Kids love few things better than Christmas and baking. So aside from the clearing up, home made Christmas decorations will be a roaring success. Here are instructions for Christmas seasonal or letters that can be joined together to make a seasonal word or phrase.

Ingredients

Prepare modelling dough…

Method

Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and slowly add the water. Mix it together and knead.

Use a rolling pin to roll the mixture out, but keep it nice and thick. Either:

• use shape cutters (or a freehand knife if you are an artistic adult) to make shapes to hang onto the tree; or
• cut out letters - CAPITALS are best - to make a short word like WELCOME or PEACE or JOY or JESUS.

Then make a hole near the top of each shape or letter for string.

Bake at 180° Celsius / 350° Fahrenheit / gas mark 4. They will take quite a while to harden right through - but don't let them burn. Depending on thickness and oven this normally takes 10 - 20 minutes. Wait to cool.

Use thick poster paints and glitter paint to decorate your shapes. Once dry, the shapes may optionally be varnished. This will give the decoration a shiny protective coat and which will help them to last many years.

When dry use string or thick tinsel, etc. to tie to tree.