A friend of mine had a fabulous idea this week that I immediately borrowed (Thanks, Teri!): Paint a Christmas tree on a sliding glass door!
We are going to be celebrating Christmas while visiting relatives this year, so had not planned on putting up a tree. The expense and hassle of rearranging the living room, getting a tree, and pulling out all the ornaments did not seem worth the short amount of time we would be able to leave up a tree, but I was feeling blue about not having something for the kids (and for me - I love to decorate trees). The perfect solution: tempura paint.
My 5-yr-old and 2-yr-old helped me paint 2 trees on our back door this morning. This was one project where they really did HELP - not the kind of help that makes what you are doing take 3x as long - and we all had a blast. The base coat is drying now, and when they are done napping we will paint on some decorations. I tried to paint some decorations on as we went, but the colors mix when they are wet. We also spent another couple hours this morning drawing, coloring and cutting out paper decorations to tape on the tree.
Here is the work in progress:
See the newspapers on the floor? Use lots and lots of newspapers or other drop cloth - the younger your helpers the more you will probably need :-) Also it is good to have either a roll of paper towels or a pile of wipes or moistened cloths in reach just in case. Tempura washes out of cloth, but is a little bit of a hassle to remove from carpet.
We used tempura paints, regular paint brushes and a wide sponge "brush" for our little guy... his fancy work is on the lower right corner of the tall tree. The smaller tree is entirely my 5-yr-old's creation.
If you have older kids, or babies too young to participate and want to take on the project just for your own amusement, you can also use acrylic paints. Check out some information from a professional window decorator for some more tips HERE.
Our finished product, with paper snowflakes and ornaments:
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