Winter Playdough

These winter playdough recipes are a simple way to enjoy the icy outdoors during the winter months – right from the warm comfort of home!

Since we’ve been blasted with freezing temperatures outside, I decided to whip up a few batches of winter playdough with my 2.5 and 5 year-olds that would let them imagine playing in the cold outdoors without the runny noses and stinging fingertips.  This recipe is the perfect compliment to our Playdough Mats!

For most of the dough, we simply added extracts or cocoa to our smooth and squishy One Pot Playdough Recipe.  The recipes below make enough dough for two children to play.

For each recipe, we simply added all the ingredients to a pot, mixed until all the lumps were gone, then cooked over low heat and stirred often.  After a while, the dough started to thicken and pulled away from the sides of the pot.

Once the dough thickened, I turned off the heat and allowed it to cool. After several minutes, I dumped the still tacky dough onto a clean counter and kneaded it until it was smooth and no longer sticky.

Pine-Scented Winter Playdough

To scent the winter playdough, we picked a few springs from an evergreen in our yard and steeped them in 3 cups of boiling water.  We then used the water in the following recipe:

• 3 cups of flour
• 3/4 cups of salt
• 6 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• green food coloring (vibrant color of gel food coloring works great)
• 3 cups of pine-steeped water
• 2-3 drops pine essential oil (optional, if you prefer a stronger scent)

Minty Ice Winter Playdough

• 3 cups of flour
• 3/4 cups of salt
• 6 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract
• blue or aqua food coloring (add only 1-2 drops at a time)
• 3 cups water

Hot Chocolate Winter Playdough

• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 3 packets of instant hot chocolate or
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups of salt
• 6 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 3 cups of water

Once the playdough was kneaded, I grabbed sticks, rocks, some arctic animals, and invited my very eager kiddos over to play.  They giggled for a good hour as they built a frozen tundra and created some pretty hilarious storylines, one of which had a wolf caught in a tree.

After building with their icy winter playdough, I suggested taking a break to warm up with some “cocoa.” My 5 year-old loved that I got in on the fun with them as we pretended to sip our tiny hot cocoa mugs.

Later in the week, we used these doughs (along with our snowman playdough) to create more winter wonderland scenes.  The kids loved the subtle scents and hours of imaginative play, and I loved watching them enjoy all of that winter play – without having to peel off all of those layers!

When you’re done, don’t forget to snag our Playdough Mats!