Santa Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments & Easy Salt Dough Recipe

Santa salt dough handprint ornaments are the perfect Christmas craft for kids! Making Christmas salt dough ornaments couldn't be easier using our easy salt dough recipe and these salt dough Santa handprint ornaments make adorable Christmas keepsakes to bring out year after year.  

We love salt dough ornaments! As with all salt dough handprint ornaments this Santa craft for kids would make a beautiful gift to give to parents or grandparents and the ornaments look stunning hanging on the Christmas tree. 

A saltdough Santa handprint ornament is a great Christmas craft for babies, toddlers and preschoolers to make. A handprint father Christmas makes a truly adorable homemade first Christmas ornaments! Children grow so quickly, so its nice to capture a permanent reminder of how tiny the children's little hands are. Making salt dough ornaments is such a fun way to do this!  


SCROLL DOWN FOR OUR SALT DOUGH SANTA HANDPRINT INSTRUCTIONS 

We love making salt dough crafts for kids (well with the kids!) Do check out all our other salt dough craft ideas, we have everything from salt dough ornaments, to salt dough keepsakes and even salt dough crafts for toddlers and preschoolers to play with! 

These Santa handprint salt dough ornaments do have to be one of my favourites though, especially when they are hung side by side on the Christmas tree. You will find step-by-step instructions to make a salt dough Santa ornament for kids below. Here are a few of my other favourite salt dough crafts. 

Fingerprint Christmas tree salt dough ornament,

Star photo salt dough ornament,
Elf handprint ornament 

Salt dough handprint bowl

If you are looking for more fun keepsake crafts to go alongside your salt dough Father Christmas have a browse through our ever growing collection of DIY keepsake craft ideas or our handprint Christmas cards. You might also like to take a look at all our homemade gifts kids can make as there are some great ideas to make for a loved one this Christmas.

Salt dough crafts are quick and easy to make using our easy salt dough recipe. You only need 3 ingredients that you will already have at home, salt, plain flour and water and once you have made your salt dough craft you can air dry it, dry it out in the oven or dry it in the microwave. If you seal your salt dough and store it correctly in an air tight container your salt dough crafts should last forever!

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For making your easy salt dough recipe you will need:

• Plain flour or all-purpose flour (2 cups) 
• Salt (1 cup)
• Water (up to 1 cup)

Easy Salt Dough Recipe

Making salt dough couldn't be easier! Simply mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and then slowly add the water. If your salt dough is too sticky just add more flour.

Take a look at our full post on making salt dough for tips on baking salt dough, sealing salt dough, varnishing salt dough and storing salt dough.

To make a Santa salt dough handprint ornament you will need:

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See our recommended salt dough supplies

• Salt dough (click here for the full salt dough recipe and tips)
• Acrylic paint 
• Mod Podge sealer (There is also a spray sealer that you can use if you prefer)
• Ribbon 

(More salt dough crafts and keepsakes here)

Salt Dough Santa Handprint Ornament

Watch our Santa handprint video instructions

STEP 1: Make your salt dough

The first thing that you will need to do is make your salt dough! It's not a good idea to make salt dough ahead of time as it does start to dry out, so when doing this activity with older kids I like to include making salt dough as part of the activity. Toddlers and preschoolers love helping to measure, tip, stir and knead the dough too! 


Take a look at our easy salt dough recipe full of tips and tricks to help you make salt dough, dry out salt dough, seal salt dough and store salt dough!

STEP 2: Roll out the salt dough

Roll the salt dough into a ball and flatten it either using the palm of your hand or a rolling pin. The flattened ball of salt dough needs to be just slightly larger than the child's hand who you would like to take handprints from. The salt dough needs to be about 1cm thick once flattened.

STEP 3: Make a handprint in the salt dough

Press your child's hand onto the salt dough to create a hand print. For babies and younger toddlers it might take a few tries before you get the perfect handprint imprint. Here is Oliver (6 months old) making his first salt dough ornament!

The great thing about salt dough is that if you are not happy with the handprint you can just roll up the salt dough and try again.

(You can see in the image above an example of the size and thickness of salt dough that you will need to make a salt dough handprint ornament for a baby)

STEP 4: Cut around the salt dough handprint

Carefully cut around the salt dough handprint using a sharp knife. Take your time doing this as this will make the shape of your salt dough ornament. Look really carefully to make sure you get the exact shape of your child's hand. Once you are happy with the shape of the handprint run a finger gently around the edge of the handprint to make sure that there is a smooth edge. 

Alternatively you could leave the salt dough as it is with a handprint in the centre.

STEP 5: Make a hole for hanging your salt dough ornament

You need to make a small hole in the salt dough at the top of the handprint if you want to be able to hang your Santa handprint ornament up with ribbon. We have found that the best way of doing this is to push a straw into the salt dough, when you remove the straw the salt dough will remain inside the straw leaving a small hole.

TIP: If you make your salt dough handprint on a baking tray covered in baking paper you will be able to put the salt dough ornament straight into the oven without loosing the handprint shape as you try to move it.

STEP 6: Baking salt dough

Now you have created the shape for your salt dough ornament you need to dry out the salt dough. We have found that the best way to do this is to place the salt dough in the oven for a few hours (until the salt dough has completely dried out) at about 100 degree (celsius). It helps the drying out process if you turn your salt dough handprint once or twice during the drying out process.

Alternatively you can leave the salt dough to dry out in a warm room, but it will take several days as these salt dough handprints are quite thick or you can dry them out salt dough in the microwave.

Take a look at our salt dough recipe and tips for more details. 

STEP 7: Paint salt dough white (optional)

Paint the dried out salt dough with white acrylic paint. This will give you a good base colour to begin painting your santa design onto the handprint ornament.

(This step is optional. The first time we made a set of Santa handprint ornaments we painted the salt dough white before adding Santa's details, but for the second set of salt dough ornaments (in the video above) I painted straight onto the salt dough.)

STEP 8: Paint Santa's face onto the salt dough handprint

Once the white paint has dried it is time to turn the salt dough handprint into your Santa craft! I would suggest drawing Santa's face onto the salt dough with pencil first to make sure you are happy with it before you start painting. You need to draw lines to represent Santa's hat (including the white trim), Santa's face shape, moustache and facial features.

Once you are happy with the way your pencil drawing looks begin painting Santa's face. Start by painting Santa's hat. The hat is made up of the thumb and carries on across the the palm of the handprint. Then paint the face shape making sure that you leave room for the trim of Santa's hat and his moustache. You will then need to leave these paint colours to dry before painting the rest of the Santa handprint. 

Once the paint on the face and hat have dried add face details, a trim and bobble for the hat and a moustache. Leaving the pencil line can look effective as it helps the features on your santa handprint ornament to stand out.

STEP 9: Sealing salt dough handprint ornaments

It is really important that you varnish your salt dough ornament as if any moisture gets inside the salt dough it will make it go soggy. We use Mod Podge sealer or PlastiKote to seal all our salt dough crafts.

STEP 10: Add ribbon to your Santa handprint ornament

Once the sealer is fully dry thread some ribbon through the hole you made in your salt dough at the top of your Santa handprint. We found some Christmas ribbon filled with Christmas trees that look lovely with the Santa handprints. Your salt dough Santa handprint ornament is now ready for hanging on the Christmas tree!

Click here to see our DIY keepsake craft ideas

Related: Handprint Santa Craft (Christmas card or gift bag)

I absolutely love our Santa salt dough handprint ornaments, they really are my favourite Christmas tree ornaments for kids.  The salt dough ornaments pictured were made when Harry was 3 and Daisy was just 4 months old. These adorable Santa handprints come out year after year and they always bring back lots of special memories!

If you are looking for Santa crafts for kids I would definitely add these Christmas tree decorations to your list! 

We love these Christmas crafts for kids and they are even more adorable when made with babies, toddlers or preschoolers handprints! 

So what are you waiting for! Get a copy of our easy salt dough recipe and have a go at making your own salt dough Santa handprint ornaments to hang on the tree this Christmas! 

If you love these Santa salt dough handprint ornaments you are going to love all our other salt dough ornaments too! We have so many adorable Christmas tree ornaments for kids to make.