Christmas Playdough

My son is 17 months and goes to a wonderful daycare. I really wish I could just be the arts and crafts director somewhere because I love sharing and hearing ideas on what he's doing! For Christmas he needed to bring stocking stuffers for his fellow classmates. Well, me being me, I couldn't settle for just a plain ole generic toy. Not that there's anything wrong with it...I just wanted to DO something. So I searched, and searched, and searched. It's really a hard age group to do something for since they still try to eat everything! His teacher said playdough would be ok, so I went to searching.
I found a recipe that's edible and modified it slightly. So I will share!

Christmas Playdough

• 5 cups water
• 5 cups flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 3 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 10 tablespoons vegetable oil
• food coloring 
• peppermint essential oil (optional and I bought at a Natural Groceries for $7 a little bottle, but a few drops is all you need)
• Glitter (optional)
• Bags to store the playdough in 

• Mix water, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a large pot. Heat on low until everything dissolves stirring frequently. 
• Add oil, then flour (I would suggest one cup at a time). Stir until playdough pulls away from pan and is no longer sticky and make sure it's to a playdough state. Some friends tried making this and failed because it didn't get hot enough.
• Dump dough on your counter (I placed wax paper down for fear of possible staining but it doesn't).
• Let it cool off some, then knead well. During the kneading process I added peppermint essential oil and glitter. It stays warm for a while, so just be careful you don't burn your hands!
  

 At Target I found these cute little Christmas Tree ornaments that are fill-able, so it was perfect for storing the playdough in! This makes a ton, and lasts for a really long time. I liked that it isn't toxic if a kiddo does a taste test. 

I searched online for some cute printable Christmas designs and attached them to card stock to write what it was inside and who it's from.