This celebration-themed homemade playdough is a super fun way to make any day special for kids- especially a birthday or New Year’s Ever!

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January 1st is just around the corner, and I wanted to come up with a special play activity for the kids to do to help celebrate the new year. Both Lucy and Theo absolutely love playing with homemade playdough, so I came up with a fun and festive version- Celebration Playdough!

When I saw how excited the kids were when they first saw the celebration playdough, I knew I had the perfect combination of colors and materials to radiate the joy and happiness of any celebration.

I started with black playdough so the colors would really stand out (or maybe it was subconsciously because I will be turning 40 on January 1st- eek!), but I think it would also look just as festive with a white playdough base or any other color playdough you’d like to make. (This post contains affiliate links.)

Celebration Playdough Recipe for Kids

Ingredients for Celebration Playdough Recipe

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water + 1/3 cup black washable liquid watercolor (You can make a white version of this playdough by just using 1 cup of water in place of this combination of liquids.)
• Glitter (I used gold, silver, and hot pink.)
• Confetti
• Star cookie cutters (optional)
• Parchment paper or wax paper (or other safe surface)

How to Make Celebration Playdough

Start by making your homemade playdough. (I based this recipe off my favorite homemade playdough recipe.)

1. Combine the flour, salt, cream of tartar, vegetable oil and liquid (water and/or liquid watercolors) in a saucepan.

2. Stir continuously over medium-low heat. It will seem a bit soupy at first. After a few minutes you will notice it start to thicken.

3. Once the dough becomes a fairly stiff ball, dump it onto a sheet of wax paper or other safe surface for kneading.

4. When it’s cool enough to touch, knead the dough until it’s smooth.

Now it’s time to add the color!

5. Knead your glitter into the dough. (I started by kneading gold glitter into the dough. Then I added the silver and hot pink.)

Playing with Celebration Playdough

I set the glittery, black playdough out with lots and lots of colorful and bright confetti. I also placed various sizes of star-shaped cookie cutters out for the kids to use, and then let them go at it.

Theo started by rolling out the playdough and using the star cookie cutters to make his own stars!

Lucy created a heart and made little pockets in it to put the confetti.

I think this homemade playdough activity would be such a fun surprise for a child to wake up to on the morning of his or her birthday. It’d also be a great sensory play activity for the kids to do on New Year’s Eve!