There’s something so rewarding about children’s excitement on Christmas morning when they realise Santa has been.
Parents can make the moment even more magical and provide proof Santa has visited their house by creating snowy footprints.
Making them is really easy and can be done just before you head to bed on Christmas eve.
Note: this works best on carpet.
You will need:
Bicarbonate of soda/baking powder
A pair of boots
A large baking tray (big enough to fit one of the boots in)
Water sprayer
Glitter (optional)
How to do it:
1. Pour the baking powder into your baking tray (enough to cover the base with one to two centimetres of depth).
2. If you want to add glitter to your snowy Santa footprints, add it in and mix in with the baking powder.
3. Squirt some water on the sole of the boots. Make sure not to soak them as the baking powder will dissolve if it’s too wet. Too much water will also turn the powder into more of a paste, which will be harder to clean up. Just lightly spray the whole of the sole.
4. Press the wet boot into the tray of baking powder until the sole is completely covered.
5. Work out where you would like the trail of footprints leading from and to. Make it more interesting by showing Santa’s footprints visiting the kitchen for a snack or heading to the toilet.
6. Next, press the boot down firmly onto the carpet to leave a print. The harder you push the clearer the footprint will be.
7. Repeat this with both boots, ensuring the prints you make on your carpet correspond correctly to ‘Santa walking’ (i.e. not having two left feet).
Voilà! A quick hoover will clean up the powder from your carpet.
If you don’t have any carpet in your house but want to create Santa footprints, an alternative option is to sprinkle flour or talcum powder evenly on the floor and then walk through it with boots on - it can give the impression the snow was falling off Santa’s suit as he walked through the house.