How to Make Holiday Scented PlayDoh

Well, this activity actually took me by surprise. Imagine, it is holiday break and everyone is overstimulated and surround by all new things and a bit of a mess… I am sure you can imagine how our house was functioning. So I decided to do an activity that took both time and involved everyone. We made some holiday scented PlayDoh.

Four balls of scented playdoh lined up on a counter, in varying shades of green, white, orange, and red

Recipe for Holiday Scented PlayDoh

I have continued to use a recipe for PlayDoh that we received from my daughter’s preschool. We used to make a batch for her classroom and I have continued to love the texture and longevity of the PlayDoh, so we have continued to use it.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of salt
4 tsp cream of tartar
2 cups of lukewarm water
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Recipe

Combine flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large bowl.
Add water and oil.
Cook on medium heat until dough consistency (stir continuously).
- Optional: Add food coloring and scents. Knead dough until combined.

4 children mixing ingredients to make PlayDoh in a large yellow mixing bowl

Holiday Scents

Gingerbread
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Peppermint
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
Sugar Cookie
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon

How Did My Children Play?

This activity truly took off very quickly. Many times PlayDoh can be a total hit and other times, I feel like it is short lived. My kiddos were so happy to be a part of the making process but what I was more surprised by was how they took over once it was made.

I believe the scent and even the types of scent we used helped to facilitate the play that followed. Each of my children decided that they were going to open up a bakery. They quickly collaborated and decided to pull out all the PlayDoh molds they felt would work best for making cookies and got to work. They requested that they have some time to create all the cookies they desired and asked if I could return “when their shop opened.”

I grabbed some play money and returned to their shop when it opened. They loaded a box full of cookies for me, which I obviously quickly consumed! Just in time for them to repeat this with new designs and selections for the next day when they opened again.