Stress-Free Holiday Cookie Decorating
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Have you ever set up a holiday cookie decorating activity for your children? Tis’ the season, right?
Every year, I set the intention of baking scrumptious holiday cookies from scratch with the children and then joyfully decorating them and sharing with friends and neighbors. ERRRR…. no I don’t. I know my limits well. Number one, I stink at baking. Number two, I know that attempting to bake, decorate AND deliver the cookies is waaaay too much to ask of my kids and myself if I want it to actually be fun.
Instead, I usually do myself the favor of buying premade cookie dough and rolling it out and baking it/ cooling it while the kids are at school. Then I set them up to decorate and deliver.
This year I used a premade kit from Trader Joe’s and even skipped the baking stage!!
When it comes to setting up holiday activities for our children, we bring a lot of expectations to the table. There’s so much pressure to have every moment be joyful. STOP. Nothing, I repeat… NOTHING is joyful all the time. In fact, you should expect more tantrums and tears during the holidays. It’s not about you. It’s just not.
Anyway, let’s get to the point here. Today, I have simplified the holiday cookie decorating experience for you. I am sharing the setup how-to and WHY it is set up the way it is.
Do you want to know how to go from the above image to the one below? Read on…
First, let me tell you why I broke down the kit and set it up like this.
Holiday cookie decorating is exciting. Excitement can cause frenzy and tantrums and squeals of delight. There is lots grabbing and gobbling going on. One way to take everything down a notch is to assure all the children that they will get a turn. The treats are plentiful, and everyone will have their fill. Children are visual creatures. The best way to show them this is by giving them their own spot, with their own materials and a boundary to make it feel safely their own.
In other instances, I like to set up communal experiences. Those teach children to work collaboratively and learn to communicate with one another. Around the holidays? No thanks. Children are often maxed out from excitement. It is not the time to “teach” much of anything.
Still need more reasons to go the extra five minutes on set up? Giant icing bags and not easy for little hands, they are frustrating! Pouring tiny candies straight out of the plastic bags they come in almost always results in spillage.
HOW TO:
Set up your parchment paper and tape it down to the table to avoid slippage.
Grab your muffin cups and fill them with frosting and candies
Add some popsicle sticks for spreading
Set out your cookies
That’s it!! Stress-free holiday cookie decorating.
By the way… Baking WITH children is a very valuable experience. I am not knocking it. I am, however, offering you a hack to make the holidays much simpler for you and your littles.
I hope you enjoyed this holiday cookie decorating hack! If you want to keep up with more Workspace for Children content, follow along on Instagram by clicking HERE.
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This is an activity that can be adapted for all ages. Best part? No mess!