|
|
|
|
|
|
Want to be the hot stop on this year's holiday
circuit?
Then a cookie-decorating party is just what you're
looking for!
This delightful idea will bring laughter and joy
into your home for just a little planning and not much cost. It works great
with mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, grandparents and grandkids. Even
your sorority! In fact, it's a great way to connect all kinds of people who
can benefit from a little time spent together.
Here's all you need to make this idea a grand
success.
The hostess's checklist:
|
|
|
- Guests. Who are you inviting? How many? Keeping
in mind the available table or counter space you have (see next paragraph),
send your invitations. (For some creative ideas on invites you can quickly
make yourself, see link at bottom of article.) And remember, if you're making
this a team effort (like mothers and daughters) each invitation that is
accepted will yield two guests.
- A space to work. Can be your kitchen, dining
room, basement, even a deck (assuming you live where it's warm!); just needs
to have plenty of table and/or counter space for your guests to do their
cookie decorating and be an area that can take the mess. You'll need access to
water for cleaning up, too. And don't forget the floor underneath!
- Icing. You can buy multiple tubs of ready-made
frosting, but whipping up some of your own is easy and generally less
expensive. Make two or three large mixing bowls full of frosting. Divide into
four or five smaller bowls and color each with different food coloring.
-
Buy ready-to-use tubes of colored
frosting for easiest decorating. Or assemble several pastry bags and tips.
Fill different bags with different colors of icing from bowls mentioned above.
Be sure and save a fair amount of frosting in the bowls for icing the cookies
themselves.
- Purchase a variety of decorator candies.
Chocolate chips and small candies work well, too.
- Utensils. Lots of table knives or spatulas will
do the trick. If your icing is not too stiff, plastic (disposable) table
knives work great and save on clean-up later. Provide some bowls of water to
drop sticky utensils in as you go. Toothpicks come in handy for dragging icing
and drawing designs, too.
- Lots of hand towels or a couple of rolls of
paper towels.
- Cookie decorating ideas that are easy and fast
to do. (See the link at the bottom of this article to get you started.)
-
Some soft background music, if you like.
And drinks would be appreciated by your guests, too. Make a big pot of warm
apple cider for simplicity (and it smells great!).
-
Don't forget to have a camera on hand.
Snap a roll and send each guest a print. What a great memory-maker!
Adjust these ideas to meet your needs. You are the
hostess, you set the rules! For example, maybe you will want to skip the tubes
of decorator icing and only offer the bowls of frosting and the decorator
candies. That's fine.
Now for the guests' checklist:
-
Cookies ready to be decorated. Suggest
your guests bring un-decorated store-bought sugar cookies, or use
ready-to-bake dough and slice and bake before they come. You can also provide
an easy sugar-cookie recipe as a part of the invitation for those who want to
bake from scratch. See the link at the end of this article for a yummy recipe
you can use.
-
A container to take their decorated
cookies home in.
- Clothes that can be messed up and cleaned up
easily.
- A desire for some fun and fellowship!
One last thought: the party's not over until the
clean-up is done! Schedule it into the party and it becomes part of the
fun!
To see the suggestions for party invites, cookie
decorating and recipes you can use, click here. http://www.paintedgold.com/CookieParty.html
About the Author:
About the
Author: Colleen Langenfeld helps families run smoothly at PaintedGold,
a fun online home and gift resource center. Sign up for our online newsletter
and get our Creativity Toolkit for FREE!
|
Utilize the Internet for Your Crafts:
|
|
|
|
