Christmas decorations for kids to make
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 two different ideas.
Baking tray shapes
Prepare modelling dough.
Modelling dough
| Ingredient | Metric | Imperial |
| Plain flour | 225g | 8 ounces |
| Salt | 30ml | 1 fluid ounce |
| Water | 100ml | 4 fluid ounce |
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 it out, but keep it nice and thick. Use any shape cutters (or a freehand knife if you are a artist adult) to make shapes to hang onto the tree. Make a hole near the top of each shape (for the 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.
Christmas alphabet / words / messages
Prepare modelling dough (see panel on left).
Use a rolling pin to roll it out, but keep it nice and thick. With a pencil, draw or mark out each letter on the dough. Choose something short like WELCOME or PEACE or JOY or JESUS. Capital letters are best for this.
With a vegetable-type knife, carefully cut out each letter of your message(s). Remove any surplus dough. Optionally, make a hole near the top of each shape (for the 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, water colours, felt tips and/or glitter paint to decorate your letters. Once dry, the shapes may optionally be varnished. This will give the decoration a shiny protective coat and which will help them last many years.
Another good tip is to use tinsel to string the letters together and hang up.
