These Cinnamon Ornaments are a really fun project to make at Christmas time! The kids love helping and the whole process makes the house smell amazing!

This recipe is based on the classic applesauce and cinnamon mixture. I just tweaked a bit by adding glitter and some additional spices. Rustic combined with a little touch of bling is a look that I just love – glitter is sometimes hard for me to resist. You can totally leave it out if you like a simpler look. Last year, I made tree shaped ornaments with green glitter. This year, stars with gold – possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

To get started, in a mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup of applesauce, 1 cup of cinnamon, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp. cloves, 1 tsp. allspice, 1 tsp. ginger, and 1 Tbsp. glitter. As an alternative, you can totally change up the spices or use all cinnamon. If you decide to use different amounts of each spice or all cinnamon, just keep the proportions the same in total. For the applesauce, I used store bought. I’m sure it would also work with homemade, although you might have to tweak the proportions a bit depending on the consistency. Store bought applesauce has consistently worked well for me (and I hate to waste precious homemade that we are not going to eat).

Start off mixing with a spoon or spatula. The dough will get tough and you’ll wonder if there is enough liquid, but just keep at the mixing, using your hands if needed. I found it easiest to kind of knead the dough on the counter once it was really tough. You want it to be cookie dough consistency so you can roll it out easily.

Sprinkle the counter with a little cinnamon and place the ball of dough on top. Sprinkle a little more cinnamon on top – not too much, just a sprinkle.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. If you see cracks on the dough, just push it together and try to roll smooth.

Use your favorite cookie cutter shapes to cut out the ornaments.

Place them on a cookie sheet. Just like with regular cookies, when you’ve cut all you can out of a rolling, squish the dough together and roll again. Keep repeating the process until all dough is used up.

Use a straw to cut neat holes at the top for stringing.

I found the dough kept getting stuck in the straw, so instead of trying to squish it out, I just snipped the end off the straw and used with a fresh cut.

Next, these either need to air dry for a few days or you can bake them in the oven at 200 degrees for an hour, then flip and bake another hour. I chose to bake them in the oven because we’ve had a lot of humidity lately and I was afraid they wouldn’t dry well if I just let them air dry. Once dry, string your favorite ribbon through them and they are ready to hang.

These will smell amazing on the Christmas tree, hanging on a wreath, as package decorations, or really anywhere you want to hang them. They will keep year after year, as long as you keep them away from moisture. I store them wrapped in tissue paper in a box and I threw in a silica gel pack that came in a shoe box. I figured that would help absorb any moisture. I wouldn’t store them in an attic or basement – keeping them dry is key.