A fun and easy activity for little ones of all ages to help create a homemade holiday ornament.
Having two little ones under 5 years old makes the Holidays so special. I find myself decorating more, playing Christmas music more, and really leaning into festive traditions. I want them to form their earliest memories of this season with the scents, sounds, and family activities
I wanted to create an impression ornament so I could remember how small my children were this year in particular. Even better, I wanted them to be involved in the process so that we had a fun family activity to fill up an afternoon. I found a few recipes for salt dough ornaments and tweaked them and condensed the directions for you here.
Ingredients for Salt Dough:
- All Purpose Flour - 4 Cups
- Table Salt - 1 1/2 Cups
- Water - 2 Cups
Supplies needed:
- Large mixing bowl
- Parchment Paper
- Sharp pencil, nail, or small straw
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Sheet
- Acrylic Paint
- Glitter Glue
- Ribbon
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees
- Mix all ingredients in the large bowl until a dough begins to form
- Once dough has taken shape, form a ball and knead until a firm yet shapeable consistency is created (If too firm, add water. If too sticky, add flour.)
- Roll out the dough to 1/4in. thickness on the parchment paper
- Have your child press their hand into the dough to create an impression of their hand or feet
- Use a round cup, bowl, or cookie cutter to cut out the ornament shape around the impression
- using the sharp pencil, nail, or straw - poke two holes in the top of the ornament for the ribbon to go through
- Place the parchment paper and ornament on a baking sheet and pop into the oven for 2 hours
- After 2 hours, check to make sure the dough has hardened and is not mushy. If it hasn't hardened, allow to bake up to another hour, checking every 20 minutes
- Allow the ornaments to fully cool before painting
- Using Acrylic paint, pain the ornament all over and allow to dry
- Using glitter glue, outline the hand print in the impression and then using a paintbrush, drag the glitter to fill in the handprint
- Allow to dry
- Thread the ribbon through the holes in the ornament and tie a bow, voila!