Salt Dough Christmas Decorations
The shops are full of Christmas decorations from about October each year but they are often generic – round shiny balls in different colours. As beautiful and cheap as they are, this year I was looking for something a little more original for our Christmas tree.
Salt dough is a great school holiday activity to get your children involved in. They can be as creative as they like to make their very own personalised ornament to hang on the tree.
It is important to bake them until they are completely dried out as they will go soft. If you would like to keep your decorations for year to come, you can apply to clear lacquer to the finished product to seal it. I didn’t bother with this step since I am happy to do this as an annual activity with the kids each year.
What you need:
- 1 cup plain flour
- ½ cup salt
- ½ cup water
- Straw
- Cookie cutters
- Baking tray and baking paper
- Paint & paintbrushes
- Glitter
- Twine/ribbon
Fun for:
- Christmas activity
- Making your own Christmas decorations
- Gift idea
- Leave unpainted or paint one side only (use a permanent marker to write on the blank side) and they can be used as gift cards on a present.
- Preheat oven to 125ºC.
- In a medium bowl, add flour and salt. Stir to combine.
- Add water and mix together to form a dough. It should not be too stick but if it is, add a little more flour.
- Tip out onto a floured bench and bring together with your hands. Add a little more flour to your bench, then roll out the dough until it is approx. 3mm to 5m thick. If it is too thick, the dough will take too long to dry out and the ornaments might be soft.
- Cut out shapes using Christmas cookie cutters. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Using a straw, poke holes in each shape where you will thread the twine.
- Bake for 2 ½ to 3 hrs or until the shapes are completely dry and hard. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- Once cooled, paint and decorate with glitter. It can be a bit tricky painting both sides then putting somewhere to dry without the paint getting stuck everywhere. So we placed the decorations on skewers then balanced them between 2 wooden chairs to keep them hanging in the air. This was easy and kept them hanging so the paint can dry on all sides.
- Once dry, thread the twine/ribbon through the hole and tie into a loop.
Now your decorations are ready to hang on the tree or give away as gifts to your friends.
