Inside: Celebrate Christmas and Christmas trees decorated with lights with this Christmas art with Pointillism and turn it into a decoration or a Christmas card.
I just asked our Alexa how many days there were until Halloween and she told me.
Then Alexa followed up and asked me a question: “I’m often asked how many days are left until Christmas. Would you like to know?”
Um, yes, Alexa. Of course, I want to know.
It’s never too early to get excited about Christmas and Christmas trees and Christmas lights.
We start our countdown to Christmas early with this Snowman Countdown to Christmas Calendar and with this 25 Days of December Kindness Calendar.
We prepare for the holidays with my favorite traditions in December: our ornament tradition and our sibling giving tradition.
We sidestep the Elf on the Shelf and the stress of moving it every night for these Kindness Elves instead.
And I start my shopping early with this ultimate shopping guide list for kids and these kid-perfect experience gifts so we have less stuff in our house.
But we also love to slow down and create art projects that decorate our home, that we give away as gifts and that we turn into cards and deliver to friends and family.
And this dot Pointillism art is the perfect way to create Christmas art this season.
What is Pointillism Art?
When I was in college and took the mandated Art History courses, I discovered and then fell in love with Pointillism.
Maybe it’s because it reminded me of those Hidden Magic Eye Puzzles from the 90s.
My professor showed us a tiny, zoomed-in piece of art and all we saw was dots.
Little tiny dots.
Then he zoomed it out to the gloriousness that is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
And once I saw the painting hanging in the Art Insitute of Chicago, I was sold.
The tiny dots that magically turn into gorgeous art is mesmerizing.
I ran across the street from the museum and bought my tiny daughter the board book, Sunday With Seurat
And when my kids were older, we graduated to these kid-friendly art history books on Seurat.
This awesome YouTube Video of Art with Mati and Dada and Seurat is a great way to further explain Pointillism to our kids.
If you have younger kids who don’t have the fine motor skills for Q-tips, get them these Dot a Dot Art Markers and they can create their own art.
And since we love Christmas and I love Pointillism, we connect Christmas and all things Christmas trees to pointillism with this Christmas craft made entirely out of dots.
Want more books to connect to this project?
Here are our favorite Christmas tree books:
Cheryl the Christmas Tree Fairy
The Berenstain Bears’ Christmas Tree
Supplies Needed to Make Christmas Card with Pointillism
- small canvas or cardstock paper for cards
- Q-tips
- green, red, yellow, gold and blue acrylic paint (tempra paint is fine for the cardstock paper)
- pencil
- colored pencils to write message
How to Make Christmas Art with Pointillism
1. Draw a triangle on your canvas, pressing lightly so the pencil doesn’t show through the paint. Leave room at the bottom for a base and at the top for a star.
2. Dip a Q-tip into the green paint and one dot at a time, outline the Christmas tree triangle.
If you are using acrylic paint, let your kids know it’s “forever paint” for clothes.
And remind your kids not to smear the paint by using the Q-tip like a paint brush. Instead, show them how they can make tiny dots close together to make it appear like a line was formed.
3. Lightly draw a string of Christmas lights and use red, yellow and blue to make dots along the line.
4. Or, randomly place red, yellow and blue dots all around the inside of the triangle.
5. Then use green paint to fill in the white space on the Christmas tree.
6. Use gold or brown paint to create a rectangular base of the Christmas tree.
7. Use a pencil and lightly draw a star on top of the tree. Use yellow paint to make dots to fill in the star.
8. If you used cardstock to create a card, when the Christmas tree is dry, write “Merry Christmas” on the Christmas card.
9. If you used the canvas to paint, when the art is dry, hang it up or give it as a gift.
Christmas arts and crafts are the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit.
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