Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

Christmastime is here!  If you are a teacher looking for a craft to make with your students, or if you are parent wanting to make some homemade ornaments with your kids, these salt dough Christmas ornaments will look great on your tree! 

These ornaments are fun to make—almost like making cut-out cookies.  So, of course, you can use any cookie cutter shapes and paint colors that you want to match your Christmas décor. 

This recipe comes from my youngest son’s preschool teacher (thank you, Mrs. Buckles!) He brought these home as gifts when he was in preschool and they are so cute!  The ones he made were bright and colorful, so they go perfectly on our tree with the multi-colored lights.

If you have a little one, you could even use this recipe to make a handprint ornament.

I love to make Christmas ornaments.  In fact, the only ornaments that we have on our tree are homemade ornaments and souvenir ornaments from vacations that we have taken over the years.  We always try to pick up a souvenir ornament that way we can reminisce a bit when we hang those ornaments up each year…

Salt Dough Christmas Ornament Recipe

Makes about 24 ornaments

Ingredients to make Salt Dough Ornaments:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup salt
• 1 cup water (WARM water NOT hot water as it will make the dough sticky.

Instructions to make Salt Dough Ornaments:

1. Use a hand mixer to combine all dry ingredients, then slowly add water. *You may not use the entire cup of water.  If the dough is too sticky add more salt.
2. Flour surface that you will roll the dough out on, and also flour the rolling pin.
3. Roll out dough to desired thickness. *The thicker the dough the more drying time you will need.
4. Use cookie cutters to cut out ornaments.
5. Take a drinking straw and poke a hole in the top of the ornament so you can hang them on the tree. *This step must be done before baking.
6. Bake at 250° for about 3-4 hours. Drying time will vary depending on the thickness of your dough. SO IMPORTANT: remember to flip your ornaments every 45 minutes to one hour.
7. Let cool. Place the ornaments on cooling racks for 2-3 more days. The longer you let them dry the better.
8. Paint your ornaments. *Be careful not to over paint the ornaments as they will fall apart.

Looking for more ideas for homemade Christmas ornaments?  Here are a few that you might like as well:

These clear plastic Christmas ornaments can be used in so many different ways!  Here are four great ideas for kid friendly crafts that are fun, not very messy, and can be done in five minutes!

Homemade cinnamon and applesauce ornaments are so easy to make!  And my favorite part is that they smell so good!  Just cut them out like cookies (but don’t eat them!) and let them air dry—no baking!

And if you are just feeling crafty, you will want to check out these Christmas craft for kids!  Not only will they keep your kiddos busy over Christmas break, but many of these make beautiful addition to your holiday décor or can be used as tree ornaments!