walking, so if you want it to look like the hoof prints are leading toward the house, guide him to walk away from the house.