How to Decorate Christmas Cookies

As we near the Christmas holiday, you might already be thinking of what fun Christmas cookie decorations you can do. Decorating your own cookies not only will end up saving you money, but it can also be a great way to bond with your children if you want to get them involved or you can make a day out of it with friends and just enjoy the Christmas spirit. Either way you go, either decorating cookies on your own or doing the decorations with people you love, Christmas decorations for cookies are so fun and you really will enjoy it. There are some items you can add to your cookies before you bake them to decorate them. Some decorations you can put on your cookies before you bake them include items such as sugar or sugar-based Christmas confetti, colored sugars, nuts, and dried fruit. You can add these types of decorations to any cookie before you bake which will allow the sugar or dried fruit to harden and become crispier.

One really good idea for a Christmas Cookie decoration include adding a dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries to your cookies. Select a fruit that will taste good in the cookie you are doing, for instance a chocolate chip cookie would be good with a raisin fruit baked into it. You can do the decoration of the raisin on the inside for a moist chewy surprise to your cookie or you can just decorate the outside of the cookie with the raisins. Selecting the right dried fruit with your cookie is important, but you also want to be able to taste the Christmas season in your cookie. You can buy dried fruit or raisins at any retail grocery store or if you would like a healthier option they have healthier dried fruit choices at whole food stores. The good thing about using raisins or dried fruit in your cookie is that you do not have to do anything special to the food before you decorate your cookies with it. I think personally, using raisins in the cookie dough before you bake the cookie allows for the taste to get into the cookie and also provides a crispier decoration. Dried fruit and raisins are also very inexpensive to buy, so for this Christmas where everyone is watching their budget, using a raisin or a dried fruit in your cookie decorations will be easy and inexpensive and also allows you to mix and match cookies with different dried fruits on the inside or outside.

If you prefer waiting until after you bake your cookies to decorate, it is important to remember most items need an adhesive in order to stick to the cookie. Using an adhesive is a pretty simple process by which you will need to add frosting or icing to your cookie before decorating. You could use a white icing to make the background of the decoration and then add colored sprinkles that go with the season. For a Christmas decoration a white icing with green and red sprinkles sounds more appealing, especially if you are going to have children around. You can add sprinkles to just about any flavor of icing, but white icing really makes the green and red sprinkles stand out. If you do not want a very noticeable topping on your cookie that might take away from the decorations, icing is the most appropriate because it is thin and light and does not overpower the cookie itself. Frosting is thicker and leaves a more noticeable outcome on the cookie, and can be the messier of the two, so it is important to know what look you want to achieve with your cookie and the decoration. I prefer a lighter-colored icing with red and green sprinkles because the white icing does not overpower the decoration of the sprinkles. You can get sprinkles at any retail store or grocery store and they cost fewer than 3 dollars for a bottle. You can also use tweezers or special kitchen holders to help arrange the sprinkles over the cookies if you want to make a tree design or a star design with the sprinkles.

You can also make your own mint snowflake cookies, which is a great cookie filled with Christmas decorative spirit. The mint cookies taste similar to the mint cookies you can buy from the Girl Scouts, but for less. You will need to get some chocolate transfer sheets in order to make the snowflake decoration on the top of the cookie, which you can get at a grocery store for a few dollars. First off, you need to get some items from your local store which include; buttery round crackers, peppermint oil, dark chocolate candy coating, dipping fork, snowflake chocolate transfer sheet, and parchment paper. You should bake and cool your cookies first and then cut some transfer sheets large enough for each cookie to sit on. Melt the chocolate candy coating in the microwave or on the stove, it does not matter which you choose. Add 15 drops of peppermint oil to the candy coating mixture and then dip the cookies into the coating. Place the cookies that are dipped onto the parchment paper, and then put the transfer sheet on the dipped cookie right away. When you use the transfer paper, remember you need to keep the textured side down so that the textured size is what touches the dipped cookies. You can make as many of the snowflake mint cookies as you want, just remember to allow the cookies to cool completely before dipping them into the candy coating mixture. Allow the cookies to set with the transfer on it for about 5 minutes, this allows the snowflake decoration to set completely on the cookie. After about 5 minutes, you can then peel your cookies off of the transfer sheet and you will have beautiful chocolate coated cookies with a beautiful Christmas decoration on the top. This decoration idea would be great for your Christmas party and would also be good for a work gathering. These cookies will surely impress everyone you know, and the peppermint oil makes the cookies even better than just a normal cookie. The chocolate, mint, and the snowflake will make this cookie a really pretty Christmas decoration idea, although it will cost you a little more for this cookie decoration.