For a fun festive activity, I bought some blank wooden nutcrackers for my sons to paint. I am actually not a huge fan of nutcrackers – I find them a little creepy – but my kids like them. I think they appeal to them for largely nostalgic reasons: my mother-in-law has a large collection of nutcrackers so the kids associate them with fun-filled Christmases spent at their grandparents’ house. Somehow, despite my mild aversion to nutcrackers, we now have a small collection of our own that appear every December. Now we have four more!
The nutcrackers were created by, from left to right, my 11, 13, 7, and 9 year olds.
A Pict in PA 
I’m not a big fan of nutcrackers, either, but your boys painted some really good ones! (The brush with red paint near that white hair looks like trouble, but apparently there were no mishaps.)
Ha! It is funny you mention the “trouble” because that little imp of mine did indeed paint the beard red. I think you know me well enough to know that made me cringe inside. Why would you even think to paint a nutcracker’s hair!?!? His response was, “Why not?” His nutcracker so his creative decision.
I KNEW that some paint would end up on the hair. Good on him for going his own way. ( :
There’s really no stopping that kid when he gets a bee in his bonnet.
I didn’t even know you could buy blank wooden nutcrackers. I love them!
I didn’t either but one of my kids mentioned the idea around Halloween, when there were Halloween blank things available for customising, so that sewed the seed and I had a nose around online and found some. These were perfect as they had painted faces already and came as a set of four.
I would like to put in an order. Yes. These are just great. I can’t pick a favorite. Once again, I am amazed at the talent your kids have, and your capacity for drawing it out of them!
Thank you, Claudia. That is very sweet of you. I think maybe an enjoyment of creativity is in their DNA and they’ve grown up always seen me dabbling and trying new things – though I have never painted a nutcracker. I would love to see what you could create from a blank nutcracker.
Kind of a scary thought. About what I might come up with. Because, like you, I have a bit of a dislike for them, and I can’t say why. Maybe if I did paint one I would exorcise this little phobia?!
I had the same thought about if I had created one. It would probably be a zombie or some kind of monster.
They did a great job 😊
Thank you. It was a fun activity.