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Cinnamon smells like Christmas to me. I first came across this fun and easy craft when I was teaching second grade years ago. I made the dough with my class, and they each brought home an ornament as a gift for their parents. For weeks, while the ornaments dried, our classroom smelled heavenly!
The best part, in my opinion, is that these ornaments maintain their smell for years. Years, I say!
And they are so easy to make! Just two required ingredients…cinnamon and applesauce.
Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
Here’s what you need:
- Equal parts ground cinnamon and applesauce (I’m using about 1 cup of each)
- White glue (optional)
- Rolling Pin
- Plastic Wrap/Wax Paper
- Drinking Straw
- Wax paper, parchment paper, or cooling rack (depending on drying method–see below)
It’s helpful to drain the applesauce. If you don’t, your ornaments will take far longer to dry out.
After you strain the excess liquid from the applesauce, add your cinnamon and stir until you have a dough consistency. (You can add a little glitter if you want some sparkle.) Adding a little white school glue can help your ornaments be a bit more sturdy, but it’s not necessary.
Mixing tip: Don’t add all of your cinnamon at the start. I find that I need to play around a little with the consistency to get it just right. I also reserve the juice that I drained from the applesauce, in case I need to add a little moisture back in.
Break your dough into manageable pieces to roll out. You can place between two sheets of plastic wrap if you’d like. Roll out your dough and cut it into shapes. (I started out using wax paper, but switched to doing it directly on my counter top). You can roll them as thin or thick as you like…I try to shoot for 1/4 – 1/3 inch thick.
Use a drinking straw to poke a hole to hang. (I didn’t get a picture with the holes, sorry!)
Then, either place on wax paper to air dry, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, or on the rack of your dehydrator.
When I made these with my class, we let the ornaments air dry. It worked well, although it took awhile. This time I’m using my dehydrator. Here are instructions for each method:
- Air dry – Lay ornaments on cooling racks or, if you are concerned about the lines, wax paper. If you use wax paper, be sure to flip the ornaments over once a day until they are completely dry. It will take a few days to a week to dry.
- Oven – Place ornaments on cooling rack or parchment paper and bake at 200 degrees for about 2 hours, or until dry.
- Dehydrator – Dry ornaments in dehydrator for about 5-6 hours at the highest temp (mine was 180 degrees)
I’ve seen lots of fun ways to decorate your ornaments if you like. I like the simplicity of the plain ornaments myself…rustic.
If you would like more pizazz—try puff paints or glitter glue to decorate like ornate gingerbread cookies.
How would you decorate yours?
This post is my “A” (Applesauce) post as part of a challenge on my Crazy4Blogging group. Check out “C”and “R”— and come back for “Z” and “Y” in the next couple of weeks.
I love the smell of these and the rustic look as well. Thanks.
I wonder if I could use some Loran Oils that are for candy, for more cinnamon smell and less of the powder cinnamon. Hmmm
I would say you could. But since the cinnamon powder is what makes up the bulk of the dough, you would need to substitute something– like flour, maybe? Or, if you wanted to eliminate the cinnamon powder all together, you could make a salt-dough (4 parts flour, 1 part salt, add water till doughy) and add the oil for scent. Totally different ornament, but might be kind of cool to try. I can’t vouch for how they’d turn out….Let me know if you try something different, I’d love to hear how they turn out!
I haven’t made these in years! I loved them though and used to decorate them with the kids using some puff paints. We’ll have to do these again this year and I love, love, love the tip of draining the applesauce; I forgot that step last time and I remember it taking way more cinnamon and way too long for them to dry. Pinned!
Thanks, Joanne! I have some littles coming over to visit this week, and I may pick up some puff paints to let them decorate some of the ornaments.
These are cute and look fun to make
I love the smell of cinnamon too – I have the AirWick cinnamon fragrance all year around. It has a calming effect – at least I think so.
Anyway I love these ornaments, and they are so easy to make.
I find cinnamon soothing, too. I’m always looking for a touch of it in wax melts and candles.
These are so neat! I love that they will smell so wonderful!
While I was making them, my husband kept saying, “It smells like Christmas in here!”
Super creative and I love I have everything in my cabinet already.
Does this mix make enough for your whole class?
I got 12 ornaments from these amounts. I would say to double or triple it depending on your class size. (The size of your cookie cutters would make a difference, too). Hope that helps!
This is so neat! I will have to do this with my daughters later this week or next!
I’d love to know how they turn out for you!
so pretty!