Who gets the biggest dough nose this year?
Your mission
The Tiny Faces Tree
Everyone draws a secret name, sculpts and paints a mini caricature of that person, then holds it up while the table guesses who it is. When every face is named, hang them together on the tree.
Bonus challenge: Hand out silly awards like Most Lifelike, Best Hair and Most Likely to Scare the Cat.
Gather everyone at the holiday table and sculpt a tiny salt-dough caricature of each other in secret. Then comes the fun part: a guessing-game reveal, a lot of laughing, and a tree hung with little faces, like Grandpa's famous mustache rolled from a single noodle of dough.
Picture the tree this year with all your people on it: the cousin with the giant curly hair, the friend who always wears a beanie, the aunt with the big grin, each one a little ornament face about the size of a cookie. You'll mix a simple dough from flour, salt and water, draw names, sculpt your secret person, bake, paint and reveal. You do not need any art skills, because silly and lumpy is the whole charm. Then it's time for the big guessing game.
There is something sweet about being noticed. When someone squishes your laugh lines, your glasses or your favorite sweater into a little lump of dough, it tells you they really see you, and they think you're worth putting on the tree. Years from now, someone will pull your tiny face out of the box and grin.
Top gear to make this quest great.
Pull it off
Brings each face to life with skin, hair, eyes and outfits.
Lets you paint tiny eyes, eyebrows and smiles on a cookie-sized face.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may change.
If you can roll a snake out of play dough, you can make a portrait. Essential: all-purpose flour (2 cups), table salt (1 cup), about 3/4 cup warm water, a baking sheet with parchment paper, a set of acrylic craft paints with small brushes, and ribbon or ornament hooks. Handy extras: a drinking straw to poke clean hanging holes, toothpicks for eyes and hair texture, and a clear sealer to keep ornaments from soaking up moisture in storage. Write names on slips of paper for the secret draw.
A good quest stays a good story. These are general notes; your gear's manual, the venue's rules and local law come first.
Sleeves up, everyone. In a big bowl, stir 2 cups flour with 1 cup salt, then pour in about 3/4 cup warm water a little at a time. Squish it with your hands until it feels like soft play dough that doesn't stick. Too sticky? Add a spoonful of flour. Too crumbly? Add a splash of water. Heat the oven to 250°F (120°C) while you work.
Here's the sneaky part. Everyone pulls a name from a bowl and keeps it quiet. Press a flat face about the size of a cookie, no thicker than half an inch, then add the details that make your person them: a pile of curls, big glasses, a famous beard. Press pieces on firmly with a damp fingertip. The sculpting kit has tools made for adding texture and poking holes, so scratch in eyebrow lines or beard stubble, then poke a hanging hole at the top.
Line up your faces on the parchment-covered baking sheet and slide them into the oven. They bake slowly for 2–3 hours until they are hard and sound hollow when tapped. This is the perfect time to eat dinner, play a game or swap stories. Keep the ornaments covered or out of sight so nobody peeks at their own portrait.
Once the faces are completely cool, the color comes out. Paint skin tones first, then hair, eyes, cheeks and outfits with the small brushes. Add the funny stuff too: a favorite red scarf, a tiny coffee mug, a giant smile. The paint set has two shiny metallic colors, which make perfect gold earrings or a sparkly crown. Keep painting in secret, with a hand or a napkin ready to hide your work.
Drumroll, please. One at a time, each artist holds up their portrait and the table shouts out guesses. Who has that hair? Whose eyebrows are those? Once someone gets it right, the artist hands the ornament to its real-life twin. Then vote on your silly awards and cheer every single face, wobbly noses and all.
Time to give everyone a branch. Thread ribbon or a hook through each hole and hang the faces together somewhere high on the tree, safe from curious pets. Step back and look at all your people smiling out from the lights. Later, brush on a coat of the gel medium. It goes on white but dries clear and not shiny, so every painted freckle stays just as you made it, for years to come.
You just put everyone you love on the tree, big noses and all. Pack the portraits away carefully, and next year challenge everyone to sculpt a new version to hang beside the old one.
You bring the curiosity. We've found the tools.
Pull it off
Brings each face to life with skin, hair, eyes and outfits.
Lets you paint tiny eyes, eyebrows and smiles on a cookie-sized face.
A pack of small brushes with skinny tips.
Get on Amazon · $49.95 — Fine detail paintbrusheswhat to look for & our pick →
Gets every portrait safely onto a branch of the tree.
Thin ribbon or metal ornament hooks.
Get on Amazon · $5.99 — Ornament ribbon or hookswhat to look for & our pick →
Protects the painted faces so they come out of the box looking good next year.
A brush-on or spray clear coat.
Get on Amazon · $13.75 — Clear acrylic sealerwhat to look for & our pick →
Makes it easy to carve hair lines, wrinkles and grins.
A small set of plastic or wooden shaping tools.
Get on Amazon · $8.99 — Clay sculpting toolswhat to look for & our pick →RELATED GEAR GUIDE
Tabletop RPG Starter Kit: 10 Picks That Earn Their Table Space
Practical picks, real prices · Social & Community
As an Amazon Associate, IRL Sidequests earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Prices and availability are subject to change. The price shown at checkout on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
Hand-selected quests our team thinks you'll love
Your people are out there, probably within three miles of your house.
Stop scrolling, start connecting. Strategic field guide to finding genuine communities through skill-sharing, interest groups, and face-to-face meetups.
That cracked sidewalk planter doesn't need to stay dead—fill it with wildflowers at 2AM and watch neighbors smile for months.
Learn guerrilla gardening tactics to green up forgotten urban corners with native plants, seed bombs, and nighttime planting missions.
Getting better at talking is weirdly fun with friends
Round up six friends, drag some chairs into a circle in your yard, and spend 90 minutes getting genuinely better at talking to people. One skill, eight-minute pair rounds, a soft chime to switch partners, and a lot more laughing than you'd expect.
Not this one?
Tell the generator how much time you have, who you're with, and your mood — it picks from 500+ quests like this one.
Try the real life side quest generatorOr browse the full list of real-life side quest ideas or side quests to do with friends.
