Gingerbread Man in a Jar

rst g, This kids’ homemade gift, a gingerbread man in a jar, is the perfect gingerbread playdough kit that brings the Gingerbread Man story to life!

My 5 year old daughter, A, loved every step of creating the homemade gift – from making the playdough to packaging up the gingerbread man decorations.  Her favorite part, however, was playing Santa and hand delivering these gingerbread men in a jar to her friends.

To make the gingerbread playdough, we simply added spices to our delightfully squishy one-pot playdough recipe.  My kids added all the ingredients to a pot and  mixed it until all the lumps were gone.

Then, I cooked the mixture over low heat, stirring often until it started to thicken and pull away from the sides. When the dough was still slightly sticky, I turned off the heat and allowed it to cool.  Once cool, I kneaded the dough several times until smooth and no longer sticky.

Gingerbread Playdough Recipe

• 1 1/2  cups of flour
• 6 tablespoons of salt
• 3 tablespoons of cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 cups of water

Gingerbread Man in a Jar

While the dough cooled, my kids began putting together the little baggies of gingerbread man parts for each kit.  We added google eyes, cloves for the mouth, icing made out of white pipe cleaners and plenty of buttons to use for the nose and clothing. Cut pipe cleaner can be quite pokey so make sure to turn the ends in so no fingers get pricked.

My daughter helped me roll a large ball of gingerbread playdough for each mason jar. Rolling the ball into a cylinder shape helped it slide into the jar more easily.  We added the baggie of gingerbread man parts on top of the dough and screwed on the lid. We then wrapped baker’s twine around each lid and hung a gingerbread cookie cutter on the sides. Then, I added a simple label to the fronts and our kits were ready to go!

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