Cute salt dough Christmas decorations

Use our basic salt dough recipe to make these magical Christmas tree decorations!

We've also created some printable templates to help you create your ornaments – simply click here to download them.

Top tip: The salt in the dough can make your hands quite dry, so if you have sensitive skin, we recommend putting on a pair of marigolds.

You'll need

• Salt dough
• Rolling pin
• Washable paints
• String
• Printable templates (or some Christmas cookie cutters)
• Glitter (optional)

How to make salt dough Christmas decorations

Step 1

Make the salt dough by combining the plain flour and salt in a bowl and stir. Then, add water to bring the mixture into a dough.

Step 2

Roll the dough to about 1cm thickness.

Step 3

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the dough and use a plastic knife to lift them off the surface. Click here to download our printable templates. Then, use a pencil to pierce a small hole into the top of each ornament – you'll need this to loop the string through.

Tip: It's best to do this bit directly onto the baking tray, as the dough can sometimes get stuck.

Step 4

Pop the ornament in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, until hard. Read our salt dough drying tips.

Step 5

Have fun painting the ornaments! Then, once the paint is dry, brush glue onto them and sprinkle over glitter (if you like). Loop the string through the hole and hang them up on the tree!

The magic of salt dough is you can mould it in so many ways. That means there’s always a perfect craft for your child. You can use the same basic salt dough recipe to make a salt dough handprint or a dinosaur fossil.