Easy Toddler-Made Christmas Ornament

My oldest daughter is just now getting to that stage of toddler-hood where she wants to play WITH me rather than next to me. That’s really working-out, since I wanted to make some Christmas ornaments with her this year. We tackled an Easy Toddler-Made Christmas Ornament, loosely based on a candy cane ornament I made with my mom when I was a kid. The result was awesome–and we’ll definitely be doing this again with my youngest in a year or so…

Ingredients for the Toddler-Made Christmas Ornament

Red play dough (I used my peppermint play dough recipe)
White play dough (I just used my vanilla play dough recipe, because it smells so darn good)
A toddler (heh)

How to Make the Toddler-Made Christmas Ornament

Roll your play dough out into long lines and lay them beside each other.
Now, wind them together like a candy cane, to kind of get your toddler started (they would just as well play with the colors separately, if you don’t do this step–then you won’t have a candy cane, but two lumps of different colors side by side…).
Allow the toddler to go to town.
To my daughter, this meant rolling the dough up into a ball, grabbing my rolling pin, mashing the dough, stabbing it with the handle of the rolling pin, etc. Basically, she just had a really good time with it.
Then, when your kiddo is done mushing, mashing and having a blast, you just kind of roll it back into a line–then curl the ends a little like candy canes, if you so desire, then mush their little thumbs into it at every half-inch or so, to make some ripples.
Pre-heat your oven to 250-degrees.
Place the ornament onto a baking sheet and into the oven for approximately an hour.
At the hour mark, shut-off the oven, but leave the ornament in the oven.
Allow the ornament to rest for an additional 2 hours in the cooling oven.
At this point, the ornament should be stiff enough to handle, however, refrain from putting it on the tree for at least 24 hours, just to make sure.

Check it out! Here’s a handy photo tutorial. Just in case you don’t know what the heck I was talking about…LOL!

I’d love to see your pictures of your kiddo’s candy canes. If you do it–drop me a photo in the comments!

To see more awesome holiday inspiration, check out the 12 Days of Christmas over on EmmaOwl!