Saturday, December 6, 2014

Simple Christmas Crafts: Santa Keepsake Album

Today's simple Christmas craft isn't really a craft, but it is simple!

Christmas nostalgia has had me thinking of ways to create keepsakes that I can look back at (read: cry over) in ten years. I have been brainstorming ways to save Sadie's photos with Santa and letters to the big man in a fun way, and I think I've come up with something cute.

I set out to our local dollar store to find a 4x6 photo album like this:

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My plan was to take the ugly cover cardstock out and either replace/cover it with scrapbook or wrapping paper. But, I got lucky, and found a larger album that I think works a little bit better. Any size album will work though! If you have an old one sitting at the bottom of your closet--because who actually remembers to print their pictures anymore?!--this is the perfect use for it.

After finding the album, I created a template letter to Santa that Sadie could fill out every year. I kept it simple, but made sure to include opportunities for her to draw, color, and eventually write. It will be so neat to see how those things change over the years!

I printed enough letters to last for the next thirteen years, but I'm not delusional enough to think that Sadie will want to do this as a teenager. Would it be terrible to force her? I'll think about it.

 I went ahead and put all of the letters into the album, so that they're ready to go as soon as I take the album out of the Christmas box every year. If you decide to go with an album that has individual pages (this one is double), just skip the first page, so that your picture and letter are side-by-side.

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 I pulled out this year's letter, Sadie put her reindeer antlers on, and she got to work. They may look like scribbles, but if you ask her, she drew herself and Santa.

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When she was done coloring, I filled in the letter for her. She's very persistent with that pink kitchen--good thing Santa's bringing one! I'm not sure if she's thankful for crayons because she loves to color or if it's because they were right in front of her. Either way, she's cute.

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When we were done with the letter, I slid it back in the album next to this year's (seriously sad) picture with Santa.

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Eventually, we'll have an entire album full of pictures of Sadie and Santa and the cutest little letters.

It's not too late to start an album, even if you have an older child. It's never too late to start new traditions! You can start your album with this year's picture and letter or with Santa pictures from previous years. This obviously isn't Sadie's first Christmas, so I put last year's picture in the first page of the album. Because I don't have a letter to go with last year's picture, I just wrote some stats on a 4x6 piece of cardstock: "Sadie's first Christmas, 10-months-old.." etc.

If you have more than one kid, your pictures with Santa will likely include all of your children, so don't buy multiple albums--just print multiple letters and stack them in the same letter slot. You can easily pull all of the letters out and read through them every year.

If you're interested in making your own Santa keepsake album, you can download the letters HERE. Before you print, be sure to turn on borderless printing!

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. :)

Merry Christmas, y'all! 

1 comment:

  1. Oh my goodness... I bet she never gets in trouble because she's SO cute!

    Love the idea!!

    ReplyDelete