How to make salt dough Christmas decorations

Salt dough Christmas decorations on a table

Whether you wish you decorate your own family tree with the kids or give these away as gifts, simple salt dough decorations are so easy and fun to make. Follow our guide and learn how to make salt dough, then use the steps below to decorate and hang your own beautiful Christmas decorations.

See our homemade Christmas decoration ideas, top Christmas crafts for kids and top DIY Christmas crafts for more festive crafting inspiration.

How to make salt dough decorations

Makes 10-12 decorations

You will need
1 quantity salt dough
plain flour, for dusting
rolling pin
biscuit cutters
piping nozzle (optional)
acrylic paints or felt-tip pens
thin ribbon

Method

1. Roll the salt dough out onto a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of about 5mm.

2. Use the biscuit cutters to cut shapes from the dough – we chose Christmas trees and snowflakes.

3. Press the tip of a piping nozzle into the top of each shape to make a neat hole. If you don’t have a piping nozzle, you can use a sharp pencil to poke a hole through the dough. Choose the position carefully – the hole needs to be near the top of the design, but not so close to the edge that it breaks.

4. Set your oven to its lowest heat. Put your shapes on a lined baking sheet and bake for 3 hrs, or until solid. Leave to cool completely.

5. Once cool, paint and decorate as you like. We found that acrylic paint works best, but you could also colour them with felt-tip pens, glitter or festive stickers. Leave to dry. To finish, loop the ribbon through the hole and tie at the top, ready to hang on the tree.

Ideas for festive salt dough decorations

- Expand this section to a top 10 list, using inspiration from crafts websites and Getty images. Include more pics to show ideas (don't need to go into method too much, keep to length of existing entries)

1. Baby’s first Christmas

Make a new family keepsake by rolling out a circle of salt dough and helping a child gently push their hand into it to make an imprint. Decorate as you’d like, adding the year to the back of the decoration.

2. Tree shapes

Cut out a single large tree shape, bake for a little longer (4-6 hrs), leave to cool, then paint green. Younger children will now be able to help decorate with star stickers, pieces of tinsel or pom-poms.

Christmas tree figurine handmade salt dough toy on Christmas tree. Vertical Holiday background. Design for card, poster or banner. Selective focus. Space for text.

3. Names on the tree

For a fun family activity, each of you can add your name onto a decoration using a glitter pen.

hand painted Christmas heart ornament with word family on festive tree

4. Sparkling snowflake

Use a cutter to cut out a snowflake shape, then bake until solid. Once cool, paint white, then let your little ones decorate with silver glitter pens.

Stock photo of artificial Christmas tree homemade colourful snow flake decorations made from salt dough, baked like cookies and painted by hand with acrylic and poster paints, fake Xmas tree decorated with twinkling fairy lights, silver tinsel, baubles

5. Candy canes

These candy canes are simple but effective, using a biscuit cutter for ease. Get creative by using a variety of paints and glitter combinations.

hand painted Christmas salt dough ornaments on festive wood table

6. Shining stars

Christmas trees aren't compete without some star decorations. Feel free to mix and match with paint and glitter for a homemade touch.

7. Gingerbread man

A friendly-looking gingerbread person makes an adorable addition to any Christmas tree – just make sure to let little ones know this one isn't edible!