These Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments are a Sweet Scented Holiday Craft
These homemade cinnamon applesauce ornaments are the perfect tree decorations!
Let’s DIY some ornaments!
If you’re looking for a fun and easy craft to do with the kiddos for the holidays, try these creative and frugal homemade cinnamon applesauce ornaments. They turn out so cute and leave your home smelling like Christmas!
This nostalgic ornament many of you may have made in elementary school, and this activity still remains such a wonderful holiday festivity!
This DIY will make around 15 ornaments, so you can also gift these to a few friends.
What are cinnamon applesauce ornaments?
As the name suggests, they’re ornaments made using only applesauce and cinnamon for the dough! I decided to use cinnamon from Dollar Tree for this recipe to keep it ultra frugal, and I’m so happy I gave it a try! You can’t beat the price, but of course, you can use any ground cinnamon. I was also able to snag my puffy paint from Walmart for less than $2!
Although there are ways to preserve these perishable ornaments, the scent may be lost which is what sets them apart from other faux cookie ornaments. If you do want to preserve them, simply preserve them with a spritz of clear coat spray! I have mine from when I first made this Christmas craft in 2014 and they STILL have the cinnamon scent to them.
If you tie these cinnamon applesauce ornaments together, you can even turn them into a cute Christmas garland instead of using them for ornaments.
Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
PrintSupplies Needed
- 2 - 3oz. containers of ground cinnamon
- 1 cup of applesauce
- white puffy paint
- 3-inch holiday cookie cutters
- 1 drinking straw
- Ribbon or baker's twine
Directions
1
In a bowl, combine cinnamon and applesauce. Mix well until a dough forms, using a spoon at first, and then use your hands. Add more applesauce a teaspoon at a time if it’s too dry.
2
Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/3 inch thick. For easier cleanup, I rolled the mixture out between two sheets of nonstick parchment paper – you could also use plastic wrap.
3
Prep a sheet pan with parchment paper. Cut out the shapes and place them on the sheet pan just like you would for cookies. Continue to roll out the dough to get as many cut-outs as possible. Use a drinking straw to make a hole near the top of each cut-out.
4
Bake at 200 degrees for 2.5 hours (fun side effect: your home will smell amazing!) If you prefer not to bake, you can opt to let them air dry for 2-3 days.
5
After they completely cool, embellish with white puffy paint and tie with ribbon or baker’s twine to hang on the tree. Makes around 15 ornaments.
The best-scenting ornaments yet!
My kids and I had a blast crafting these, and I love having handmade keepsake ornaments for our Christmas tree! Thanks to Hip2Save reader, Jennifer, for sending us this recipe and idea several years ago — it’s a tried and true DIY we still love today!
PS: If you’re wondering if you can eat these, something tells me they won’t taste the best. 🤣 Either way, this is a great way to get that delicious Christmas scent to fill your home without worrying about eating one too many real cookie treats!
For more ornament ideas, try making DIY Embroidery Hoop Christmas Ornaments.
I love these. We made these with our kids when they were little and they had a blast. They are still pulled out every year. Such special memories. Thank you for sharing and for the trip down memory lane. I am going to make some new ones this year. ❤️🎄
I love that idea! Out of all the homemade ornaments we have done these are some of my favs too. 🙂
Made these with my 5 yr old last week. Such a fun craft!
Yay that is so fun to hear!
how long do they last if you don’t spray them? can you still save them year to year?
When we made these a few years ago they broke after the first year even with careful storage. I think if we do this again, I’ll mix in some clear school glue or something. But it isn’t like they got rotten or anything… just brittle.
Oh darn! Good idea.
I have had mine since 2014!
Did you spray yours? Trying to make sure they stay put together 🙂
I did not because I wanted them to smell amazing and unsure if spraying would prevent that a bit? It’s up to you though!
My son made his about 8 years ago in school. We still have it.
Do these attract ants or other bugs?
I don’t believe so. At least I’ve never had that problem. I think cinnamon can actually be a natural insect repellent.
I did not find that to be the case at all.
I love making these. If you have dogs, you may not want to put them on the lower branches. Cinnamon is not toxic to dogs, but can cause some intestinal upset. Our lab nabbed a few last year and had the squirts for a bit.
Oh no. Great warning!
This post is so timely! My niece and her boys made these ornaments about 10 years ago and I just put one on the tree when we decorated this year. I told my daughter we should try to figure out how to make these. They still smell great. Thanks for posting!
Yes! How awesome! Enjoy your craft time Lesli!
Thanks so much for this post! I’m going to make them for my church Christmas party to give as gifts! I was wondering if I could add cinnamon bark oil in addition to the cinnamon powder to make them more fragrant? Thanks!
Oh yes that sounds heavenly! Have so much fun!
Our dough is crumbly.. not sure what happened
SO sorry to hear that, Sarah. It may have needed a bit more applesauce. I haven’t made these in while, however I do remember needing the dough to be soft and not dry at all. Hoping that’s helpful for if you decide to make them again. Such a sweet craft idea for this time of year. ❤️🎄
***Warning ****: Read before making!!!!
Waste of our time and money! All three of my kids cried after making this today for a 4-H project! Wish you would have told me that we needed to use spray oil or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, or something ? My three kids just ruined my best cookie sheet, wasted a batch of ingredients, wasted our time, and we lost every ornament in the batch because they just shattered when trying to remove from my cookie sheet after baking for 2 hours. They were baked to my cookie sheet. There must be a BIG step missing in this recipe?
Oh darn! We added that in the directions. That’s a smart tip that couldn’t hurt. This was written in 2014 and unsure if we covered ours but regardless that’s smart to do. Thanks for letting us know!