I would make them of bread dough/ play dough recipe coloured with coffee dissolved in the water. The large quantity of salt acts as a preservative. Tea can be used as well depending on the colour you wish. It has been years since I did them so I don't remember if it was a 50/50 or 1 /2 ratio of salt to flour but a quick search should tell you. Thin would be fine. Bake in oven till hard but not burned. I did use an acrylic varnish several layers on mine. I have had my ornaments over 15 years and they are fine. I keep them away from a humid environment over the year.

Except I want to make cookies. :(

Mine looked like cookies. I used a cookie cutter for the gingerbread men, rocking horse, house etc. The coffee gives them a gingerbread-like coloring. Can't eat them like cookies of course, but unless you use a mixture with a lot of salt (which makes them inedible), you will not be able to preserve them. So I'm afraid, it will either have to be a cookie or a decoration! I colored mine with acrylic paint to simulate icing.

I have made gingerbread men (regular cookies) to decorate my tree, but considered them as one-season use and definitely edible! :) I found that they worked better for me when rolled thinner, rather than thicker, because then they weren't as heavy for hanging on the tree! Baking them longer, perhaps at a lower temperature, might help to remove as much moisture as possible from the cookies... but be careful that you don't burn them!

Don't forget to cut the hanging holes in the cookies BEFORE they are baked. A drinking straw can be used to stamp out a hole from the dough that's the perfect size. :)

It may or may not work for you to use clear acrylic spray on regular cookies. I think it will depend on the ingredients you use for the recipe, the storage/usage conditions, and whether or not you have tiny creatures that might be interested in eating what's under that acrylic. If you really want what you make to be preserved for years of use then you shouldn't be using a dough that contains things like sugar, eggs, etc.

The tree in my kitchen has faux gingerbread cookies all over it and I made them of salt dough decades ago. If you are just going for the look and want them to last, I highly recommend using the dough. If you want to make cookies, I would probably go ahead and eat them this year and not try to save them as they will most likely crumble eventually.

JMHO,
Candy

The salt dough do look like the real thing and are very cute! Thank you for suggesting them as an alternative, holly and christmascandy! Do you both only post in the holiday forum? :) I will keep it in mind for next year. I have all the ingredients for the cookies and wanted the spicy aroma. I believe there's also a recipe for cutout ornaments using an applesauce cinnamon dough. Too much cinnamon can be a bad thing though, like those cinnamon pine cones at the grocery store.

I'm baking standard gingerbread and will roll them thinner--thank you, party_music. I plan to decorate them with royal icing and cinnamon redhots for buttons. Will definitely plan on eating them!

My dried citrus slices didn't work out. I don't have a microwave so I had to dry them in the oven. My "warm" setting wasn't low enough to prevent them from browning on the edges and where they sat on the metal rack. I could probably find dried citrus at a craft store, but I'll probably just string them with cinnamon sticks and maybe try drilling a hole through nutmeg. My jar of whole nutmeg is probably ten years old so I may as well try it. I also saw you can dry kumquats and thought they'd look nice strung.

This is where I was going, except with real cookies.

may_flowers, that little garland is very cute! I've always wanted to try drying citrus, apple slices, etc., to make a garland like that! the bay leaves are a nice touch.

I made the cinnamon/applesauce cutouts one year... somehow they came off smelling a little more acidic to me than I expected, more like vinegar! Everything I read said to use unsweetened applesauce, so that's what I made and used.

I have an acute sense of smell, so I'd probably smell some off odor under the cinnamon. lol

I dried oranges, tangerines, lemons, and limes. I wished I had a mandolin for even slices, but I did pretty good with a bread knife. I'm going to see if I can get some kumquats tomorrow at our local Whole Foods wannabe.

I think next year I will definitely do dried citrus slices - I so love the look of them in a garland especially for the kitchen. I did the saltdough cookies back when the kids were young (70's) they lasted years and years - need to do that again .....

Lynne