Christmas ornaments: Make the best DIY ornaments ever with your kids

For the past few Christmases, we have gathered around the kitchen table to make the best ever DIY Christmas ornaments while noshing on Christmas snacks, hot chocolate, and listening to our favorite Pandora Christmas stations.

It's the perfect craft activity for families, friends and neighbors.

Oftentimes, the adults are just as excited about the experience of making the dough, shaping the ornaments and painting each masterpiece. It's a momentous, holiday activity with laughing while spending quality time together establishing tradition.

Prepare yourself for a little bit of mess. However, the experiences of ornament making and memories always outweigh the messiness.

At the end of it all, your little artists and creators have lovely keepsakes that they can strategically and independently hang on their own tree, adorn on a family tree and/or use as Christmas gifts to family and friends.

So by all means, pull out these items below and grab two doses of patience.

Happy ornament making!

Items Needed:

1 Cup Of Salt

2 Cups Of Flour

1 Cup Of Water

Cookie Cutters

Baking Sheets

Rolling Pin

Straw

Measuring cups (in addition to measuring, I used these for shaping the dough into circles)

Ribbon

Acrylic Paint

Rubber Stamps - Letters & Numbers (optional)

Step 1

Combine our salt and flour in a bowl and slowly add in the water. (You may opt to have different quantities depending on how many ornaments you desire). Continue until it is dough light and not too sticky. If the dough is too dry you can add more water. After kneading the dough, you'll flatten it out with a rolling pin. This is a great opportunity for your child(ren) to gain empowerment, independence and confidence!

Step 2

Align the ornaments onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or you can use Pam spray. Make sure you poke a hole through the top using a straw so that you can hang them when you are done and bake these for two to three hours at around 100 degrees C/ 200 F. If your ornament is thick you may need to turn it over while it's cooking. As an alternative, you can also let the ornaments air dry overnight (for at least 12 hours).

Step 3

Time to decorate. I spray painted these white and allowed to dry overnight. You may get away with allowing to dry for a few hours, but I played it safe. Then, hand brush/paint with gold acrylic paint. Note: I did attempt the gold spray paint on a couple of these, but I didn't like the end result. I highly recommend the white spray paint and hand painting with any colored acrylic paint.

Step 4

Adorn with festive holiday ribbon. Now, your ornaments are ready to hang on your Christmas tree or wrap and give away as gift. Perfect give-giving to grandparents, friends, or teachers.

Less Mess DIY Christmas Ornaments

Not into the messiness of DIY, arts and crafts. No problem. You can make ornaments out of anything. Use what you have around the house. Construction paper, sequins, crayons, glue, paint, beads, pipe cleaner, beans, elbow macaroni, clothespins, cardboard. The options are endless. Just cut into a shape and accessorize with your materials. This is also a fun DIY activity for children of all ages!

Love these adorable holiday ornament craft ideas? Carla Williams is an ABC11 Influencer. Make sure to check out glamourandglue.com for more inspiration.