How to Make Simple Salt Dough Ornaments

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This past week, I made salt dough ornaments with my two-year-old son, Quinn. I’ve been gradually shifting my holiday decor towards a more neutral colour palette with natural materials — especially my tree — and salt dough ornaments are an incredibly easy and affordable way to achieve that. Plus, you can keep them to hang up year after year. The ornaments also make great gifts to share with your family, friends, and support system. 

I’m excited to share the recipe with you today — while it’s a great one to do with kids, this is something anyone can enjoy making! Salt dough ornaments are for the minimalist in all of us. If you do have children, they’ll love getting involved with mixing, cutting out shapes, and goofing around in the kitchen before you bake. You could put your little ones’ hands in the dough to make a keepsake, or if you’re older you can keep it simple or get as artsy as you want with it.

This festive activity definitely helped me get in the holiday spirit. The steps below are super straightforward and you might not even need to go shopping — you’ll only need two or three pantry items. Put on some music and have fun with it, as these take a few hours to make, bake, and cool! Whether you’re a parent or an adult ready to get your DIY on, let’s get started and spread some cheer.

P.S. Did you know that salt dough can be used as a non-toxic sensory dough, too?

Here’s what you’ll need:

Equipment: 

• Large mixing bowl

• Wooden spoon

• Rolling pin

• Cookie cutters

• Parchment paper or silicone pads

• Cookie sheets

• Reusable straw (or another item to make holes in the ornaments!)

• Twine or reused string from past gifts 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup table salt 

• 1 + 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 

• 1 cup warm water

• 1-2 tbsp cinnamon (optional if you want the ornaments to look darker)

Yield: 2 dozen ornaments

Cook time: 1.5-2 hours, plus cooling

Salt dough ornaments recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

2. Add the warm water and salt together in a bowl and stir using a wooden spoon until the salt is dissolved

3. Add the flour and mix together until it feels like dough

4. Optional: add 1-2 tablespoons of cinnamon to some of the dough to darken.

5. Stir until the dough is mostly together and becomes too stiff to continue stirring. Then, knead it with clean hands to finish bringing the dough together, until it’s nice and soft.

   Note: The dough should be soft and not too stiff or sticky. If it's difficult to work with, adjust the texture by adding a spoonful of water (if it’s too stiff) or a spoonful of flour (if it’s too wet or sticky) at a time. 

6. Grab some dough and roll out with a rolling pin so it’s 1/4-½ inch thick on a lightly floured surface. You’ll want to do this bit by bit and not roll out all of the dough in one go.

7. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or on silicone pads.

8. Make holes at the top of the ornaments with a reusable straw (we love using our small metal straws).

   Tip: You can use a small branch from your tree to imprint on a tree-shaped cookie!

9. Bake the ornaments in the oven for 1.5-2 hours until they are firm to the touch (not rock hard, but not doughy!). Handprint keepsake ornaments will take longer to bake.

10. Let cool fully.

11. Tie on twine or reuse string from past gifts so you can hang up your beautiful ornaments!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoy making these simple salt dough ornaments and every step of your holiday preparations. If you didn’t know or haven’t seen yet, The Purposeful You blog has been full of all kinds of sustainable holiday ideas lately, and I’ve been busy turning them into Reels on Instagram as well! If you like this type of content, I encourage you to check those out. In the meantime, happy baking!