Week 2: Gingerbread Salt Dough Ornaments

It’s time for week 2 of “What Are We Doing This Weekend?” Wednesday!

This week I wanted to go the keepsake route and make salt dough ornaments with my kids’ faces on them, and what better way to do that than turning them into little gingerbread men?

I decided to experiment a bit and added cinnamon, ginger, and cocoa powder to the dough to try to color it and make it smell like Christmas. The scent worked beautifully. The color… only partially worked. Some ornaments baked up pale, others stayed dark, and a few landed somewhere in the middle category. I’m not totally sure why, but honestly, it kind of added to the charm. To make them more uniform in the end, we just painted them all brown.

They turned out so cute and funny, and I actually made enough to send to grandparents too, so that feels like a win. Will they all arrive in time for Christmas? That remains to be seen.

 

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Warm water
• Cinnamon (optional)
• Ginger (optional)
• Cocoa powder (optional)

Supplies

• Mixing bowl
• Rolling pin
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper or foil
• Gingerbread man cookie cutter
• Drinking straw (for holes)
• Oven
• Ribbon or twine
• Printed photos of your kids’ faces
• Glue
• Hole punch (for photos)

I mixed the flour and salt, then slowly added warm water until a smooth dough formed. After kneading it for a few minutes, I rolled the dough out to about ¼ inch thick.

Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter, I cut out the shapes and used a straw to poke a hole at the top of each one for hanging. I baked them low and slow (250 degrees for 3 hours, flipping every hour) until they were completely dry, then set them aside to cool.

Once baked, the kids decorated the gingerbread men with paint. After everything dried, we printed small photos of their faces, trimmed them to size, punched a tiny hole at the top of each photo, and glued them onto the ornaments. Finally, we added ribbon and hung them on the tree!

Mess level: 2/10
Very low, no messier than baking cookies. A little flour and paint cleanup, but nothing too wild.

Fun level: 7/10
I think I enjoyed this one more than the kids, but to be fair, I’m also the one who will be squealing with joy every year when I pull these out of the sentimental ornament bin.

Time spent: 45–60 minutes
This project stretched over two days with baking, painting, drying, and gluing, but we weren’t working the entire time. The kids probably spent about 45 minutes to an hour actively decorating.

Prep needed: Medium
I needed to make and bake the dough ahead of time and have photos printed and cut out. 

Hidden benefits:

• Sensory play through mixing, kneading, and rolling out dough
• Fine motor skill development from decorating and handling small pieces
• Cause and effect as kids watch the dough bake and materials come together
• Creativity and self-expression through open-ended decorating
• Emotional connection built by creating something meaningful together
• Built-in keepsake that becomes more valuable over time

These little gingerbread men perfectly capture where we are right now: messy, sweet, and slipping by faster than I’d like. I love that my kids were part of every step, from decorating the ornaments to deciding how they wanted to be shown in the final photos. I hope these ornaments always remind us not just of how small they once were, but of who they were becoming too.

If you’d like to see this activity in action, you can find us over on Instagram @laynahrose. And of course, join us next Wednesday for another one simple thing!

With Love,

Laynah