A few years ago my Mom decorated her tree with gingerbread ornaments and I remember sitting near it and thinking how scrumptious it smelled.
This year I decided to make some of my own gingerbread ornaments (with help from Mom and the girls) to create that same warm and homey feel for my own Christmas tree.
The recipe and idea are from Martha Stewart Living circa 1995 – but the recipe tastes just as delicious now as it did then and the results are equally as beautiful.
Martha Stewart Gingerbread Ornaments
My Mom very kindly whipped up the gingerbread dough for me, so all I had to do was roll, cut and bake.
By the time all of the baking and clean-up was done, it was early evening – so I apologize for the dark photos.
Martha’s “stiff royal icing” is reeeaaally stiff – so I slathered it on with an icing knife and then Maddie dipped the cookies into the silver dragees (we called them bead-ees). Sprinkling the bead-ees over the cookie didn’t work because the icing hardened so quickly; instead we had to press the cookies firmly into a plate of them to get them to stick.
A light smattering on our gingerbread ornaments would have been okay – but you know kids and sprinkles; there is no such thing as too much.
I did pierce each cookie with a drinking straw before baking, but the holes closed up as the cookies baked.
No problem for a DIYer though – I just used my handy-dandy DeWalt impact driver and slooooowly drilled holes through the icing and the cookies.
Believe it or not, there were no casualties – the drill worked perfectly!
We hung our gingerbread ornaments (stars and moons) with ornament hooks.
It was exactly what our tree needed!
Navy and gold is beautiful, but it didn’t feel complete somehow; these gingerbread ornaments added a third colour, a bit of texture and interest and a delectable smell to our Christmas tree.
You’ll notice that there aren’t any gingerbread ornaments lower than 24″ – which is approximately Lacey’s nose height. I’ve had the ornaments up for two days now and so far the only one missing is one I snuck to have with my tea.
That’s only to say that Lacey’s willpower is only slightly better than mine – slightly. She’s a pretty good dog, but I really am setting us both up for failure here.
Thank you Mom for the brilliant idea (and all of your work) – you were right…
it’s gorgeous.
Have a great one!
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*Beautiful*