When temperatures are at their lowest each year and the holidays are right around the corner, tensions between parents and their children often run high. Kids may be thrilled about being out of school for winter break, but their elation subsides quickly if it’s too cold to play outside. And that’s when moms and dads have to start scrambling for creative ways to keep their tots occupied and simultaneously get their houses decorated and their presents wrapped.
Baking Christmas cookies may be a great way to kill a few hours, but the aftermath—as your sugar-saturated helpers gobble icing straight off the spatula and chase each other around the kitchen—can be punishing enough to make you want to hang up your baking sheets forever. This winter, instead of relying on corn syrup to energize your children, consider stimulating them with these fun, easy, and inexpensive art projects. Cutting, painting, and gluing will keep them occupied for hours and brighten up your home at the same time. And isn’t multitasking what the holidays are all about?
1. Dough Ornaments
Making dough ornaments is just as entertaining for kids as baking cookies is—and it doesn’t cause that frenetic sugar high. With just a few ingredients, your little ones can design sentimental decorations that have more character than any store-bought items and will last for years to come.
Supplies:
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
Cookie cutters
Acrylic paints; glitter glue or glitter paint; ribbon
Process:
Preheat the oven to 250º F.
Mix together the salt, flour, and water until a dough forms, then knead it on a floured surface until it’s smooth and elastic.
Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness.
Use cookie cutters to make shapes (stars, hearts, Christmas trees, and so on), dipping cutters in flour between each use.
Poke a toothpick through the top of the shape, then widen the hole by a few millimeters by rotating the toothpick.
Place all shapes on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for two hours in the preheated oven. Cool completely on wire racks.
Once the dough has cooled, decorate it with acrylic paint or glitter and insert a ribbon through the hole to make a loop for hanging the ornament.
