21 Easy Salt Dough Ornaments to Make in Time for Christmas
These festive ideas are anything but old-fashioned.
The best Christmas crafts double as decor. Think about it: If you're going to take the time to make something from scratch, you want to bask in its beauty (and your handiwork) all season long. With that being said, so many DIY Christmas decorations are hard to pull off, especially if you're looking for a quick, easy and relatively cheap way to deck the halls. Enter salt dough ornaments, a kid-friendly Christmas craft that stuns on any tree.
Chances are, you have everything you need in your pantry to make salt dough — salt, flour and water. The classic dough looks beautiful on its own, but you can also customize the recipe with your choice of food coloring, spices and essential oils to give the ornaments a different look (or, in some cases, scent).
To help you get inspired, we've rounded up an assortment of salt dough ornament ideas — some homemade ornaments embossed with your kid's handprints, others match your home's holiday aesthetic with glitter and paint. All of these crafts have the same foundation but be sure to read the instructions carefully since the ingredients and baking time (air-dry and no-bake vs. using an oven) may vary from one ornament to the next.
Stamped Salt Dough Ornaments
Once you roll out your salt dough, use glass objects to create cool impressions. Consider vintage crystal cut glassware, leaves or doilies. When you're satisfied, cut out your shapes using cookie cutters and use a straw to poke a hole for a ribbon topper.
Star Salt Dough Ornaments
Give your cookie cutters a whole new purpose with this craft. Each cut gives you two ornaments — a big star cut-out and an adorable mini.
Minimalist Salt Dough Ornaments
Bring the outside in by stamping the dough with natural textures, including fresh pine needles, tree branches and fallen
Simple House Salt Dough Ornaments
Create your own Rainbow Row by dyeing the salt dough in an array of vibrant hues. Then hang them along a strand of twinkle lights to make the windows glow.
Gingerbread Salt Dough Ornaments
Pop these cut-outs in the oven to fill your house with the scents of the season. Remember: These gingerbread men are solely for decoration, not eating.
Modern Salt Dough Ornaments
Mix some white acrylic paint into your dough to give it a lighter, brighter effect. Then tailor your ornaments to your tree — light pink with glitter accents to suit a gold-themed tree, for example.
Glittery Salt Dough Ornaments
Simple salt dough gets a splashy treatment with this DIY salt dough ornament project. All you'll need for this craft is acrylic paint and glitter. Tie with golden twine for added pizzazz.
Melted Snowman Ornaments
These adorable salt dough ornaments are easily sculpted to look like melting snowmen. And if your kid still can't get enough of Frozen, DIY Olaf instead of a nondescript snowman.
Doughnut Salt Dough Ornaments
Use a mini silicone donut baking pan and acrylic paint to create these trendy salt dough ornaments that take the form of sprinkled and frosted treats.
Fingerprint Salt Dough Ornaments
This is one of the best salt dough ornament ideas because you can get the kids involved. Let your little ones press their fingers into the dough to create sweet and colorful lights from their own unique fingerprints.
Scented Salt Dough Ornaments
Let the aroma of the season permeate your home with these scented salt dough ornaments — made with ingredients you probably already have on hand in the kitchen, such as cinnamon and maple ginger tea.
Sea Glass Salt Dough Ornaments
These salt dough ornaments use sea glass for a festive green look. If you don’t have easy access to the beach to collect your own sea glass, fear not: just adapt the tutorial using other textured objects, such as buttons.
Paw Print Snowflake Ornaments
Get the pets involved in the holiday festivities! After rolling out the salt dough and cutting it with a snowflake cookie cutter, press your pet’s paw into the dough. Paint your pet's name and the year on the back for a fur-ever memory.
Salt Dough Ornament Garland
Use your simple salt dough to make a charming garland. Create an array of snowflake shapes with cookie cutters, then string them on twine, and they'll be ready to stretch across a mantel or window.
Fingerprint Christmas Tree Ornaments
These fingerprint Christmas tree ornaments are super easy, making them the perfect project for toddlers and preschool kids. Paint the year on each ornament, and string them on the tree as the kids grow for a memory of a precious time — and a treasured keepsake.
Graphic Salt Dough Ornaments
Cut the dough into festive shapes with cookie cutters and then top the ornaments with colorful vinyl cut into graphic designs.
Salt Dough Gift Toppers
Cut salt dough into the shape of your gift recipients’ initials for a gift topper that is as pretty as it is personal. Poke a small hole to thread with twine. After the gift is open, they can use the initial as a Christmas tree ornament.
Get the tutorial from Burlap and Blue »
RELATED: Festive Gift Wrapping Ideas to Give Your Presents That Extra Sparkle
Nautical Salt Dough Ornaments
Craft starfish shapes by starting with a big ball for the body and then pulling five tentacle shapes from the center. Use a toothpick to prick little holes along the surface.
Beaded Salt Dough Ornaments
Kids will love poking glass beads right into the salt dough to make ornaments that catch the light when strung on a Christmas tree or hung in a window. Add an optional coat of Mod Podge or paint at the end to finish the look.
Santa Salt Dough Ornaments
These quaint and colorful salt dough ornaments evoke timeless heirlooms passed down through generations. Start with acrylic paint as a base coat, then finish with a few layers of polyurethane to seal them so they keep for years to come.
Alesandra is a digital travel and lifestyle journalist based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, Prevention, Insider, Glamour, Shondaland, AFAR, Parents, TODAY and countless other online and print outlets. Alesandra has a masters degree in journalism with an emphasis on cultural reporting and criticism from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. An avid traveler, she trots the globe with her husband and their twins.
Amanda Garrity is a lifestyle writer and editor with over seven years of experience, including five years on staff at Good Housekeeping, where she covered all things home and holiday, including the latest interior design trends, inspiring DIY ideas and gift guides for any (and every) occasion. She also has a soft spot for feel-good TV, so you can catch her writing about popular shows like Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias, Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart and more.
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