Decorating Cookies

When my oldest was about that age I used to let him help frost cupcakes. They seemed less likely to break like a cookie. We would divide them up and he had his own to frost (he double dips and licked fingers!!) and then we would put them in a special tupperware container just for him. He loved it. Also, the frosting in the tubes work great for decorating along with the regular frosting.

Have fun!!

We have the tradition of baking cookies the day after Thanksgiving. My children are now 16, 12 & 8 and still like to help. It is fun and will make lots of memories. We make cut-out cookies, put egg whites on them and use sprinkles to decorate them. We can get pretty fancy when the adults decorate them, but you can keep it simple by doing ornaments, trees, stars.....good luck!

Hi S.! We like to decorate cookies too, so to keep my sanity, I've tried a couple things that seem to work for us. I put all of the decorations (mini chocolate chips, mini M&M's, stuff like that) in small bowls, set out the shakers of sprinkles, and little bowls of frosting for sugar cookies with a plastic knife for spreading. Each boy gets a cookie sheet to keep the majority of their mess contained, as opposed to all of their decorations bouncing all over the counters and onto the floor. That way, when we're finished, I take the cookies off the cookie sheet, and dump out all of the excess and crumbs that are left on the tray. It helps tremendously with the mess! Of course, there's still some on the floor, but nothing like it could be!! Happy holidays!

ASt tath age, my kids enjoyed sprinkling colored "sprinkles" onto sugar cookies. I just used a tube of store bought cookie dough, flattened each cookie a bit, and let them "sprinkle" away.

Personally, I would pre-bake the cookies. Not sure what a 2 1/2 yr. old would think of having to wait for them to bake and cool. I would have them all ready to go. I'd set up little containers with different kinds of sprinkles, etc. and maybe little tubes of colored frosting. You could pre-frost all the cookies and then they can do the real decorating. That's really the fun part anyway! I love seeing them try to cram as much onto a cookie as they possibly can! :)

I might suggest putting an old oversized shirt on your child for decorating. Some icings have dyes that could ruin clothes. I guess cookie dough is a bit like playdough, so I might keep the whole kitchen table open for cookie playing and lots of flour on hand to keep from getting so sticky, lots of wet wash clothes. You might expect to need to mop the floor afterwards...lol. You could do little stations of sprinkles, icing, cookie cutting, flour, etc.

With my boys they like to use their imaginations instead of just using things for what they are made for. You might look around at their toys and see if there's anything they can make imprints with such as plastic blocks, a toy hammer set, a matchbox car, straws, etc. Some of these things are easy to clean and disinfect, or just shove in the dishwasher. They can use different cooking and baking utensils to make neat designs in the dough for cooking and then decorate afterwards.

Hi S.,
Have you tried the peanut butter cookies with a Hersheys Kiss in the middle? The kids love it ~ they get to roll the dough into balls, then in the sugar. While they are baking, they can unwrap the kisses & when they come out they can stick the kisses in the middle. That's just a littl alternative to sprinkles, frosting, etc. Good luck & have fun!
Hather

I would totally go with the precut frozen cookies from Gordons and just bake and decorate. I find after the first tray or two of cookies my kids get bored. Then I buy the little tubes of gel icing that fit in their hands better.

I make what my mother used to call stained glass.

Basically you take a cookie sheet and line it with wax paper, then melt chocolate and spead to make a base - then the kids sprinkle gumbrops and mini marshmeelows all over it, fill it in good. Then take a little more melted chocolate and drizzle on top to hold it all together. Let it harden, we just wait a while - then cut it into squares or just break apart.

I too, do not like to do Black Friday! I have done this with my kids for years, and started adding my nieces and nephews 2 years ago, and my grandsons, since my children are grown. This year I had 6 kids, 3-3 yr olds, 1-4 yr old and 2-5 yr olds. The best advice I can give you is to KEEP IT SIMPLE! Make your cookie dough ahead, so all that you have to do is either do drop cookies or roll the dough out and let them do the cookie cutting and decorating. I have found that it is easier if they just pick one or two cookie cutters, so they know which one is their cookies. I always send them home with them as a treat for Mommy and Daddy.
I hope that this is good advice for you!

P.

My family and friends of my parents and their kids used to get together every December and make sugar cookies from scratch and then decorate them. We made a day of it with food and movies and such. Don't know if you have a family you could invite, but that was a lot of fun.

I asked my mom and she said put down a table cloth under them and let them go at it! We made our own frosting and colored it so there were lots of choices of colors and then sprinkles and stuff. I get they will have a great time!! :)

My family did this when I was small, and now we do it with our boys! (5 and almost 3) Everyone loves them at preschool! Obviously, they are not for those with peanut allergies. Maybe you could start this next Thanksgiving?

Turkey Cookies
Stripped Daintie (shortbread) Cookies
Miniature Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
Brach's Chocolate Stars (This is the only brand-name I've found that works for this.)
Candy Corn
Chocolate Chips

Put the shortbread cookies on a cookie sheet with all the stripes vertical. These are the turkey's "feathers." Melt a fair amount of chocolate chips to serve as "glue." Unwrap peanut butter cups, and dip the flat side into the melted chocolate stars. Place the flat side of the peanut butter cup on the bottom center of the shortbread cookie. Allow to set. This is the turkey's "body." Next, dip the yellow end of the candy corn into the melted chocolate stars. Position it so the candy corn is up against the shortbread cookie and rests on the top (center) of the peanut butter cup. Allow to set. This is the turkey's "head" and "beak." Finally, the swirly tip of a chocolate star into the melted chocolate stars, and stick it to the bottom of the peanut butter cup. Allow to set. These are the turkey's feet. Once all of the "glue" has set, the turkey should be able to stand upright!!

What we do is make oreo turkeys. its a little messy but the kids enjoy making them and we've been doing it since my daughter was 2. You take a half a cookie (frosting side) than take a whole cookie and set it on the back of the cookie. take candy corn and make the "feathers" and a wopper dipped in frosting for the head. than break a candy corn in half dip it in frosting put it on the wopper for a beak.

Sounds like fun!!! When I bake with little ones I always give them their own plate with a little bit of icing, their own spoon and a small pile of each sprinkle or topping I am using and a few cookies. I found this is the best way if you are wanting to save any cookies to eat later. If not the icing spoon gets licked and dipped back in the icing, each cookie gets a bite taken out of it or the sprinkles end up dumped all over the floor. Traditions are so great for beautiful family memories! Have fun, take lots of pictures and savor every minute!

My daughter in law thought I was crazy but the boys and I always got a kick out of doing this. While we didn't really make it a traditional we made cookies when ever we had a chance. She would say her mother would have a fit if they would do this at her home and that we were making a mess. I stated not a mess a memory and they are both teens now and still recall. I would let them make the frosting. ws it was a powdered mess but the kitchen cleaned up very well. The other one would spread the frosting and we all put on bits of whatever for decoration. I now am ready to get the other grandson who will be 3 in Feb to do this. His trouble is he doesn't like touching food as he thinks your going to force him to eat. He eats very little except Chicken nuggets and cereal. I tired to get him to eat banaba pudding by saying it was Tubby custard with banannas and cookies and Lala loves tubby custard with banannas and cookies. He likes Telletubbies but still would not eat. Just let them do what they are willing to do, Let them follow your lead and be prepared to do a major clean up job afterwards.

My mom starting doing gingerbread houses with my sisters kids and now we do them with mine and they absolutely love it. They started around the age of 3 and now they're 8 (twins boy/girl) and they still love it!! Only advice on it, put the house together the day before and let the icing harden. Otherwise when they're pushing on the house with decorations it "caves". We get other things besides whats in the kit. We use regular icing on the whole thing to make it look snow covered, m&m's, whatever you want on it. We always do it the first of Dec. and keep them out all month so they have time to enjoy it. Then we throw them away, a little afraid to eat them after that much time.

Hello S.,

I have been married for 19 years we have two daughers age almost 12 and 6 plus my husbands parents and sibling and there family's Really enjoy the iced cookie experience. We have done this for about 6 years. I bake the cookies in advance and have the icing ready. I use land o lakes butter cookie recipe, and icing (This can be found on line at). www.landolakes.com
I usually double both recipes divide the icing in bowls add color and put it into bottles that you can find at a discount or craft store. The bottles help little ones control how much icing to use. They are also helpful with details. (a snowman's carrot nose or black buttons and top hat) Your first time you may want to limit the shapes and the colors. Also to get icing in the bottles you should thin down your icing a little with milk however don't make it to runny. kind of like peanut butter. I hope this is helpful.

At this age I would just start with cut-out cookies on which you can sprinkle colored sugar....or to give them the general idea of making cookies you could just make the refrigerated dough cookies that have a design in them.
Let them help cut them, put them on the cookie sheet, watch the timer, and of course, eat a few.
Your idea of this as a tradition is great and as you go on the decorating can get more involved as they grow older!
Here is a fun idea that they can do:
Get some round pretzels.
Have the boys lay them on a baking sheet.
Have the boys unwrap Hershey's kisses and place one in the center of each pretzel.
Then put them in the oven on a low heat (200-250 degrees)
Keep an eye on them until the chocolate melts down.
Take them out and let the boys press a red or greem M&M in the center of each.
Cool and enjoy.
Easy and fun.
Have fun!