advice for parents christmas pressie please!

[little miss chatterbox]

Hi, I am getting my mindee's to decorate a canvass for their parents for xmas but I'm a bit unsure what to do.

I have a 16 month old little girl and a 26 month old boy.

The girl one I have painted with metallic lilac and the boys is a pearlised green.

However I'm not sure whether to help them to do a footprint'handprint angel, get them to decorate it themselves with their handprints with minimal help from me or get them to fingerpaint it.

Obviously the last choice will be a bit of a mess and the parents might not want it on their walls but it will be their child's own work!

I like the angel idea and think it will look fab but that will be mostly my work using their hands and feet!

what would you all do?

[jumpinjen]

I'd do their own work, as if it was me, that is what I'd want on my wall, but if you think that they will get it out once a year at Christmas time to hang up, the angel idea sounds cute..... what a lovely idea overall I think!!! Perhaps if you go the angel route and let them do a free hand christmas card you get the best of both worlds??

jen

[gegele]

i did both LOL i done nice handprint on canvas with child name and age and the i let the kids do their own work with their hands (11 and 17months)
parents loved it and mum too own art to work and canvas isat home on wall!!

[Desi-101]

Such a lovely gift idea, if I was the parent I would cherish whichever one you decide to go with. Keep in mind that working parents don't have time to do these kind of things with their kids. I also like the angel idea, even though you are supervising it, it's their feet and hand prints and its nice to see how small their feet/hands were when they are all grown up

[helenlc]

As much as the footprints/handprints are a nice keepsake and a memory of their growth etc, I would go with the finger printing/painting.

I did it last year for Father's Day. LOs were 19 mths and 4 yrs old. They literally just had a canvas and I provided paints and brushes and off they went - it was entirely their own work.

Mum said the following week that dad absolutely loved them!!! No, they might not display it in their front room!!! But I bet they will display it somewhere.

[Daisy1956]

Both ideas are great,I helped the children to make christmas tree decorations using clay and then they painted, them one little one painted hers a mucky greeny/brown colour not very christmassy but mum loved it.