Cinnamon "Gingerbread Man" Ornaments

Somebody is gettin' Christmas crafty.

I'm not sure what got into me this year.  Last year, I didn't even have a Christmas tree.  This year, I put up the tree all by myself, wrapped gifts a month in advance, hung decorations and wreaths all over my house and even got into crafting my own ornaments and decorations.  My kitchen is usually adorned with wine colored decorations to accent my guilty pleasure/wine collection, so I filled the kitchen with cranberry decorations in a similar color.  My sage green living room is covered with decorative pine branches and pine cones.  Even my slate blue bathroom is decorated with a snowman and snowflake theme.  To say the least, I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit.

I made cinnamon ornaments when I was in elementary school, but like most grade school projects, I'm slightly embarrassed by the poor quality and lack of artistic ability that went into my crafts.  This year, I wanted homemade crafts that looked, at least, presentable.  I had gathered up a number of neat projects to do, but I started with the cinnamon because it seemed to be the simplest to accomplish.

Two ingredients and a cookie cutter later, I have a set of gorgeous gingerbread men that fit perfectly with the rest of my new Christmas decor.  An old dish cloth sacrificed itself to the cause when I cut it up into strips to form the cute little scarves.  It was super easy and has gotten me really excited to work on some more projects soon!

If you're concerned about finding all of the cinnamon needed, my suggestion is to look into bulk stores or over the internet.  I was able to find a store in my area that sold 4 oz. bottles of cinnamon for a dollar a piece.  You don't need expensive, quality cinnamon and you'll definitely want to refrain from grinding your own cinnamon from sticks because that's both a time and money suck.  Cheap and easy will work fine for this.

Oh, and did I mention how crazy delicious your house is going to smell???

















Cinnamon "Gingerbread Man" Ornaments

1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon
1 cup applesauce



Mix ingredients well in a large bowl.  Make sure the mixture is completely mixed and homogenous.

Determine how many ornaments you want to make and divide the mixture into even piles.

Use the cookie cutter of your choice to pack the cinnamon mixture well.  The more you pack, the less likely you'll have cracks in the final product.

Preheat oven 225F.

Using a toothpick or small dowel, make a hole in the top of the ornament where you'll want the string to go.  Decorate as desired.

Place ornaments on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 75-90 minutes.  Let sit overnight on baking sheet to set.

Use string, yarn or ribbon to thread through the hole for hanging on the tree.

In the off-season, store in plastic bags to retain scent.