If you're looking for an easy Christmassy DIY to do this year, this is the one. It smells like Christmas and looks like anything you want it to. Just roll out some cinnamon applesauce dough and enjoy a spectacularly scented Christmas.
Christmas isn't just the season of joy. It's the season of scent with bouquets of of cinnamon, vanilla, pine, and burning money wafting through the air. You have no idea how important the sense of smell is until you lose it.
One of the symptoms of Sinusitis is the loss of smell and taste. A few years ago I lost it all. I couldn't smell flowers or lasagna or anything. I also couldn't smell gut rot breath or dog poop so there was good and bad to the situation.
As soon as I got my sense of smell back, I started smelling everything in my path.
With Christmas approaching, my nose is moving into high gear again. I expect and want everything I pick up to be scented. Pine cones, candles and cookies are all lifted to my expectant nose. If they aren't scented, I get incensed.
So how do you make them?
Cinnamon Applesauce scented ornaments. All it is, is equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. That's it. Roll it out, cut it with cookie cutters and let it dry.
Materials/Ingredients
- Cinnamon
- Applesauce
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutters
- Sparkles
Method
Mix together equal parts applesauce and cinnamon until it forms a dough.
If you want to use other spices like nutmeg or cardamom, mix your dry ingredients first, then add them to the applesauce.
It'll look like regular cookie dough. Shockingly so, in fact.
Roll the dough out and if you want sparkles, add sparkles on top.
Then just use your cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
I bought this Moose shaped cookie cutter for the occasion but you can get a similar one (nicer shape actually) here.
Carefully lift the "cookies" up and place them on a cookie sheet, punch a hole in them so you can hang them and bake at 200° F for at least 3 hours. (You can also dry them on the counter but it'll take days.)
Adding realistic touches from nature will elevate the holiday ambiance. Note the careful application of sparkles, the perfect plop of poop which also smells like apples and cinnamon. Unless you happen to have have sinusitis.
Easy DIY Scented Ornaments.
Just equal parts applesauce and cinnamon make these easy and fast to whip up, plus you can customize them however you want with a cookie cutter.
I've added links to some worthy cookie cutters for 2020 in the "Notes".
Ingredients
- 1 cup applesauce
- 1 cup cinnamon
- nutmeg (optional)
- cardamom (optional)
- clove (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 F.
- Mix together your dry ingredients if you're using more than just cinnamon. (you can use any mix, just make sure the total of dry equals the total of applesauce).
- Mix the dry ingredients with applesauce with a fork and then with your fingers until you have a dough.
- Roll the dough out to ¼". If you'd like to add sparkles do it now by sprinkling them over the rolled out dough. Press them in by going over them once or twice with a rolling pin.
- Cut the dough out with any cookie cutter of your choice. Using a straw, cut a hole in the shape for you to run an ornament hanger or string through. Transfer "cookies" to a baking sheet and bake at 200 F for 2 hours or until dry.
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To store these from year to year just put them in an airtight container. The scent will last for years.
Honestly, if you're looking for a spur of the moment, fun, little crafty thing to do this holiday season these are the way to go. Play some carols, grab a stemmed glass and throw on your crafting frock.
You can make the ornaments as simple as mine or get way more creative with them. You're only limited by your imagination.
And maybe the size of your bottle of wine.
moose poops! :) Here's something I'd love for you to bring up on your site - right now I'm in day 3 of flu? bad-ass cold? and can smell absolutely NOTHING. On top of that my nose is a faucet, and my body aches so badly, my hair hurts. I have HBP so can't take regular OTC meds. Would love to get some tips and recipes for home made illness remedies that really work and work fast!
OK back to bed....
Thanks for the inspiration. Although I don't have sinusitis (I had a really horrible one last year, although I did not lose taste) I can no longer smell my Christmas tree. No wonder, it was probably harvested in mid November (I purchased it Dec 1st) and by now it's shedding its needles in copious quantities. If I finish my translation with some time to spare, I will get applesauce and glitter tonight.
I doh know if its worst that you could smell a fart or you can't? Anyway...I like these ornaments that are smellable. I have never really used that word before. O well...I hope your holidays so far are jolly and merry...and fart-less-ish.
Well thanks Anemone! :) ~ karen
Happy, Happy Birthday, Karen!
And thank you so much for all the early morning laughs.
Thanks Ritz! ~ karen
As to the question of lasting stink - good news! If you wrap these up carefully and store them away with your other Christmas keepers, you will be greeted with a most amazing smell when you open that box or bin next year. I have some that I made with my kids about 6 years ago, and they have only just now stopped smelling wonderful. We did gingerbread men, though, not moose, more's the pity.
These are fantastic and really easy to make with the kids. One recipe I found suggested adding a few tablespoons of white glue to the mix, to help them "keep", though I'm not sure how worthwhile that is.
I tried to convince the girls to use the snowflake cookie cutters.
We now have cinnamon scented Yodas, Darth Vadars, and R2D2s instead.
Happy holidays.
LOL. I love the sound of a cinnamon Yoda ornament! ~ karen!
So I heard this joke recently and, simply because this post is about a moose and because you're Canadian, I thought you might like it.
This Scottish guy goes on a skiing trip to Canada. After a hard day on the slopes, he retires to a bar at the bottom of the mountain.
After about five or six whiskies, he looks up and notices a stuffed animal on the wall with antlers, so he says to the barman, "what the hell is that?"
The barman says, "it's a moose." The Scottish chap says, "Damn! How big are the cats?"
Hah! :) ~ k
Happy Birthday Karen! You have a sort of sucky b-day though. My real b-day is New Years Day, and a couple of years ago I moved it to April 15th. Should have done it way long ago! January 1 is too close to Christmas-everyone is visited out and worn out, and the weather in northeast Ohio is often bad then. So, I chose Tax Day-figured it would be easy to remember and not icy, most likely! Works great!
Your stinky moose idea is wonderful and I hope to have a batch almost done when we have our big Christmas gathering--lovely smells and a take home gift for all!. Thanks Karen!
moose poop
you totally crack me up
Thank you!
My house smells Amazing now!!! I made faux gingerbread men. Thank you for sharing! I need to find a moose cutter for next year!
Hey! I missed something I think!! I wanna know about the stick penis! I missed something fun...tell me tell me!
....about this project, my 9yr old son will love this. We will do it tonight when he gets home from school....he will think I am the SHIZNIT...thx to you!
OH and PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
OK..I want me a Moose cookie cutter..I assume that the moose poop was done free form and I can't buy a cutter for that..Right?? Happy B-Day to the Queen of Stuff..
Oh, and Happy Birthday. You deserve a nice break - but your kind of break, one where you build shelves or perhaps a home-made Christmas tree or some such thing.
past experience with ruined homemade 'cookie' style ornaments leads me to ask: do these come off the sheet easily?? - this is the perfect craft to share with my gransdaughter but just want to make sure how to get them off the cookie sheet in ONE piece. Thank you for this great idea!
Kate - You do have to be careful taking them off the sheet but as long as you go slowly and make sure you roll them to at least a quarter of an inch. The thicker they are the easier they are to lift.
Ha, I love the final addition. Also, please tell me you're that talented with the chalk and that wasn't photoshopped - your Merry Christmas font is spectacular!
Shauna - Yep, that's my own handiwork on the chalkboard. It took a while! Thank you for noticing. :). - karen
Hahaha Karen soooo wish you were my next door neighbor,I would have been completely honest with you about your chili! MUUUUHAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAA! (that's my evil laugh BTW.)
http://www.dawnajonesdesign.com/
My daughter (her name is Karen too and her birthday is Dec. 25th) made these cinnamon/applesauce ornaments last year but in different shapes. She made a three foot tree from old grapevine found on her property down east, added little white lights and dried orange slices. It makes a beautiful tabletop feature in her living room at Christmas and the fragrance must be so very nice. Unfortunately, I can't smell it 'cause I'm 1600 miles away. So, if it's your birthday today Karen, " Happy Birthday"! I love your creativity and I love moose, droppings and all.
Happy Birthday! ~</:0)x
Those look amazing! I love the moose poop too, so daring... I think I will do sparkly stars as that is the cookie cutter I have right now.
Happy Birthday Karen, this is your year!!! (the whole year until your next birthday, not just until December 31st). Hope the Fella takes you out somewhere nice...
I've made these before and they do last for years. I just wrapped them in tissue paper and boxed them up each year and they were fine.