Welcome to another Wacky Workshops project – making reindeer.

This may surprise you but Rudolph barely made it into existence.

That wonderful reindeer with the bright red nose was created in 1939 by Robert L. May for a Chicago-based company, Montgomery Ward. The retailer used to buy and give away colouring books and decided it would be cheaper to create their own.

Originally Rudolph was going to be a moose, but it was decided a reindeer would be friendlier.

His name was going to be Rollo or Reynold but eventually, his creator decided on Rudolph.

And finally, May had to fight with management to keep the red nose as red, shiny noses were closely associated with alcoholism and drunkenness.

So we’re actually lucky to have Santa’s ninth reindeer.

His story became so popular that the now famous song was written about him and he has featured in comics, children’s books, television shows and films.

We’re going to honour that wonderful character by replicating him in four different ways.

REINDEER TO MAKE

If you have been following me on Facebook you will have seen this craft. I post a new tip every Tuesday so be sure and follow me so you don’t miss out.

2. PRINT REINDEER

SUPPLIES

• A small hand and foot
• Paper or cardstock (you could make these into Christmas cards)
• Brown and red paint
• Googly eyes (because they’re fun)
• Glue
• A basin filled with soapy water and a towel – best to have these things ready to avoid painted footprints all over the house.

METHOD

• Have your paper or cardstock laying vertically – in portrait mode.
• Spread the brown paint onto a flat pallet – I use old ice cream container lids.
• Carefully place child’s foot in the paint and then carefully place it (toes facing towards the top of the page) on the paper or cardstock, towards the bottom of the page.
• Wash and dry foot

• Place one of the child’s hands in the paint then place it (fingers facing towards the top of the page) on top of the footprint to form reindeer antlers.
• Repeat with the other hand.
• When the paint is dry, glue on the eyes and paint a bright red nose, or glue on a red pompom.

3. REINDEER PLANTERS

These gorgeous reindeer planters can be made without the antlers and red nose to be pony planters when it’s not Christmastime.

SUPPLIES

• Two foam cups
• 1 paddle pop stick
• Brown paint
• Paintbrush
• Glue
• Tape
• Googly eyes
• Rope
• Red pompom
• 2 little sticks with branches

METHOD

• Gently push the paddle pop stick through the foam cup about 2 ½ cm (an inch) from the top.

• Tape the other end inside the other cup so that the first cup (the head) is sitting perpendicularly on top of the second
• Paint both cups – don’t be too worried about the brush strokes as they can represent the reindeer’s hair.
• Cut the rope into 3 or 4 pieces and use tape to attach to the upright cup (the body), opposite to the head cup to form a tail.

• Glue on the eyes.
• Fashion triangular ears from brown paper (or the tape if your’s is brown like mine was) and attach with tape.
• Gently push the sticks into the head cup, just in front of the ears, for the antlers.
• Glue on the red nose.

Now, as the cup is foam and is, therefore, waterproof, this planter can be filled with dirt and a plant or filled with water and fresh flowers.

If you omit the antlers and change the pompom colour to black or brown, you have a pony planter. 🙂

4. FINGERPRINT REINDEER

I love these little reindeer and the kids love making them too. It works best with an ink pad so be prepared with a bit of finger scrubbing afterwards, but paint doesn’t show up the cute little prints as well.

SUPPLIES

• Tiny fingers
• Ink pads
• Cardstock
• Tiny, tiny googly eyes
• Thin black marker
• Red marker (you have to have a smiley face on the reindeer and you really need that red nose!)
• Sparkly bits to glue on the card
• Glue

METHOD

• Place pointer finger on the ink pad to cover with ink
• Carefully place the finger on paper horizontally and press down
• Reload the finger with more ink.
• Place the finger vertically at one end of the other print so that they are touching.
• The first print is the reindeer body so use the marker to draw legs and tails.
• The second print is the head so use the marker to draw ears and antlers. Don’t forget to make a red smiley face.
• If you have super tiny googly eyes, glue them on. If not, draw them on.
• You can put as many reindeer on the paper as you want
• Now the great reward for being patient during post-project finger scrubbing time is to use all the sparkly bits to glue around the fingerprint reindeer to add colour to your picture, or card.

Hope you enjoyed these crafts. If you did be sure to share on Facebook and Pinterest.

You can find more fun Christmas crafts in the Christmas subheading in Wacky Workshops in the menu.

Check out my Pinterest board for more great Christmas crafts to make.

Happy crafting, and have a gleeful week, Tamuria.