Playdough is one children’s activity that has been done a million times, but never seems to lose its magic!

Playdough Christmas trees are a fun and festive spin on an old classic. All you need is the playdough, some decorations and your imagination!

Step 1 - Make playdough:

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

4 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons cooking oil

Green food colouring

2 cups warm water

Method

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Add oil and food colouring into the warm water. Slowly pour wet mix into dry ingredients, mixing as you go. Once the mixture combines to form a dough like consistency, you can use your hands to knead until smooth. Done!

I never seem to get the consistency perfect first go, so have some flour and water or oil on hand if the dough is too dry or too wet. Another little tip is to keep play dough in an airtight container in the fridge, it will last at last a couple of weeks!

Step 2 - the decorations:

Buttons

Pom Poms

Beads

Ribbon

Gumnuts

Pine needles

Pipe cleaners

… or anything else you can think of! Try to use things you’ve already got around the house or garden if you can, but if in doubt your local craft or $2 store will have what you need.

Once you’ve made the playdough and collected an assortment of bits and bobs for decorating, it’s time to get busy! You can create a 3D Christmas tree by moulding the dough in your fingers, or roll it out and cut the tree shape out. When you’re finished decorating the tree, you can squish it all and start all over again - hours of fun to be had!