During the first week of November, I traveled to visit my family for a week. While there, my mom and I started talking about Thanksgiving crafts, which left me with the desire to make a holiday t-shirt for my little ones. Immediately, we looked at Pinterest for some other turkey ideas.
You see, my mom and I like to send each other elaborate Pinterest crafts and foods that we will probably never EVER make, like a miniature turkey made up of twenty-five different candies or a teddy bear fishing. No one has time for that — well, my mom may; after all, she did make my toddler pink pancakes per her “pinkalicious” request.
While brainstorming other turkey ideas on Pinterest, we began reminiscing about childhood memories and crafts we made together as a family. For many years, we made our own Christmas sweatshirts and we always made our own holiday decorations. Milk jug? It became a jack-o’-lantern. Toilet paper roll? It became an angel and Christmas carolers. We now have lots of laughs about those decor items.
When I was a toddler, my mom also sewed lots of our clothes. When my little sister was a toddler, my mom bought a pack of white t-shirts and decorated them. This idea is brilliant because it’s cheap and you can tailor it to what your kids love at the moment!
Check out the two holiday shirts we created down below! Feel free to recreate them or create your own; the possibilities are endless with a toddler’s hand or footprint.
Thanksgiving Turkey Shirt
All you need is a t-shirt, fabric paint, and your child’s handprint! You can trace your little one’s handprint or just dip their hand in paint. My toddler did not want to dip her hand in paint, so we opted to trace her hand. We filled in the handprint with brown paint and then added the turkey’s face and legs!
Snowman Holiday T-Shirt
We decided to make a holiday themed shirt too because once you have the paint out, why not? We chose to make a snowman shirt since my toddler loves Olaf. I painted the snowman for her, while she made snow with her fingerprints.
Tips: Remember to place cardboard or a magazine in between the shirt while painting it. Also, it is best to pre-wash the t-shirt before starting your project.
The cool thing about these projects is that they are keepsake items too. Who knows, my daughter’s kiddos may wear them one day! Lily certainly loved wearing her daddy’s childhood jack-o’-lantern shirt this past year!
