Christmastime is nearly here and we’re ready to celebrate with tons of fun crafts for kids.

Kids love creating handprint crafts and since Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer is one of the most iconic characters of the Christmas season we knew we needed to start with him.

This handprint reindeer craft is perfect for young kids of all ages from toddlers to preschoolers to elementary aged children.

It’s also super simple and uses common supplies like card stock, glue, and craft punches.

If you’re looking for a fun and easy Christmas craft for kids, read on below to see how easy it is to make this craft with your family.

And if you want more ideas, check out all of our reindeer crafts for kids!

Reindeer Handprint Craft

Handprint crafts are some of our favorite crafts to make at our house..

Kids love to see their hands magically transform into a cool new art project and parents love to have a way to preserve those little handprints for the future!

This Christmas handprint craft is great because it doesn’t use paint so you don’t have to worry about making a mess.

Reindeer Craft Supplies

• Colored paper or cardstock (red, dark brown, light brown, pink)
• White cardstock
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Reindeer template (enter email in the form for download link)
• Pencil

Directions

Print out reindeer template on white cardstock, trace onto the colored paper and cut out all the pieces. If you’re making this craft with several children, print the 2nd template out on the coordinating colored paper and skip the tracing!

Begin making the reindeer head by gluing the inner ears in the middle of the reindeer ears.

Next, glue the eyes to the center of the reindeer head.

Glue the big, red nose just below the eyes, near the bottom of the head.

Place the small pink cheeks on either side of the nose, by the bottom of the eyes, and glue in place.

If using, glue the small brown eyebrows just about the eyes.

Trace your child’s hand onto the dark brown paper two times and cut each handprint out.

Add glue to the bottom of the child’s handprints and glue behind the reindeer’s head, with each hand slightly angled outward.

That’s it! Isn’t this such a cute Christmas craft for kids?!

If you’d like, you can also draw on a smile with a marker under Rudolph’s nose.

Rudolph Handprint Craft For Classrooms

This reindeer papercraft is pretty simple, but if you’re working with young kids like preschoolers and PreK kids there are a few adaptations you can make to help things go smoothly.

My number one recommendation when working with several small children is to have all the shapes pre-cut ahead of time.

If all your pieces are ready to go when the children start, it’ll be much easier to show the kids where to glue all the pieces.

If you have toddlers (or lots of children) you could even have the entire reindeer face preassembled and glued together. Then all the kids would have to do is trace their hand, cut it out and glue it onto the head.

Do keep in mind that if the children aren’t able to cut out their handprints, they’ll need some adult help with that part as well.

Another option to simplify this craft even more is to use the handprint antlers, but then have the kids draw on all the other pieces.

This way there’s no additional cutting needed or glue. Just set out some markers and let them go to town!

Christmas Unit For Kids

Don’t let the fun stop here! Create an entire Christmas themed unit to go with this reindeer craft. Below are some of our favorite ideas to get you started.

Reading to your kids (or students) is so awesome for their development! It can help with vocabulary, help foster a love of books, improve focus and so much more!

For all these reasons, we recommend starting any new unit with books.

Below are some of the top Christmas books to read to your kids.

Dasher: This wonderfully illustrated Christmas book for kids gives you the back story on one of Santa’s favorite reindeer, Dasher! Girls will especially love to read this since Dasher is a girl.

Construction Site On Christmas Night: Fans of the fun characters of the construction site books have to add this Christmas themed story to their collection. See how the trucks get ready for Christmas!

How To Catch An Elf: Kids everywhere love the silliness of this Christmas story. The rhymes and the illustrations will draw the kids in as well. This is a Christmas book kids will want to read every year!

Crafting is a popular activity for kids because it boosts their creativity and fine motor skills. Crafting can also be a fun way to relieve stress and is good for family bonding.

Try some more of our favorite Christmas crafts:

• Christmas Tree Paper Bag Puppet Craft
• Photo Gingerbread Man Craft
• Popsicle Stick Grinch Craft
• Buddy The Elf Ornament Craft

Kids will love these Christmas do a dot printables! These are perfect for preschool and kindergarten-aged children. They’re great for practicing counting and fine motor skills, too. There’s also letter recognition practice in here to help your kiddos!

These Christmas pattern block mats are perfect to use as a fun quiet time activity for young kids. Kids can work on their fine motor skills while learning shapes and colors!

This nativity play dough kit or nutcracker play dough set is perfect to get the kids in the holiday spirit. It’s made with natural ingredients and has lots of fun pieces to encourage play. It’s great for open ended play, encourages fine motor skills, exploration, creativity and supports cognitive development!

Share With Us

Did you make this handprint craft with your child or class? If so, we’d love for you to share it with us on our Facebook page. 

Don’t forget to enter your email in the form below to have the reindeer template link emailed directly to you.

More Christmas Ideas For Kids

Free Reindeer Template Download