Have you ever thought about making your own playdough? Playdough is fun to make as well as play with. With all the festive colours and scents available, Christmas is a great time of year to create fun festive dough to play with at home.

One of our favourite things to make at Christmas is Gingerbread Playdough that smells so good you could eat it (but we wouldn't advise you do!) It's really easy to make, so you can do it with the children or make it advance ready to play with together.

To make your own Gingerbread Playdough you will need:

• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup of salt
• 2 tsp cream of tartar

Spices (more or less can be added to make a scent that suits you):

• 1 tbsp ginger
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp all spice

This is a 'chuck it all in' sort of recipe so simply add all of your ingredients to a pan and mix over a low heat until the mixture forms one ball (similar to dough). Then all you have to do is allow it to cool and your playdough is ready to play with!

If gingerbread isn't your thing, there are lots of other ways to adapt the recipe with a festive twist:

• Add peppermint or vanilla instead of cinnamon.
• Use food coloring to dye the playdough red or green
• Do you want to build a snowman? – use corn flour or white flour to create a white playdough perfect for building an inside snowman
• Add glitter (edible glitter is preferable) for Christmas party vibes
• Using Christmas cookie cutters such as gingerbread men or snowflakes to make fun festive shapes