Cookie Decorating

I save the little plastic cups from applesause and mandarin oranges for projects like this. Then each child can have their own little cups with a portion of the decorations and frostings. These litte cups are great for holding all sorts of crafty things, paints, sequins, beads, etc.

You could put the icing in ziploc bags and cut the tips off...that helps to contain the mess a little. Another idea is to get disposable tin pie plates to put each cookie in and then the sprinkles won't roll all over. Happy deocrating!

All the other posters have wonderful ideas!

Having done this before with several preschool and younger children, it is a mess. I can live with a mess, but the sugar rush that follows is pretty hard to take! So our family evolved the cookie decorating day to a Xmas ornament decorating day.

Have healthy treats available, but give the kids a bunch of pre-baked, hardened clay-dough "cookies" to decorate.
Recipe:
2 c. flour
1 c. salt
2 tbsp oil
3/4 c. water
Mix, shape, bake at 200 degrees until hardened.

Then let kids decoarte with washable markers, water colors, crayons, or anything else. Hang on Xmas tree. Give away as presents. You may want to have some unbaked clay-dough around for kids to play with, too. If they try to eat it, they'll stop after one taste!

Put the cookie they're working on it a cake pan so the high side catch wayward sprinkles.

Use paintbrushes for them to apply frosting!!

keep some frosting separate for the grown ups. let the kids have at theirs.

Ha. I have to say, I also laughed when I read your post, only because I have been there, felt like you and had to give up the control once my 3 yr old went at it. But you've gotten some great suggestions and I think I'll try it again this year. Good luck!!!! And try not to be too controlling, just let the kids have fun- no one will care if the cookies look great- they'll appreciate that the kids decorated them and they'll still taste the same. And you will have more fun also if you just enjoy it, even if you end up cleaning sprinkles and colored frosting off every surface of your kitchen- including the kids. Which reminds me, I didn't see any suggestions about the kids wearing a smock to prevent food-color stains, I always put my daughter in my husband's old tshirts- covered her entire body.

I agree with Marie about having the sprinkles in containers. Preferable the containers should have size holes that just let a little sprinkles out at a time. I have a little boy who has put more sprinkles on a cookie than I thought possible!

You can use can frosting or bag frosting so the colors do not get mushed together. They can share these. Also sprinkles can be put on top while they have the cookie in a shallow pan or plate to help contain any overspill.

You could give each child a ice cube tray w/ the different colors of frosting in each section. Just would have to refill them often.

has anyone mentioned putting the frositn in baggies and cutting a corner to make a piping bag

Perhaps you want to go with just white frosting this year. I'm sure there will be lots of color with lots of sprinkles. Have fun! and take pictures during!

I must admit, I giggled at this. The frosting will get mixed up no matter what you do! BUT a good method is to give them a SMALL amount at a time on a paper plate and use craft/popsicle sticks to spread the frosting. And the cookies won't be "pretty and perfect" to look at but beautiful because the kids did it! have fun. :)

When my girls were younger, we used a sturdy paper plate each and put a dollop of each frosting color all around the plate. That way the ones who wanted messy colors could do that, the ones who wanted their colors kept neat could do that. We'd replenish from the big bowls as they ran out. We usually use a sheet of wax paper in front of each child so it can easily be wiped down if they go crazy or the extra sprinkles can be put back in a bowl. Decorating cookies and cupcakes is one of my favorite things to do around holidays. I hope you have fun!

Wow, the other sugestions are great. I was going to suggest using spice jars or grated cheese jars with the holes on top to put the jimmies and non parrells in.
M. in Wisconsin

Oh that made me laugh. Good luck with that one.

I hear ya. I can be kind of controlling about those things, too, and I'm a preschool teacher.

How about one color of frosting at a time? You put out one-fourth of the cookies, and only one color frosting. When those cookies are done, you put out another fourth of the cookies, and a different color frosting. Etc, etc. You could also switch out the sprinkles when you switch out the frostings....

Hi A.,
Have color stations where you move the children and the cookie s they are working on rather than move than have the items all in front of them. Like this is the blue frosting station. A lot of schools have learning stations for K-1 anyway so you could even tell the 4 and 3 year old that.
Happy holidays!
S.
Mom of 15 year son, who has a Melaleuca business, homeschools and substitutes teaches.

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Unfortunately with kids that age you probably aren't going to have much control over what the cookies look like no matter what you do! Last Christmas my mom had our daughter (1 1/2) and our niece (2) decorate sugar cookies. There was a huge mess! Even with us helping them a lot there were some cookies with very little frosting and some cookies with so much frosting they almost broke in two when you picked them up. We had sprinkles EVERYWHERE!! Needless to say, some of the cookies had so much frosting and so many sprinkles that they were almost inedible! But we laughed really hard, and had soooo much fun! It's one of my favorite memories from last Christmas even though the cookies were less than pretty! Just relax and have fun! And if you were planning to give the cookies as gifts and want them to be pretty, you will probably have to do the decorating!

A. , my suggestion is to give each child a disposable dixie type cup or bowl with each frosting color and a seperate plastic utensil in each bowl for the littlest ones I have always bought the plastic table covers at the local party store and just put a glob of each color in front of them on the cover and let them go! This makes for easy clean up also, when they are done just pull up the sides of the table cover and toss in the garbage. Have fun I do this with my kids and all their friends at this time of the year and Easter and they all love it ,when they were younger the mess was sometimes mighty but it was always fun. SAHM of 10, 8,4,3 yr olds