Hositng the Perfect Christmas Cookie Decorating Party

So, I know Christmas is over but this could still be really helpful for next year or for anyone who wants to have a cookie decorating party anytime of the year, these ideas could be tweaked a bit to fit their individual needs.

We had a Christmas cookie decorating party that included craft time, bingo, and a visit from Santa himself! See how below.

The first step to having any great party is keeping track of what you'll be serving, doing, and what still needs to be done. So I had my list going and then the other important part is letting your child help with the prepping for the party so they really feel like the little hosts/hostesses that they are since the party is for their friends/classmates/cousins/etc. 

 

So, some things my daughter helped me with in preparation for the party were putting the cupcake wrappers in the pan, and whisking the homemade eggnog. Which, I'll share here the awesome recipe I found for dairy free homemade eggnog.

So we had our party at 11am, which would also be a great time to do a "north pole brunch" theme, which I thought about doing. We just did some sweet treats. We had Santa cupcakes (which I'll share how I made), some peppermint chocolate chip cookies, the eggnog, and this vegan hot chocolate. For the vegan hot chocolate I also gave some candy canes, marshmallows, and organ whipped cream. 

Now, I saw some Santa cupcakes on Pinterest that looked pretty similar to this, but I'm just going to share how I made these ones. I had my daughter put the Christmas cupcake liners in the baking pan, and then poured some yellow cake mix into each one and baked them according to the directions on the box. Once they cooled I iced them with some vanilla icing. Then it was time to turn them into Santa's. What you'll need:

- organic coconut flakes

- gluten free dairy free mini chocolate chips

- marshmallows

- red sprinkles

- red m&m's

- a sharp knife

- two paper plates

So I first cut up a bunch of marshmallows in half so they'd be able to be stuck on and look right for the Santa hat's. You can follow how it looks in the picture. The sprinkles made the hat, the chocolate chips for the eyes, and the m&m for the nose, coconut flakes for the beard. I say you'll need two paper plates, one for slicing the marshmallows in half and one for putting on the sprinkles and the coconut flakes. 

We also had water bottles that I put these printables on to make them say "melted snowman" with a picture of Olaf. 

Now, I don't know what a Christmas party would be without a Santa coming! Luckily we have a family friend who dresses up as Santa every year and takes pictures with children and does parties and what not. So, we had him come to the party. 

 He stood outside and jingled his sleigh bells while the kids were doing their craft. Their craft by the way was a big pack I got from Hobby Lobby of a craft foam gingerbread house and lots of sparkly stickers and things to add to it. Toddlers and preschoolers love stickers and since that was the age group I decided that would be good. There was also a lot in the pack, so Charlie was able to make some as Christmas gifts for other family members too. To make them purposeful I also gave them magnet stickers to put on the backs of them so they'd be able to use them as Christmas magnets on their fridge. 

Anyway, Santa came in and surprised the kids. They were so excited! He had a sack with him in which he had gifts for each child (a small treat, a big chocolate candy cane). He also had a list that he looked at while he asked each child their name and told them they were on the good list. Then he took pictures with each child and we got one of all the cousins together with Santa.

After Santa left, we decorated the cookies. I gave each child two sugar cookies along with their own tube of gel icing, and then had some red and some green sprinkles sitting out on the table for them to share. The cookies and icings were grouped together in small cups so they were easily passed out to each child. They decorated and ate them.

After that, we played this Christmas bingo that I printed out. We used red and green m&m's to play it with and the prize for the winner was a Santa tic-tac-toe set from Dollar Tree.

As you may have noticed there is a Little People Nativity set out on the table above as decor and something the kids could play with if they wanted. The counter with the cookies and cupcakes was also decorated a bit.

I had out the Little People Christmas village set, a couple Christmas trees made of tinsel that I got at Dollar Tree last year, the cookies, the cupcakes, and the water bottles. I also had my ipod doc going with a Christmas play list I made.

It really was a great party!