Christmas Name Art

Turn on the holiday music and challenge the kids to turn the letters in their names into Christmas icons. Like all good name art projects, this works with any name and is a fun and creative activity. Affiliate links below. 

Christmas Name Art

Materials:

• Neenah Bristol Vellum
• Ohuhu Kaala Illustration markers
• Sakura fineliner

Steps: 

Use a pencil to lightly write your name in block letters on a piece of bristol vellum. Sketch in details to turn each letter into something associated with Christmas. I made my C into a candy cane, the I into a snowman, the N into gingerbread, the D into a gift, and the Y into an oddly skinny Santa. Other ideas include: an elf, snow on a chimney top, an angel, a reindeer, a sugar cookie, or tree lights. Certain letters are perfect for specific shapes, like a stocking for J or a Christmas tree for A. Feel free to mix upper- and lowercase letters to get the shapes you want. Anything goes!

Once you are happy with your design, color it in. Erase any stray pencil marks, then outline your design with a fineliner. 

Candy Cane Taste Test

This year, many of my friends and family received a Candy Cane Taste Test for Christmas. 

The idea was inspired by my sister. For years, Kari has said she doesn't want anything that isn't consumable. (I'm super proud of the edible Seinfeld-themed gift I got her a few years ago.) In September, she said she just wanted a big basket of snack food for Christmas. For the next three months, every time I found an interesting and/or new-to-me snack food, I bought some and tossed it in her basket. 

Along the way, I found some really unique flavors of candy canes. I bought a few packs, thinking I'd pull out a few for Kari, keep one for each of us, and use the rest to decorate other people's gifts. Well, as time went on, I kept finding more and more totally unusual flavors of candy canes. Eventually, I found 24 different ones (23 pictured here):

They include flavors such as hot cocoa, Dr. Pepper, Red Hots, Orange Crush, Sour Patch Kids, and more. With 12 candy canes in a box and 24 different flavors, it was a bit unreasonable to split them just between Kari and the three of us. And that's when I decided to give a bunch of friends a mystery pack of candy canes. 

I used letter stickers to label each candy cane and kept a master list for myself.

I cut chipboard into rectangles and cut cardboard tubes into 2-inch rounds. I painted each black, then used a hot glue gun to attach the tubes to the base. I printed out labels and filled each tube with an assortment of candy canes.

Each person got ten different flavors and instructions to tell me when they're ready to make their guesses.

I was completely unprepared on Christmas morning when my family pooled their candy canes and broke one of each unique flavor to share before 9:00 am! I had to email them the answers when I got home that evening. Other friends have asked for answers one by one, while others have given me their whole list at once. It's been a lot of fun. I highly recommend doing your own candy cane taste test next year!