Want a simple inexpensive craft project for your older kids to do while you and dad are trying to wrestle the lights on the tree? Your house will smell like the holidays when you make cinnamon applesauce ornaments. All you need is applesauce and cinnamon!
Columbia Mom contributing writer Ashleigh and I got our 2-year-olds together to give this a try. We used two cups of cinnamon (which can be purchased from the Dollar Tree) and two cups of applesauce (any inexpensive store bought will do.)
Two warnings: 1.) these are inedible, so if you are making them with small children, supervision is absolutely necessary, and 2.) they smell very strongly of cinnamon, especially initially, so if anyone in your home is sensitive to the smell of cinnamon, these would be something to avoid.
Measure your ingredients into a bowl and mix until they are a dough like consistency.
Roll out your dough. Several recipes I found on the Internet suggested rolling it out between two pieces of Saran Wrap. I can certainly see where that would be helpful, this is a messy craft.
Once your dough is rolled out, cut out your desired shapes. These two 2-year-olds were too young to make usable ornament shapes, but I think my 4-year-old would do well with this if he were well supervised, and my 5-year-old would do fine with minimal supervision. This is not to say that the 2-year-olds didn’t enjoy themselves; and, true to gender stereotypes, the boy made a mess, while the girl barely got her hands dirty.
When the children were done playing with the dough, we cleaned them up, rerolled the dough, and cut out the ornaments. This recipe yielded 19 ornaments. We put a hole in each with a straw and baked them in a 200 degree oven for an hour. You can also leave them to dry in a warm dry place for a few days.
Thread each ornament with festive ribbon or twine, and you’ve got several ornaments to use as gift tags, part of a gift, or just for hanging on your tree.
Happy Holidays!
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