Tips on Hosting a Christmas Cookie-Decorating Party

Christmas cookies are a delicious treat. Children will enjoy the cookies even more if you allow them to decorate their own. Decorating Christmas cookies can be made even more fun when done with friends. Here are some tips on throwing a Christmas cookie-decorating party for your children and their friends.

Like any other party you wish to throw you will need to send out invitations. Let your children help you create the invitations for the Christmas Cookie Decorating Party. You can create fun invitations using construction paper and markers. Cut out gingerbread men and women from brown construction paper to form the base of your party invitation. Next, you can cut out a vest to glue on to your gingerbread people. Cut out a rectangle from white, green, or red construction paper. Fold the rectangle into thirds, two of the sides will be half of the length of the back of the vest in order to create a vest that can open. Cut a semi circle out of the top of the folded vest to form the opening for the neck. Glue the vest onto your gingerbread person and let dry. Once dry, your child can decorate the vests with squiggly lines and buttons. Your child can also draw faces and any other details they want on the gingerbread people. Open the vest and write down the details of your party inside. You can use a small Christmas sticker to seal the vest shut. Place the invitations inside envelopes to hand out to your child's friends. Send out invitations at least two weeks ahead of time. Give guests a time limit of one week to respond to the invitation. Once you have received the responses from your child's friends you can start planning the party.

The first step in preparing for your Christmas Cookie Decorating Party is to obtain all of your ingredients, party décor, and tableware. Make a list of supplies you need before heading out to the party and/or grocery store so that you won't end up forgetting something. Before you go out and buy your decorations however you will need to come up with a decorating theme for your party.

There are many themes that can be used for your Christmas Cookie Decorating Party. You can create a Winter Wonderland theme through the use of white, blue, and silver accents and décor. Snowflakes cut out from paper can be taped to the inside of your windows to give the illusion of giant snowflakes falling outside. Pick out a solid colored tablecloth in either white or blue to cover the cookie decorating table. Sprinkle the table with silver confetti shaped like snowflakes, snowmen, or other winter related objects. You can purchase balloons in the coordinating colors to float above the dining room table. Another wonderful theme for your Christmas Cookie Decorating Party would be a North Pole theme. You can create a naughty and nice list on a piece of poster board to tack up on the dining room wall. Be sure to include the names of your children and their friends on the list. Create a striped pole centerpiece for your dining room table using foam, spray paint, and red ribbon. If your husband has a Santa costume, this would be the perfect time to wear it. There are many fun themes that you can use for your cookie decorating party. Purchase tableware that will go with your theme. You will need paper plates, plastic knives, and paper or plastic cups for your party.

You will need different food items for the children to use to decorate their cookies with for your Christmas Cookie Decorating Party. There are many different options when it comes to edible cookie decorations. Candy sprinkles that come in different Christmas colors, marshmallows, green mint and white chocolate chips, crushed pieces of candy canes, and colored sugar crystals all make great edible cookie decorations. In order for these decorations to stick to the cookies you will need to provide frosting. Plain white frosting can be tinted with food coloring to create a variety of Christmas colored frosting for the children to choose from. You can divide the different colors of frosting into cups for each one of your guests to use.

Once you have set up your house for the party you can start on the cookies for your Christmas Cookie Decorating Party. Sugar cookies are the number one choice when it comes to cookies you can decorate. Sugar cookies can be made a day ahead of time and placed in the fridge overnight. This will allow you to chill the dough to make it easier to work with, as well as lightening your workload on the day of the party. Cut out Christmas shapes from your sugar cookie dough using different cookie cutters an hour before your party. You can stick to three different shapes allowing each child to decorate three different cookies each. Once the cookies are baked and cooled you can set them out in preparation for your cookie decorating party. Be sure to keep a plate of cookies nearby for the adults to enjoy while the kids decorate their cookies.

Now it's time for your party! Once all of your guests have arrived they can all be seated and start decorating their cookies. Keep a box or two of wet wipes at the table to help clean up messy fingers and hands. Younger children may need help with decorating, so be sure to stay near the table to offer a helping hand. Have a camera handy so that you can capture plenty of pictures of your children and their friends decorating their cookies. When the party is finished you can place unfinished cookies into plastic baggies or wrap them in plastic wrap for the children to take home with them.