Easy to make gingerbread salt dough ornaments that last for years. Perfect craft to do with the kids on a cold, winter afternoon.

We have a bit of a tradition at our house – each November 1st we bust out the Christmas tunes, order pizza and decorate the Christmas tree. We’ve done this for several years. Except for the year we moved on December 14th, the tree went up at the new house on moving day – even before the beds were set up!

Anyway, this year we started our Christmas decorating the weekend after Canadian Thanksgiving due to a photo shoot we did in our dining room for a fabulous Canadian retailer (we’ll share when we can). One of the things we pulled out to add to our tree was a set of gingerbread salt dough ornaments we made several years ago.

They’re a very traditional and easy to make Christmas ornament that goes with just about any style of decorating. And they last like FOREVER!

How to Make Your Own Gingerbread Salt Dough Ornaments

Okay, so I cannot bake cookies to save my life! Well, except for these ones my grandma used to make. Anyway, since these are not cookies and just ornaments, even I can make them easily!

Ingredients

1 cup salt
1 cup water
2 cups flour
ground cinnamon
whole cloves
gingerbread cookie cutter
paper straw
cookie sheet
ribbon/strips of cotton/jute for hanging

Instructions

Put salt and flour (dry ingredients) in bowl.
Add water slowly. Mix/knead to form dough ball.
Roll out dough ball (if it’s too sticky add flour, if it’s too dry add water) and use cookie cutter to cut out gingerbread men.
Use straw to make a hole near the top of each gingerbread man’s head for hanging.
Lay all ornaments out on a cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Add cloves for eyes and buttons.
Either let air dry for several days or for about an hour at 200 degrees or so. (I’ve also read that salt dough ornaments can be microwaved a bit at at time, but I haven’t done it that way.)
Let cool, string and hang up!