Today’s playdough invitation includes the recipes for 4 different heavenly scentedChristmas playdough recipes! They say that smell is deeply connected to our memoriesof childhood – let’s get busy creating some wonderful Christmas scented memories!
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The Featured Doughs…
Our 4 heavenly scented Christmas playdough recipes include:
- Cranberry Sauce Scented Playdough
- Peppermint Candy Cane Scented Playdough
- Christmas Tree Scented Playdough
- Gingerbread Cookie Scented Playdough
You will find the recipes and tips for each below! I really hope you enjoy making these recipes as much as I did – our house smells so Christmassy already! Love it.
Sniff!!! Can you say Ummmmm….Ahhhh!!
Cranberry Sauce Scented Playdough
Recipe:
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. ground nutmeg
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups cranberry juice (or one cup water and one cup juice)
Approximately 1 tbsp grated orange peel
Optional: 1/2 cup cranberries (fresh or dried)
Optional: Burgundy food colouring (I like Wilton for the vibrant colours)
Preparation:
Mix all the spices and dry ingredients well in a pot. Add the oil and juice/water and mix well. Grate in some orange peel. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the dough is sticky but not wet.
Remove the dough to a cutting board and let it cool for a minute or two. Knead dough until smooth and add in any desired food colouring. (The dough in our pictures did not have any food colouring added.) Store in an airtight plastic bag or container.
Play Ideas:
You can present this dough to your child with the cranberries on the side or already in the dough. If you leave them out, your child can have fun just adding berries and creating little cranberry masterpieces! It might be fun to add little tart pie tins as well, or play cooking dishes and utensils.
This dough smells so yummy – it naturally inspires “cooking” play. Be sure to watch your child if they still like to put things in their mouth. Although the dough is completely taste-safe, it doesn’t taste nearly as good as it smells! Enjoy!
Peppermint Candy Cane Scented Playdough
Recipe:
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. mint/peppermint extract
2 cupswater
Optional: Broken candy cane pieces (only for kids who are not still putting playdough in their mouth)
Optional: Red or green food colouring (I like Wilton for the vibrant colours)
Preparation:
Mix all the dry ingredients well in a pot. Add the extract to the oil and then add along with the water to the dry ingredients and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the dough is sticky but not wet.
Remove the dough to a cutting board and let it cool for a minute or two. Knead dough until smooth and add in any desired food colouring (or just white sparkles like we did!). Store in an airtight plastic bag or container.
Play Ideas:
This minty dough is so nice to just play with using Christmas cookie cutters, a roller, and a plastic knife. It might be fun to add in some plastic candy cane ornaments to see what your child does with them. Onetime (my 3 year old son) had fun sticking candy canes into his dough and making imprints of the canes.
Christmas Tree Scented Playdough
Recipe:
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups water
Green food colouring (I like Wilton for the vibrant colours)
Approximately 3 to 4 drops of Pine or Eucalyptus essential oils (Eucalyptus is much easier to find and smells very similar to pine!)
Preparation:
Mix all the dry ingredients well in a pot. Mix the oil with the essential oils, then add along with the water to the dry ingredients and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the dough is sticky but not wet.
Remove the dough to a cutting board and let it cool for a minute or two. Knead dough until smooth and add in green food colouring – or leave white for minty smelling “snow” playdough. Store in an airtight plastic bag or container.
Play Ideas:
You can present this dough to your child by itself with tree-shaped cookie cutters and playdough tools. Remember to closely supervise them, as this playdough is not taste-safe.
It could also be fun to provide little plastic trees (or real evergreen sprigs or pinecones) along with the dough. Kids can experiment with making imprints of the trees. Onetime had a lot of fun doing this as a step in the process to make a personalized plaque gift last Mother’s Day.
Gingerbread CookieScented Playdough
Recipe:
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. ground nutmeg
1 tbsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp.ginger
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cupswater
Brown food colouring (I like Wilton for the vibrant colours)
Preparation:
Mix all the spices and dry ingredients well in a pot. Add the oil and water and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the dough is sticky but not wet.
Remove the dough to a cutting board and let it cool for a minute or two. Knead dough until smooth and add in the brownfood colouring. Store in an airtight plastic bag or container.
Ideas for Play:
I literally got the idea for the spices in this dough from the label of the gingerbread cookie in the photos! As I was making it – the dough began to smell good enough to eat (minus the salt maybe!)
Present this dough with a few gingerbread person cookie cutters (I love this gingerbread boy and girl set).
You could also provide a bowl with small red and green coloured lentils and dried white kidney beans to decorate the “cookies.” I think we’ll actually do some real gingerbread cookies soon! Yum!
That’s it for Day 2: Heavenly Scented Christmas playdough!I hope you give this a try and your child enjoys it!
Check out the other 12 Days of Christmas Playdough for more ideas!
Best,
