Cinnamon dough ornaments are the perfect way to get through all your holiday decorating and Christmas gift-giving without breaking the bank. This cinnamon ornament recipe is super easy, fun to make, and will last for years. Use cinnamon dough ornaments as:

• Christmas tree decorations
• Holiday home decorations
• Christmas gift tags
• Drawer inserts
• Christmas activity for kids
• Inexpensive Christmas gifts

And even more stuff that I'm not creative enough to come up with right now! Making cinnamon ornaments can be a lot of fun, both for adults and kids, and they make great small gifts and stocking stuffers. Give a cinnamon dough ornament to the people in your life who normally don't get gifts-- the mailman, your kids' teachers, neighbors, even your favorite butcher. They'll appreciate the gesture and you'll have tons of fun making them.

Shaping and decorating ornaments can be an annual Christmas tradition! Let the whole family get involved. Sure, your husband will make a Rambo gingerbread man ornament, complete with glittery blood and painted machine gun. And sure, your kids will probably make a big ol' mess along with their ornaments. But hey, it's cheap, it's creative, and it's a lot of fun. So get baking!

Looking for cookies you can eat? Try these!

These ornaments smell so good that you'll want to eat them-- but resist. They don't taste very good, I can promise you that.(Yes, I tasted some dough. And yes, it was gross.) This dough rolls out very easily, and the cinnamon dough ornaments will last for years. (I have some that are almost 10 years old!)

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Ingredients:
1 C. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. ground cloves
3/4 C. unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. essential oil (your choice)
2 tbsp. white craft glue cookie cutters or molds
straws
decorating materials

Instructions: 1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine cinnamon and cloves. Add the applesauce, essential oil, and glue.

2. Knead in bowl for a few minutes, until you have a firm, pliable dough. Add more cinnamon if the dough is too wet, more applesauce if it's too dry.

3. Dust your work surface with cinnamon (just as you would with flour for regular cookies). Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, or press into a cookie mold (see photo). For molds, press dough into mold, smooth with rolling pin, remove, and cut away extra dough.

4. While still moist, cut a hole in the top of each ornament with the end of a straw for hanging. Place ornaments on paper towels and air dry for several days. Carefully flip them several times while drying so they won't bend or warp.

5. In a hurry? Instead of air drying, bake ornaments at 200 degrees F for about 3 hours, turning occasionally.

Decorate!

Tip: Use the essential oil of your choice. Try cinnamon to bring out the cinnamon scent, or apple to make apple-cinnamon scented cinnamon ornaments. Vanilla-cinnamon is nice, too!

Decorating tips: You can decorate these with all sorts of things! Use white school glue, and sprinkle on glitter. Glue on eyes or puff balls, or any decoration you want. Puffy fabric paints make great raised decorations, or use acrylic craft paint to paint designs, faces, names, etc. Let your imagination run wild!

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