I wanted this project to be very kid friendly, so I decided on salt dough for our chrismon ornaments.

We whipped up a simple batch of salt dough using this recipe:

1 cup salt

1 cup water

2 cups flour

(add a little more flour if it’s sticky)

Just roll it out and your ready to go!

We didn’t have many of the shapes we wanted so we had to get creative with the ones we had.  We used our simple shape cutters to make bases for the ornaments, and then used either another cutter or just our own made-up designs to lay on top.  Our batch of dough made about a dozen ornaments.

For example, on the one above we used our square cutter, turned it sideways, and then layered our lion on top of it.

This monogram refers to Christ as “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5)

The crown up at the top represents Christ as He is called “The King of Kings”. (I Tim. 6:15)

Here is another one where we just used our circle cutter and then layered a butterfly on top.

The butterfly is a traditional symbol for the resurrection. Jesus is called “the resurrection and the life…”. (John 11:25)

For some of the symbols we just used our fingers and did the best we could.  Here’s a candle I molded…

Jesus is called the “Light of the World”.  (John 9:5)

Don’t forget to punch a hole in the top with a drinking straw before you bake these so you can hang them later.

After the ornaments were done, we baked them for a solid two hours at *250.

We let them cool and then got busy painting! Painting is always the best part!

We used a Metallic White Pearl acrylic paint for the bases.

It really made them shimmer!

Then we used some Twinkles gold glitter paint for the symbols themselves. White and gold are the traditional colors of Chrismons–white representing the purity of Christ, and gold representing the glory of God.

While the Twinkle paint was still wet we used a dry brush and brushed some of Martha Stewart’s florentine gold Tinsel Glitter over some to make them REALLY sparkly!

Like on the Lion, here, we added the tinsel glitter around the mane to accent it.

When they were dry, we tied some wired gold cord onto each one.

I love the way the metallic pearl paint shimmers.  It’s really pretty! And the gold really glistens near the lights.  These turned out better than I expected and my husband likes them a lot.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we make another dozen next year to add to this batch.

Here are a few more…

The Chi-Rho symbol is Christ’s name  in Greek- it’s actually the first two letters of His name.

The symbol of wheat represents Christ as “The Bread of Life”. (John 6:35)

These two stone tablets represent the Law.Jesus fulfilled the law and He is also  called “The Word of God” (John 1:14)

Jesus said,”I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last…” (Rev. 22:13)

I hope these symbols will become a meaningful part of our Christmas for years to come.  We’ve had some good discussions about them and what they represent.  I’m hopeful that the kids will incorporate Chrismons into their own family tree someday.

Merry Christmas!