Welcome everyone who is visiting through Tiany's Holiday Open House or Lilliput Station's On-line Christmas Party....it's great to have you here and meet new friends!   

Last year I posted about one of our favorite Christmas traditions - Gingerbread Houses!  You can read all about it here complete with photos!

Today I want to share an easy craft with you that I enjoyed making last year with Jesse -- Cinnamon Dough Ornaments!   You can find many recipes for Cinnamon Dough Tree Ornaments on the web but I'm posting the one we used at the bottom of this post and you'll know it's "tried and true".

 Gather your ingredients and then just mix them with a big spoon.   Next you'll hand knead it about 2 minutes to get it to form a ball that can be rolled out with my rolling pin.  It smells so cinnamony delicious and so did my hands!  It was fairly easy to work with.

Now the fun part starts -- we used a bell and star cookie cutter:

After we cut them out Jesse used a drinking straw to make the little holes for putting the ribbons through.  You can air dry them for about 48 hours or do as I did and bake them for 1 hour at your oven's lowest temperature (mine is 180F).   After an hour I flipped them over and baked another 1/2 hour.

Once they were totally cool and dry, Jesse used a mixture of 2 parts school glue to 1 part water and "painted" them to try and give them a "shiny" finish.  It looks like it sealed them and made them a bit darker but not shiny.  I suppose a modge podge or acrylic spray would make a better finish.  


We like the simple look of these but one web-site suggested using white paint to decorate them, it would look like frosting.  I think they would be real cute cut out into gingerbread men!  

Here's the recipe we used:

1/2 Cup cinnamon
1/3 Cup applesauce (smooth, from a jar)
1 TBL white school glue

Mix all together well.  It will be crumbly at first.  Knead together to form a "dough" ball.  If' its too crumbly add a bit more applesauce and if too wet, more cinnamon.  (I did not have to adjust either ingredient, it worked fine as is for us.)

Roll out on a cinnamon sprinkled surface and cut out with cookie cutters.  Re-roll your scraps.  We got 15 ornaments.  Don't forget to make little holes for hanging them.    Let air dry or bake on a cookie sheet in a low temp. oven.   THESE ARE NOT EDIBLE.


And homeschooling mommies -- this counts for Art class this week!   Let me know if you make them -- I'd love to know how they came out.

As far as other Christmas traditions,  we also enjoy a special Christmas morning breakfast.  I'll post about our menu soon.

Thanks for stopping by....May God bless your Holiday Season!  Visit more open houses at Tiany's blog!