I have some pretty fond memories of decorating Christmas cookies as a family when I was a kid. This year, I added it to a mental list of things to do before Christmas.
At first, I was so overwhelmed with other things to do that I almost called it off. I ended up going for it and am glad I did. The children – well, Elijah and Eliana – had a blast loading the cookies with icing and sprinkles. They ended up tasting pretty good, as well.
Isabelle was having a hard (read: cranky) day, so although she “helped” cut out some cookie shapes, I decided to leave the decorating for the two oldest and myself while she napped. I don’t think she’ll look back when she is older and be bitter that I didn’t include her in the decorating step when she was two.
I used this cookie recipe which came out pretty tasty and wasn’t too finicky. For the icing, I made two batches of this simple royal icing. Since I’m such a cheapskate, I made my own sugar sprinkles with granulated sugar and gel food coloring. I just added a drop of food coloring to about 1/4-cup of sugar and mixed it until the color was well incorporated. Oh, and the cookie cutters were a vintage thrift store find (along with some Christmas-themed one for the dollar store).
It, obviously, was a huge mess but it was so worth it in the end. Hopefully we can turn this into a little tradition for our growing family.
What are some holiday traditions you like to keep with your family?
