11 Weeks of Wonder #8- Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments

Most Americans spend Black Friday waiting in mile-long lines, scouring the mall for mega-sales, and trampling anyone that dares to stand between them and that shiny new TV on clearance on at Target.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m usually in a turkey-induced tryptophan coma, or the thought of having to go to the mall that keeps me from joining the herd of shoppers on Black Friday. Instead, I’ve created a new post-Thanksgiving tradition over the last few years. Ever since our oldest son was born, we’ve spent Black Friday putting up the Christmas tree and decorating our house for the holidays.

Goodbye turkeys, hello tinsel!

This year we put our kitchen skills to use and made some new Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments. These are so easy make, my 6 year old did most of the work all by himself. He helped me measure and mix the ingredients, roll the dough out flat, and cut out the cute ornament shapes. Of course, his favorite part was getting his hands (and arms, and face, and my entire kitchen) covered in bits of flour and dough!

These Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments are the perfect handmade touch that our Christmas tree needed. They’re a sweet and sentimental keepsake that we will enjoy for many Christmases to come- plus they smell sooo good!

The boys and I had a blast decking the halls and trimming the tree this year… but have you ever tried to decorate with two little ones “assisting” you? If not, then here’s a recap for ya:

spend 20 minutes getting tree situated just right, kid 1 topples it over, spend 10 more minutes fixing it, then kid 2 has tree rigged up with extension cords and now the lights won’t work, spend 10 minutes unplugging everything, remind yourself that you’re “making memories here!”, hang 5 ornaments, clean up 1 that shattered into a million pieces, return to hanging ornaments only to be interrupted by the sound of breaking glass, clean up that mess and proceed in this fashion for the next 4+ hours.
So 4 hours, 2 meltdowns, and 6 broken ornaments later- ta daaa! I present to you, our 2014 Christmas tree complete with handmade Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments!

Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments
Ingredients

4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 TBS cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 cups warm water

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325*.
2. Carefully combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger.
3. Then, using a spoon begin to stir in the warm water. Once the dough begins to stick to the spoon and can no longer be stirred, gently knead the dough with your hands until all of the water has been added.
4. Next, place the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll out flat. You should roll the dough evenly, to about 1/2″ thickness. (Too thin and your ornaments will burn!)
5. Once the dough has been rolled out flat, use cookie cutters to carefully cut out desired shapes.
6. Transfer cut out shapes to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
7. Use a straw to poke a hole into the ornament- this is where the string (or ornament hook) will go.
8. Bake at 325* for about 45 minutes (slightly more or less depending on your oven.)
9. Let the ornaments cool, then decorate and varnish as desired.
10.