Christmas Cookie Decoration Ideas

One of my favorite Christmas activities has always been making and decorating Christmas cookies. I have been doing this for as long as I can remember, and will be doing it with my furture children for years to come. Here are a few ideas of how to decorate your Christmas cookies.

1. Give your gingerbread men personality. I saw this in a magazine at the library. With red, white, and green icing, give your gingerbread men scarves, mittens, and even hats, so they look like they're about to go play out in the snow. If you're a feminist, and want to make gingerbread women, give them more girl power by putting them in dresses made out of icing. You can also sprinkle colored sugar crystals on top of the icing, to give it more texture.

2. Every year, my mom makes sugar cookies with a milk chocolate Hershey Kiss put in the middle. This year, I am going to try something new and different. Instead of making the same version of the cookie, I am going to add cocoa powder to my cookie dough mix, to make a chocolate sugar cookie, and instead of a milk chocolate Hershey Kiss, I am going to put a Candy Cane Hershey Kiss in the middle. I think it will look more festive because of the red and white on the Candy Cane kiss. If you're not up to trying a chocolate sugar cookie, keep the milk chocolate kiss, and add colored sugar sprinkles to the sugar cookie before baking.

3. Make your cookies sparkle. If you don't think that regular old sugar crystals are festive and glitzy enough, vamp up your cookies' visual appeal by using edible glitter. The edible glitters that I've seen, come in most Christmas colors-- red, green, silver, gold, and blue. Cookies covered in edible glitter are bound to dazzle your friends and family!

4. Arrange your colored sugar crystals. Throughout the years, my brother and I have had very different approaches to decorating our Christmas sugar cookies. He would just throw his colored sugar crystals down anywhere on the cookies, whereas I tended to arrange mine, making patterns and pretty color schemes. We used holly cookie cutters, and I made sure each leaf was green, and each berry was red. Trees always had to be green, with red and yellow "garland" made out of sugar. It always took me longer, but I was a perfectionist.

5. Christmas sprinkles. I have seen sprinkles in a variety of shapes for the holidays-- from snowflakes to trees. My favorite place to buy these would be Amazon.

These are just a few of the amazing things you can do with your Christmas cookies this season. Don't be afraid to be creative and try new things. It's okay to try and fail a few times before finding what works!