What Are Your Kids Making for Parent Gifts?

[lovemykidstoo]

I always dislike this time of year when I have to come up with an idea for a christmas gift for the kids to make for their parents. I know I don't have to do it, but I do know the parents appreciate it. I just run out of ideas. I have from 8 months up to 4 1/2 years old and the majority being 2 to 3. Help!

[Indoorvoice]

I have simplified this for myself by doing the same thing every year. We download templates from makit.com and I let the kids decorate a plate template and then I just upload them on my computer and order the plates. The company takes my downloads and turns each template into a plate that they ship for me. It's $9 a plate. We then make some easy goodies together and fill up the plates. The parents love seeing the progression of their artwork from year to year and it is so easy. You probably still have time to get them done before Christmas if you do it within the next couple days.

[sharlan]

Nothing.

Last week we made salt dough ornaments. One was a green tree with fingerprint lights. The other was a green tree covered in green glitter.

Parent #1 - oh these are cute.

Parent #2 - what are they?

[Indoorvoice]

For the babies who can't decorate the templates themselves, I just trace their handprints and add a few polka dots. Voila.

[littlefriends]

I’m actually not doing parent gifts this year. Almost all of my parents are awful and I just don’t see the point in doing it this year. I’ve been struggling to get mine to even listen to basic rules and nearly every day have to turn someone away at the door for something or remind them they can’t do something, remind them payment is due, or fuss at their little even tho they’re standing right there witnessing them act horrible. My party is even not getting a sign up sheet after several of them signing up to bring/do things for our Halloween party and then “forgetting”. I am planning and buying/doing everything for our Christmas party myself and won’t be doing a gift exchange because last year’s gift exchange I had several parents “forget” and ended up having to forage through my own kid’s stuff I’d gotten for their stocking stuffers so that those dc littles wouldn’t get left out when it was time to open presents.

[Meeko]

Nothing.

I have the kids help me bake (last year was apple bread) and each family got a loaf.

I gave up on the kids making gifts because the parents made it miserable.

"Can you make one for (ex-husband) too? He'll throw a fit if I get something and he doesn't."

"Oh good! Now we don't have to buy anything for Mommy! (Father about ex wife)"

"Umm...the dog ate the gift yesterday. Can you make another one with Snowflake?"

"If I buy you the supplies, will you make 17 more of them for my extended family's kids...?"

I've heard it all over the years.

So now it's baked goods and a smile. Done.

[CalCare]

Each child is planting a marigold in a pot to take home. It can be a parent gift or not if families are divorced, I send it home with the household I like better.... Lol jk. I luckily don't have any divorced ones. 😄🤗

[LittleExplorers]

I cut a tree out of cardstock and had the kids paint it. For infants, it went in a Ziploc with the paint. I will laminate and add a ribbon to make it an ornament.

I also did a reindeer footprint/handling combo on canvas. I have things like this from my kiddos and cherish them. I have great families and love Christmas.

[Aussiedaycare]

We are making 'Christmas Balls', four different versions of rumless rum balls. Children will mix ingredients, roll into balls, put each one into a Christmas theme patty case and then put into a small box that they have already decorated. Each family will get about 20 balls each that way if they want to share they can. I have exceptional parents so we are also making some homemade dog treats that the children will cut out with Christmas themed cookie cutters and put in a little cellophane bag I bought from the $1 store. All families have dogs and all my families buy a small Christmas gift for my dogs and participate in the pound dog donation bin I have running from home so I thought that tied in nicely yet was fun and relatively easy for the children to do.

[lovemykidstoo]

I cut a tree out of cardstock and had the kids paint it. For infants, it went in a Ziploc with the paint. I will laminate and add a ribbon to make it an ornament.

I also did a reindeer footprint/handling combo on canvas. I have things like this from my kiddos and cherish them. I have great families and love Christmas.

Do you happen to have a pic of the reindeer canvas? What size canvas and is it the footprint and then the hands for antlers?

[BrynleeJean]

I've only got one infant so far
so we will be doing a photo ornament with tinsel stuffed in the back and maybe a mistletoe feet card with a Bible verse in it. lovethis

[Blackcat31]

Nothing.

Christmas is one of those holidays I prefer to leave to families to celebrate their own way.

Other than having the daycare kids collect for a designated charity each year and having a little holiday party before my 12 day vacation we don't do anything out of the norm.

Our "party" is usually just a day of baking and eating.

[Josiegirl]

The dcks painted jars and then painted their hand prints to make Santas on the jars. I'm going to spray them with clear sealer one of these nights and they'll fill the jars with Peanut Butter Chocolate Christmas Bark. They also made cards, using their finger prints to make little reindeer, a sleigh and Santa, then they either drew what they wanted inside or painted their hands and we made snowmen out of them. Came out really cute! The 6 mo...I painted his feet today on a canvas, one was white(was going to make it into a snowman but it turned into a 3 footed print Lol), 1 in green to turn into a Christmas tree and the other black to turn into a penguin. But because of the 3 footed snowman we're doing a do-over tomorrow. And I thought foot prints would be so much easier than hand prints for an infant. I love the zip-loc bag idea and might do that with him too!
I've got some pumpkin breads in the freezer and will be making apple breads through the rest of this week, for parents.
I bought the dcks all gifts but might just send them home to be unwrapped with parents; we're not going to have much time at a party to do much at all. We'll have treats and maybe decorate graham cracker houses OR cone trees. The trees sound so much easier this year. I'm losing steam.

[e.j.]

I bought some small, hanging chalkboard signs at Walmart. I've added the kids' footprints with white paint. Now that they're dry, I have to add snowman features to the footprints and then wording that says, "As long as you love me so...." (on the top) and "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." (below the "snowmen")

[storybookending]

Needavaycay where you at girl? Second year in a row I’ve stolen her ideas from the previous year.

Let me preface this by saying that I have a wonderful group of parents that are all so appreciative and respectful of me and my business so I enjoy doing things like this for the holidays.

This year we made these with the attached poem explaining that each snowman is the height of each individual child.