Cinnamon Ornaments for the Holidays

One of the great things about the holidays is the wonderful scents. The Christmas Trees, the delicious baked goods, the scented candles burning....Close your eyes and I'll bet you can conjure up what your special holiday smells like in your own home.

The fastest way to bring back a memory is to introduce a familiar scent related to it. Not surprising due to the fact that the olfactory nerves are the shortest, the closest, and have the most direct route to the brain.

One way to introduce a wonderful warm "holiday" scent into your home and spend some quality fun time with the kids is with Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments.

These are NOT edible... but they do smell great.

Cinnamon Spice Ornaments

1 cup Cinnamon

1 tablespoon Cloves

1 tablespoon Nutmeg

½ cup Applesauce

2 tablespoons White Glue (like Elmer's)

Some Ribbon for hanging the ornaments

In a mixing bowl, blend all your spices together well. Add the applesauce and glue. Stir until well blended. Stir and work until it is smooth-adjusting ingredients as necessary. If too dry add extra applesauce, if too moist-add cinnamon.

Divide into 4 portions, and roll each portion out on a floured surface to an even ¼ inch thick.

Cut dough using cookie cutters. Make a small hole in the top of each ornament using a straw or toothpick.

Allow to dry on wire racks, turning over daily. It will take several days at room temp for these to dry.

Makes approximately 32-2 inch ornaments.

Here is another version that I have used, that uses fragrance oil to kick it up a notch. We got this recipe from RecipeZaar.com by Pets"R"Us. This recipe is my favorite...

Non Food Cinnamon Ornaments

1 cup Ground Cinnamon

1 tablespoon Ground Cloves

¾ cup Applesauce

1 teaspoon Fragrance Oil (your choice of scent--make sure it is cinnamon compatable - my note-- keep undiluted fragrance oil off the skin- )

2 tablespoons White Glue (like Elmer's)

In a mixing bowl, stir together the cinnamon and cloves. Mix well.

Add the applesauce, fragrance oil, and glue. Stir or knead-whatever works best for you-to get a firm yet workable dough.

As in the previous recipe, adjust as needed by adding either more cinnamon or applesauce if necessary.

Roll out on a floured surface to ¼ inch thick.

Cut out with cookie cutters ( just as above recipe). Make a small hole in the top of each ornament using a straw or toothpick.

Allow to dry on wire racks, turning over daily. It will take several days at room temp for these to dry.

Pets"R"Us says the following:

You can also use shallow plaster, cookie and candy molds, press the dough in the cavity, smooth with a rolling pin, ease out of the mold and cut away the excess dough.

Or roll out the dough, place a piece of decorative lace on the top, using the rolling pin go over it until it has left an impression of the lace, then cut out using the cookie cutters.

You also get a nice result using cookie stamps.

She also gave the idea to write on them with a gold or silver craft pen and use them as gift tags. I would love to take the credit for that one...but sadly that was not my idea. But isn't that a nice one? I would caution to just make certain they are completely dry or they may cause the ink on the wrap to smear.

Well, I hope you enjoy these as much as we do, and have as much fun making them as we do!