Make Cheap Christmas Ornaments

The basic materials are very simple: cinnamon and applesauce! A little acrylic paint and some ribbon or string would enhance the ornaments beyond their basic form. The recipe makes one dozen medium-sized cookie ornaments. These are cute enough to be used as pre-Christmas or hostess gifts. Consider giving a set of a dozen decorated gingerbread men in a tissue-lined box. One year I gave homemade greenery swags and wreaths, decorated with these gingerbread ornaments. If you have tiny cookie cutters, you can make little angels, trees, bears or gingerbread men for wreaths (be sure to poke a much smaller hole in the top of these than you would use for a regular sized ornament!).

Want cookie cutters? Try ShopGoodwill.com, which is the first Internet auction site operated by a nonprofit organization. When I did a search (click on ShopGoodwill.com to be taken to the baking page) there were several sets of cookie cutters, including a fancy all copper set. Don't forget to check eBay.com also. Very affordable cookie cutters often end up at local second hand stores including those run by Goodwill,St., Salvation Army, and other thrift stores.

Need paint? Here is a site with a variety of cheap paint sites: eHow.com. One of the suggested sites is eBay.com. Thin ribbon can be found on eBay.com also. eHow also has links to "cheap gift ribbon, high quality gift ribbon, or free gift ribbon." They mentioned that they probably couldn't find it for you, free, on line, but they do have quite a few links for inexpensive ribbon. This site also gives you links to sales on wrapping paper, gifts, etc.

Ready to get started? Here we go:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Mix 4 ounces of ground cinnamon with 10 tablespoons of applesauce.

If you do not have much ground cinnamon and plan to make several batches of this recipe, you will need a good cheap source of the stuff. Here it is: Spicebarn.com. A pound of the stuff (16 ounces) will make 4 batches of this recipe. Fortunately, applesauce is very cheap.

The applesauce will turn brown-keep mixing. Then knead the dough into a ball. If the mixture cannot roll out easily add more applesauce.

The dough now needs to be divided into two balls. Roll it out on a piece of waxed paper or aluminum foil. You don't want this stuff sticking to your counter or creating dark spots on a light counter top.

Roll your dough into ¼" thickness. Now you can cut out shapes with cookie cutters or knives. Be sure to only use cookie cutters or shapes which are less than 4" long! Beyond that size, the "cookie" becomes unstable. Small gingerbread men cookie cutters make cute ornaments which are fun to decorate. But use your creativity and whatever cookie cutters you have! We have bears, gingerbread men, stars, trees, etc.

Use a nut pick, straw, chop stick or other fairly round device to punch a hole at the top of the ornament. Be careful not to place your hole at the edge because you will need to put a ribbon or string through the hole, after the cookie ornament is baked so that the ornament can be hung.

Bake the cookies on an uncreased cookie sheet at 200 degrees for 20-30 minutes. If the ornaments cook too long the edges curl. So check your ornaments and remove them before that starts to happen. Use a spatula to remove the ornaments from the cookie sheet. Place them on a wire rack or the counter to cool completely.

Once the cookie ornaments are cool, you can decorate them with acrylic paint and thread a ribbon or string through each hole, tying a knot at the top of each string so you have a loop for hanging.

The cookie ornaments will last for several years if they are stored in a tissue-lined box in a cool dry and pest-free place.

Please do not allow people to try to eat these "cookies!" That much cinnamon is distressing to the body, and acrylic paint or other craft decorations (obviously) are not meant to be eaten.