Kids' Hallmark: Made by Hand - The Washington Post

IT'S THE HOLIDAY season-a time for exchanging greetings,entertaining friends and relatives, and, of course, giving andreceiving surprises! If you have children in the house, you've knownfor months the items topping their Christmas and Hanukah gift lists.Selecting gifts for kids is easy; the hard part is reminding themthat the holidays are for giving as well as receiving.

You can help instill this spirit and solve a few gift-ideadilemmas at the same time by encouraging your children to make theirown gifts for others-especially presents for adults in the family,including grandparents who often don't seem to need much of anything.

Last year we not only came up with a way to remind our 5-year-oldson how wonderful the giving part of the holidays can be, but alsoallowed him to create some memorable, one-of-a-kind presents. Theidea was simple: using fabric paint, he would hand paint inexpensivesweat shirts and sweat pants. The results were comfortable'designer' fashions with a smile.

Actually, it all worked out rather well. I was surprised byRyan's creativeness and it wasn't a big mess-a high priority in mybook this time of year. For his grandmother who lives in Florida andloves the beach, he drew an ocean scene complete with sea gulls anddolphin. For my bike-riding husband he drew all three of us onbicycles, then for high drama added a fire engine and burning housewith lots of black smoke on the side of one pant leg. I'm happy toreport this usually quite conservatively dressed man wears hiscustom-made outfit frequently.

Grandparents will probably chuckle over hand and footprintspressed up and down pant legs, scattered over a shirt-wherever youand your child think best (or, perhaps more accurately, wherever apaint-smeared hand happens to land). This is a cute way to decoratean outfit if your child is an infant.

You can also add a few words to go with the drawings. Since mymother is such a sport about getting down on the floor to play trucksand cars with our son, I wrote 'Grandsons keep you young' across thefront of her elaborately designed shirt. And on all of his creationsRyan added his own messages of love and that all-important signature.

Here are a few tips if you've never attempted this kind ofproject before:

Start a few days early. This is not a Christmas Eve ornight-before-Hanukah effort. Unless your child is a true artist atheart, he or she may not have the patience to do more than one shirtat a time.

Fabric paints and crayons are available at most craft stores,and will include specific instructions. Fabric crayons may be easierfor young hands to master but, even when applied according toinstructions, I've had trouble with their fading after a fewwashings. I've had more success with fabric paints.

Keep anything you don't want painted out of the way, and don'twear good clothes as you assist your little artist. Fabric paints donot wash out of clothes; a mistake is a mistake is a mistake. Don'tforget to put cardboard or aluminum foil inside the garment to keepthe paint from soaking through to the other side.

If possible, have your children draw their designs with chalk orpencil first. But if they eyeball that new tube of scarlet andinsist on having at it with wanton abandon, try to grin and bear it.After all, it's their present to make and to give.

There are other ways to incorporate your children's talents intospecial gifts. Since we did shirts last year, I've decided toattempt something new this holiday. With our son's help, I plan tocompose an 'original' poem about little boys, then ask my artisticbrother to write the words in calligraphy on attractive vellum. Tofinish, Ryan can stamp his handprints beneath the poem and I'll haveit framed.

If you aren't feeling creative, 'Granger's Index to Poetry'(Columbia University Press) or a book of quotations such as 'The HomeBook of Quotations,' selected by Burton Stevenson (Dodd, Mead &Company), may help you find appropriate words.

If your children are extremely articulate, you may want toconsider playing newscaster with them. Record on audio or videotapea holiday 'This Is Your Life' interview focusing on theiraccomplishments during the year, current interests and specialmessages for relatives. You could also ask your children to producetheir own tape. Perhaps they could assign everyone in the family aparticular role (meteorologist, reporter, anchor, etc.) and be incharge of a family television or radio program. Audio and videotapesare especially nice if you won't be able to spend the holidays withrelatives.

And finally, for those of you with little literary types in thehousehold, why not ask them to write and design a book? You couldhelp by typing in the words (their words, no cheating even to correctgrammatical errors), then let them illustrate the pages. The bookcould be tailored for the recipient ('When I Stay With Grandma,''Helping Uncle Roger on the Farm,' etc.). Punch holes, tie ittogether with yarn, and you have an attractive little bestseller(well, sort of) for grandma and grandpa.

Another plus for letting children make special gifts is thelesson they learn about the fun of keeping secrets. You may beamazed to find out how well they can keep the surprise a surpriseonce they are in on a project. And encouraging children to create agift-out of love and by using their own talents-can help us all getback to the real meaning of the holidays.

Angela Soper last wrote for Weekend about mothers taking aweekend off from kids and husbands.