Anyone have any tips/tricks for animating two characters walking holding hands?  It would be easy if you could parent a figure element, like hands, from one character to another, or be able to parent a prop (like a ball made  invisible) to one character's hand then parent that prop to the other character's hand (or parent that other character to the same prop) but you can't.   No matter what I try I can't get the hands to stay together, as both characters bodies bounce along independently as they walk even if I delete all the key frames for their adjoining collar, shoulder, forearm and hand parts, zero out any hip motions (except for moving forward along the Z axis), etc.

turn on ik for the arms . I think that enable you to parent one hand to the other

Quote - turn on ik for the arms . I think that enable you to parent one hand to the other

^ ^ ^ You have most important part of solution! ^ ^ ^

Refering "dummy" prop - it is necessery if you want use 2 figures different sizes (scale).
For example V3 and M3, both 100% size, can hold each other hands without problem and without prop in the middle. V3 can hold Lauras hand without dummy (mom daughter). V3 100% and V3 70% (another kind of mom daughter) need "dummy" prop.