104 CINNAMON CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

I thought I’d take a break from talking about peace and share a fun project that makes the home smell so good and helps to decorate for Christmas, too.  If your schedule gets full after Thanksgiving, you can make these now and store in an air-tight container in a dry place.  Be careful because they are fragile and break easily.  These ornaments will be completely edible so they will not harm children or pets, but they are not meant to be cookies and therefore would not palatable.  There are many variations of the recipe out there on the internet, but I don’t remember where I got this one years ago.

In a one-cup measuring cup place:

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Then fill up the rest of the measuring cup with ground cinnamon.

Dump into a medium-size bowl and stir together. Add 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. applesauce and mix together to form a stiff dough.  Put in the freezer for 10 minutes before rolling out.

Do NOT use flour to coat your roller or cutters, or the ornaments will turn white instead of staying cinnamon-colored.

Roll dough to 1/4″ thickness. Cut with Christmas cookie cutters.

Let cookies lay on wax paper. Take a toothpick and make a hole at the top of the tree, star, or other shape. Take care to not make the hole too close to the top so that it doesn’t break the ornament. It has to be big enough to get yarn through. Let ornaments cool on rack to dry for 1-2 days or until thoroughly dry, turning occasionally.  I recommend NOT decorating them because it will affect the texture of the ornament and possibly the scent as well.

After they are dry, put yarn or other decorative thread through the hole for hanging. Ribbon or natural raffia can also be used, but you must make the hole bigger.  I used a needle with a BIG eye and a needle threader (see picture) to insert the yarn or ribbon into the cookie.  Be careful to not pull too hard when knotting the yarn or it will break out the hole.

This batch makes 12-15 ornaments. If more are desired, double the ingredients, but you must have enough rack space to dry them, so consider making a second batch another time if you need more.

(If the mixture doesn’t get thick enough, you can add a tablespoon of white Elmer’s glue, but then they are not edible if you are concerned about children or pets.)

Put each ornament in a Ziploc bag and include it in a Christmas card OR write a Christmas note to attach to the bag and give it in place of a card.  It’s a great way of saving money and making your Christmas greetings personal as well as fragrant.  Everyone I’ve given them to loved them.  They found their way to cubicles at work, in cars, on trees, hung by the fireplace mantel or near an air vent to circulate the scent. 

When Christmas is over or if you find yourself with some broken ornaments, place them in a small dish, add a tablespoon of water, and place them on a candle warmer.

“But let it be the hidden man of the heart,
in that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price.”
1 Peter 3:4, KJV

We usually think of ornaments as something to put on a tree or hang for decoration, but Peter mentions a meek and quiet spirit as being an ornament.  Quiet spirits definitely are a part of a peaceful heart and life!  May you experience a meek and quiet spirit as you work on this project and share the ornaments with others.