Fill your home with the scents of the holiday — cinnamon, clove and nutmeg — by making these old fashioned cinnamon spice applesauce ornaments. No baking required!

Cinnamon, spice and everything nice.

That is what these homemade Christmas ornaments are made of. And boy, will their aroma make your house smell amazing.

As far back as I can remember, my Mom and I made some sort of Christmas craft together. That being a festive holiday wreath, decorated Christmas cookies or a gingerbread house. This year we decided to make some ornaments. First, we mixed up a batch of Melissa K. Norris’s salt dough ornaments. My niece came over to help us decorate them and by the time they were complete, my parents home looked like a glitter bomb had gone off. 

I suppose we will just have to sparkle until spring.

Next, we created some cinnamon applesauce ornaments. My Mom received some of these from a friend years ago and was pleased with how wonderful they smelt — and how long they lasted! To make up the dough, all you need are some common kitchen spices, a jar of applesauce and a little bit of glue. No baking required! Simply roll out the dough, cut into shapes and sit out on the counter until they are dry. Super easy homemade Christmas ornament!

To hang the ornament, we threaded baker’s twine through the top hole. Ribbon, thin strips of material or natural jute string would also look beautiful and give the ornament an old fashioned look. To jazz up your ornament, you can add texture using an embossing sheet or a stamp. We used some cookie stamps to imprint messages on the handmade ornaments.

Where to Hang a Christmas Ornament

Typically ornaments are hung on the Christmas tree. But if you don’t have a tree or have extra ornaments to hang, here are a few ideas of places you can hang them:

• Coat rack
• Hung around a rung of a vintage wooden ladder
• Towel rack in the bathroom
• Shelf in a laundry room
• From a chandelier
• Window latch
• Curtain rod
• On your mantel using command strips
• Banister
• Wrapped up to give as a gift to a family member, friend or neighbor

How to Make Cinnamon Applesauce Christmas Ornaments

Ingredients

1 cup cinnamon
1 Tbs cloves
1 Tbs nutmeg
3/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbs glue (Elmer’s white or clear will work)

Instructions

Combine the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Stir in the applesauce and glue. The dough will become crumbly and appear dry. Using your hands, mix the dough until smooth and everything is completely combined.

Divide the dough in half. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to approximately a 1/4” thick. Cut dough into shapes with your favorite cookie cutters.

Using a drinking straw, poke a hole at the top of each ornament. Place each piece on a drying rack and dry at room temperature for a few days. Or if you have a dehydrator, dry them at 135° for a couple of hours.

Once dry, tie a ribbon or piece of bakers twine through the hole of the ornament. Hang the decoration on your Christmas tree or wherever you want these aromatic ornaments to fill your house with the scent of cinnamon spice.

Tips for Making Homemade Ornaments

These cookies can be sticky, so be sure to roll them on a non stick surface like a cutting board or silicone mat. We found that rolling the ornaments on parchment paper, though non stick, left lines and wrinkles on the ornaments. We would not recommend using parchment paper if you prefer your ornaments to be smooth.

When you roll your ornaments out, thicker is better. Too thin and your ornaments will crack as they dry.

If you want to speed up the process of drying your ornaments, put them in your dehydrator at 135° for a couple of hours.

We used Christmas cookie cutters to shape our ornaments. Our favorites were a gingerbread, star. And to keep with the homestead theme, we used a mason jar cookie cutter.

If you’d like to add words to your ornaments, such as joy, peace, love, we used these cookie stamps.

Looking for more Christmas crafts? Learn how to make a wooden star or a flannel stocking from an old shirt.

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