Salt dough star
There's plenty of time for fancy colour coordinated Christmas trees before you have children or when they're grownup. In the meantime, you should be ready for homemade decorations. They become part of your family's individuality and little hands will enjoy hanging them on the branches year after year.
Salt dough is simple and cheap to make and ideal for modelling into Chistmas tree decorations. Here's how to make some sparkly stars.
There are various steps involved so you can stretch this out over several days or do it in a concentrated period of time depending on how engaged your kids are.
Time: 40 minute activity
Age: Under 5's and 5-10s
Level: Easy
Materials
Paint (poster paint for younger children but acrylic can be used for older kids)
Ribbon or thread for hanging
Roll out the salt dough until it is 1/2 to 1cm thick
Cut stars from the dough with a pastry cutter & pierce a hole for hanging up.
Use a pastry cutter in any design or go freestyle
A skewer or straw can be used to cut a hole for hanging
Place on a piece of greaseproof paper on a plate
Microwave for 1 minute on medium high. Repeat if your stars need a little longer. This will depend on how thick they are.
Microwave small thin decorations so that you don't have to wait long for painting
Alternatively you can bake them in the oven for 2-3 hours on a low heat (50 degrees C) or leave to air dry in a warm room over a couple of days.
Paint the stars and leave to dry
Let little fingers get all messy, you can just wipe up afterwards
Dab the stars with glue and shake on glitter
Once dry, thread through a piece of ribbon or thread and tie so that your child can hang on the Christmas tree.
Mixing, kneading, rolling, cutting, painting and glitter all in one creative activity
