Hi! I’m Jennifer from The Party Teacher and I’m excited to be back as a guest blogger at Design Dazzle! I’m sharing all my best tips for hosting a Christmas Cookie Decorating Party for kids. We have hosted this party each holiday for years now and have definitely uncovered the secrets to pulling off this party!
I will admit: it gets easier as your kids get older and can contribute more to the party prep! But, I’d encourage you to try a Christmas Cookie Decorating party even with little ones.
Quick Hit Christmas Cookie Tips
Take inventory of supplies like piping bags, parchment paper, etc. — everything you’ll need for baking and decorating. Shop for what you need.
Do your grocery shopping early or let a grocery delivery service handle that for you.
Make your cookies and frosting in advance. We use this recipe for gingerbread, this recipe for sugar cookies, and this recipe for chocolate cookies. These cookies do not spread and they are yummy!
For royal icing, I prefer using a recipe featuring meringue powder.
Don’t try to do all the baking and icing making on the day of your party or you’ll wear yourself out!
Christmas Cookie Decorating Party Table Setting Tips
Set your table with a tablecloth for protection, then add a Christmas wrapping paper runner. It makes for easy clean up!
You’ll want plates for eating, decorating and resting piping bags. I like using a Christmasy hand towel instead of a paper napkin. This is a messy party!
Add a centerpiece of flowers or a bowl of Christmas ornaments — or both!
Provide aprons for guests so they don’t have to worry about messing up their outfits.
Christmas Cookie Decorating Party Decorations
Sounds strange, but I always pick up party decoration inspiration from a roll of wrapping paper. I’ve found out the easiest way to make this party festive and to make for fast cleanup is to choose a roll of wide, thick wrapping paper. My first choice is always the brand Brothers & Sisters because it’s high-quality and they have such cute patterns. They also have a handy grid on the back that makes it easy to cut the paper straight.
I use the wrapping paper as a table runner down the middle of my table and also on my sideboard. This year’s wrapping paper has red and green holly berries that made it easy to choose red and green accents for the rest of the party.
Christmas Cookie Decorating Party Centerpiece
I like to create a centerpiece that is low and doesn’t take up a lot of room.
These are all grocery store flowers, and definitely an arrangement that you could re-create at home. Look at this post and this one for tips on creating party centerpieces. Our flowers included red, green and white roses, pompons, Hypericum, Astors, carnations and mums and cost just $46.
In the ceramic Santa on our sideboard, I added a smaller, similar floral arrangement in his Santa sack.
Christmas Cookie Decorating Party Food
I serve a light lunch for this party — something that’s easy for us to eat while we decorate our cookies. To make things extra easy, I just ordered Grilled Chicken and Strawberry Salads from a local restaurant then decanted them into my trifle bowl. I served the salad with a hardy bread.
I had a cake made at our Publix bakery. They call it the Candy Bark Dream Cake.
For drinks we had water, Shirley Temples soda and hot cocoa bombs. All I had to do was warm milk as guests were ready for a cup of cocoa.
This Year’s Party Improvements
Each year, we make improvements to this party:
Thick cardboard trays, that were perfect for decorating on.
We also invested in squeeze bottles, which made our flood icing a lot easier to deal with.
The thicker icing we kept in icing bags. Make sure you invest in a good quality icing bag, so you don’t have any explosions while you’re decorating.
I also always keep my sprinkles in mini mason jars (4 oz size), because they’re easier to store that way since they stack.
Provide demitasse spoons, to get the sprinkles out of the jars. We share the sprinkle jars and the icing around the table.
As each person finishes a tray of cookies, we offload the trays to the kitchen and set down a new disposable tray for their next batch of cookies.
It’s also nice to provide your guests a handy way to take their cookies home. The dollar store is a good source of cookie tins or you can use gable boxes tied closed with red baker’s twine. Separate the layers of cookies with parchment paper.
Party images by Barefeet Imagery
Two More Cookie Decorating Resources for You
For a non-Christmas take on a cookie decorating party, join the Party Plan Club. I’ve got a really cute pink-styled cookie decorating party for you there.
If you want a guide by your side as you plan, pick up my Christmas Cookie Decorating Party Plan. At just $9.99, it’s got even more detail, checklists, and day-by-day planning advice than I can squeeze into a blog post.
Even More Christmas Party Fun!
[You can see my past Christmas ideas featured here on Design Dazzle: Christmas Movie Night for Kids, Christmas Tree Party Backdrop, Grinch Nutter Butter Cookies, Christmas Tree Tissue Tassel Garland, and Four Ways To Decorate Christmas Chairs.
Free Party Planning Gift for You!
Over at my blog, The Party Teacher, I’d love to have you grab my Free Party Planning Cheat Sheets. These are the 14 worksheets I use to plan all my parties and I’m sure they will help you plan your next event!
Thanks for having me, Toni!
And don’t forget to grab your Free Party Planning Cheat Sheets; over at The Party Teacher!
