Holiday Ornaments from Food

Let’s remember simpler times when dollar stores didn’t exist and people had to make their holiday ornaments out of materials they had. Bits of ribbon, some flour and salt, maybe some special spices to make smell nice. All the ornaments were made to be used several seasons, as they were not edible.

At the Festival of Trees, I am demonstrating how to make these three easy ornaments from food. A great project to make with the kids this holiday season, which will make memories and last for years to come.

SPICY ORANGES -Pomader Balls

Firm Orange

Whole cloves - about 1-2 TBSP

Ribbon (optional)

Use the cloves to attach the ribbon around the orange. Puncture the orange skin with the cloves to create a pattern or design. Allow the orange to hang and dry. It will release a lovely fragrance as it dries. If you want to make it last longer, dust the surface with cinnamon, which acts as an anti-fungal.

SALT DOUGH

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 cup salt

• 1/4 tsp alum

• up to 1/2 cup water

• Food colour (optional)

In a bowl, combine the powders and mix well. Add the food colouring to the water. Slowly add the water, and combine with the powders until the mixture is just moist and all the same colour. Squeeze into a dough and knead together. Salt dough is a crumbly dough, so use a bit of water on wet hands when kneading to add water as necessary until it holds together. Shape into ornaments. Combine colours, shapes to make candy canes, snowmen, stars - get creative! For best results, make sure the ornaments are less than 0.5-1 cm thick. These will dry at room temperature over a few days or can be put into a warm oven (200F) for 2 hours. The dried surface can be painted or glitter added.

• Use a toothpick or nail to create a hole slightly larger than you need in the moist dough to hang your ornament after it dries.

CINNAMON ORNAMENTS

• 1 cup cinnamon

• 3/4 cup applesauce

• 1 TBSP glue

• 1 tsp nutmeg or 1/2 tsp cloves (optional)

Mix the spices and add the applesauce and glue to create a crumbly moist mixture. Use your hands to squeeze together into a dough. If too wet, add more cinnamon, if too dry add a tsp water.

Dust a work surface with cinnamon, and flatten out the dough to about 1 cm thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Keep them small, as this dough is fragile and large ornaments don’t dry as well.

Bake at 200F for 2 hours or at room temperature for a couple days. Make a hole for hanging up the ornaments when they are moist. Once dry glitter can be added.

Just rub gently to reactivate the smell!