Kid made Christmas Ornaments ~ Gingerbread Men

After our fun Gingerbread house making party (click on over for recipe), I had SO much gingerbread dough left over.  We decided to try making ornaments out of some of the dough.  The recipe that we used for the dough was not super sticky and allowed the kids to play with it almost like play dough.

Apple sauce and cinnamon ornaments are all over Pinterest, however they are super pricey to make.  We decided to make Gingerbread ornaments instead, made from our left over gingerbread.  So cheap and easy!

Roll out the gingerbread dough and cut out Christmas shapes with cookie cutters.

I love the kids extra touches of hats, buttons etc.  They were really excited that they would be able to keep their creations unlike regular play dough.

Before you bake the little ornaments make sure that you use a tooth pick to make a hole at the top so you can hang them on your tree.

Gingerbread Ornaments

We baked ours at 350 for 20 mins.

Once they come out of the oven, let the ornaments cool completely.  This will harden the gingerbread slightly, and make them more sturdy to hang on the tree.

We also painted ours with a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water.  The glue mixture helps to seal the gingerbread ornaments. I can’t wait to hang these on my tree fro years to come!

I was curious if once the dough was baked if all the little added hands, buttons etc would stay attached.  We did have to glue a few limbs back on, but for the most part the ornaments were pretty solid.

I love how these ornaments turned out.  What a special tree!  These would also be super cute on a present with a little ribbon.  These ornaments are relatively inexpensive, especially if you are already making gingerbread.  Just use all the left over scraps.  These gingerbread ornaments are way less expensive than the apple sauce and cinnamon ornaments that are everywhere.

*UPDATE* after 2 years these little gingerbread ornaments are holding up great!  I store them packed in tissue paper in a rubbermaid container along with all the rest of our ornaments.  They are some of my favorite ornaments to hang each year!