'Clever mom creates buzz with fun and easy holiday
party idea!'
'Successful hostess relates that her guests were
amazed at the fun time they had! Whipping the party
together was a breeze!'
Want to be the hot stop on this year's holiday circuit?
Then a cookie-decorating party is just what you're
looking for!
This delightful idea will bring laughter and joy into
your home for just a little planning and not much cost.
It works great with mothers and daughters, fathers and
sons, grandparents and grandkids. Even your sorority!
In fact, it's a great way to connect all kinds of
people who can benefit from a little time spent
together.
Here's all you need to make this idea a grand success.
The hostess's checklist:
-*-Guests. Who are you inviting? How many? Keeping in
mind the available table or counter space you have
(see next paragraph), send your invitations. (For some
creative ideas on invites you can quickly make yourself,
see link at bottom of article.) And remember, if you're
making this a team effort (like mothers and daughters)
each invitation that is accepted will yield two guests.
-*-A space to work. Can be your kitchen, dining room,
basement, even a deck (assuming you live where it's
warm!); just needs to have plenty of table and/or
counter space for your guests to do their cookie
decorating and be an area that can take the mess. You'll
need access to water for cleaning up, too. And don't
forget the floor underneath!
-*-Icing. You can buy multiple tubs of ready-made
frosting, but whipping up some of your own is easy and
generally less expensive. Make two or three large mixing
bowls full of frosting. Divide into four or five smaller
bowls and color each with different food coloring.
-*-Buy ready-to-use tubes of colored frosting for easiest
decorating. Or assemble several pastry bags and tips.
Fill different bags with different colors of icing from
bowls mentioned above. Be sure and save a fair amount of
frosting in the bowls for icing the cookies themselves.
-*-Purchase a variety of decorator candies. Chocolate
chips and small candies work well, too.
-*-Utensils. Lots of table knives or spatulas will do the
trick. If your icing is not too stiff, plastic
(disposable) table knives work great and save on clean-up
later. Provide some bowls of water to drop sticky
utensils in as you go. Toothpicks come in handy for
dragging icing and drawing designs, too.
-*-Lots of hand towels or a couple of rolls of paper
towels.
-*-Cookie decorating ideas that are easy and fast to
do. (See the link at the bottom of this article to get
you started.)
-*-Some soft background music, if you like. And drinks
would be appreciated by your guests, too. Make a big pot
of warm apple cider for simplicity (and it smells great!).
-*-Don't forget to have a camera on hand. Snap a roll
and send each guest a print. What a great memory-maker!
Adjust these ideas to meet your needs. You are the
hostess, you set the rules! For example, maybe you will
want to skip the tubes of decorator icing and only offer
the bowls of frosting and the decorator candies.
That's fine.
Now for the guests' checklist:
-*-Cookies ready to be decorated. Suggest your guests
bring un-decorated store-bought sugar cookies, or use
ready-to-bake dough and slice and bake before they come.
You can also provide an easy sugar-cookie recipe as a
part of the invitation for those who want to bake from
scratch. See the link at the end of this article for a
yummy recipe you can use.
-*-A container to take their decorated cookies home in.
-*-Clothes that can be messed up and cleaned up easily.
-*-A desire for some fun and fellowship!
One last thought: the party's not over until the clean-up
is done! Schedule it into the party and it becomes part
of the fun!
Colleen Langenfeld helps families run smoothly at
http://www.paintedgold.com, a fun online home and gift
resource center. Sign up for our online newsletter and
get our Creativity Toolkit for FREE!
Don't forget to look at all the different and wonderful
Christmas bingo games that are available:
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