Trailer Wife

DAY TWO: Salt Dough Ornaments

In my childhood home, Christmas was a big deal. Most years, my dad found the biggest tree money could buy the day after Thanksgiving and would keep it up well into January. I'll never forget how he would turn off all the lights, fire up the many strings of bulbs, and put on some Bing. We would just lay around on the floor, gazing up at the majestic display in penitent awe.

But there were some years that were leaner than others. The way I remember it (Mom might correct me here) there was one year when we couldn't afford a tree. So my mom pulled out the construction paper and scissors, snipped out a tree, and stapled it to the wall. How cute is that! We strung up some garland and used thumbtacks for the ornaments. As a special treat, Mom let us make salt dough ornaments that year, which we baked and painted at the dining room table. We kept those ornaments for years - long after they began to crumble and fade. What they meant to us, it seems to me now, held far greater value than that one missing tree.

So... when Heidi and Greg visited for an early Thanksgiving this year, I decided that it was high time we reprise the tradition. With a lonely (at least as far as family goes) Christmas to look forward to this year, I loved the idea of having a few doughy buddies to share it with.

Here's how to do it:

What you'll need:

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
4. Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
6. Use a small straw to make a hole toward the top of the shape.
7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
8. Bake for 2 hours.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
10. Paint the ornaments.
11. Use the handle end of the paint brush to dot on ornaments by dipping into paint then dotting onto ornament.
12. When paint is dry, use glitter glue (we used green) or glitter paint (we used gold) to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments. You could also spray the ornaments with a coat of Acrylic sealing spray.
13. When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.