Salt Dough Christmas Decorations Recipe

Salt Dough decorations are a bit of a staple of childhood aren't they? This was the first time I had made them with Seth and he really enjoyed it all, from measuring and mixing the ingredients at the beginning, through to gifting them and hanging them on the tree at the very end. I'm sure we will be making versions of these all year round.

 

Recipe

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp oil (optional, makes kneading easier)

Measure and pour your ingredients into a bowl, including the oil if you are using. Mix with your hands until it forms a ball and then place it onto the work surface and knead briefly until smooth. If the mixture is sticky knead in more flour, if it is to dry knead in a little water. It should feel similar to play dough.

Salt dough



When you are happy with your dough roll it out to 1cm thick. Then using cookie cutters, a knife or anything else that will work, cut out your desired shapes. We used a set of Christmas cookie cutters and made holes to hang them with a chop stick.  

 

 

 

 

 



When you have used up all of your dough you will need to prepare them to dry. There are three ways to dry these, which one you choose is up to you (and your child's patience levels!), they all work equally as well.

 

Air Dry. Place on some baking/grease proof paper on a flat surface, like a plate or spare oven tray, somewhere warm and turn over once a day for 48 to 72 hours. This is my preferred method as it uses no electricity.

 

Microwave. Place on some baking/grease proof paper on a plate and pop in the microwave on medium power for 3 mins or so until dry.

 

Oven dry. Place on some baking/grease proof paper on an oven tray and place in a low oven at 100c/200f/gas mark 1/2 for 2 to 3 hours, turning every hour. If they begin to brown turn the temp down slightly and cover with foil.

 

 

 

Now that your decorations are dry and cool, you can hang them as they are or decorate with paint, glitter, sequins, feathers, whatever you can think of!

 

 

 

When they are decorated, thread them with cotton, string or ribbon and they are ready to hang or give as gifts.