Christmas Cookie Party

I want to first apologize for being absent for so long. When I first started Mom and a Half, I promised myself it was going to be fun, & if ever I felt pressured or stressed to write just for the sake of a keeping up with the blog world, then I would stop and refocus on my family. Well, safe to say that with the chaos of the holidays, my focus has happily been 100% on my family (and decorating and wrapping and cooking and trying to balance how much sugar kids are allowed to have per day between left over halloween candy & candy canes left by their Elf on the Shelf.) It’s been crazy. And this Christmas Cookie Party was no different. Six frosting covered kids half decorating/half eating the decorations was no joke, but oh my goodness. I would do it all over again in the blink of eye…………. in a year, of course. It was so, SO much fun, and such a breath of fresh-air from all the holiday bustle. Watching the kids laugh and play really puts a mama’s heart right in line with what really matters during the holidays.

I believe there’s something that happens when you start your own family. This little urge to start your own traditions & really make the holidays your own. You know, everything you looked back on as a teenager and rolled your eyes about, but now is suddenly so whimsical & endearing. That’s exactly what this party was to me.

Ideally, I really wanted to do gingerbread houses (and maybe one day we’ll work up to that) but with the kids’ ages, I knew not to get over-eager and to just go with good ol’ fashion Christmas cookie decorating.

I threw this little party together in a week: 5 days spent wondering how I was going to make such a messy event “blog cute”, 1 day browsing aisles for ideas & begging my friend’s boyfriend to be Santa, & 4 hours the day of the party frantically running around target & Joanne’s with both kids wondering why, oh why I waited. per. usual.

Without further ado, here are the party supplies I landed on:

1 roll of Scotch Kraft Postal Wrapping Paper
(3) 12 count sugar cookies from Save Mart
Crystal Christmas Sugar Sprinkles
1 Bag of Jelly Belly’s
1 bag of mini M&M’s
Wilton Lightbulb Icing Decorations
Wilton Icing Colors (For frosting coloring)
6 cups of your own royal icing recipe
Treat Boxes for guests to take home cookies!

Huge shoutout to Target for putting most of this stuff in one aisle!

I absolutely loved the idea of using postal paper for the table so I could draw my own “decor”, because frankly the only dough I was going to be shoving out for this party was cookie dough. Honestly, why spend money on centerpieces for kids? Exactly. A five buck roll of paper and a jumbo sharpie work just fine.

*Party Tip: I cannot do calligraphy. I printed the kids names up on Word using “Magnolia Sky” font, then pushed really hard with my sharpie so it bled through onto my tablecloth, then traced over it again. TA-DA.

We then just went all mom-hands on deck, and let the kids go crazy decorating the cookies how ever their little hearts desired. Some did really well, some dipped their hands straight in the frosting, & others (my daughter) just ate mini M&M’s the whole time, but all had a great time.. parents included!

Of course it wouldn’t be a kids’ Christmas party if Santa didn’t show up, & the big man in red did not disappoint. I bought little $5-$10 gifts for each kid, shoved them in Santa’s sack and let him call them out individually, giving them all a chance to sit on his lap and tget a little one on one time talking to Santa. If you plan on doing a larger party or your budget doesn’t cover gifts, having Santa simply ask what they want or having the parents bring each kid their own little gifts for Santa to pass out are definitely other options!

I cannot be more proud of how relaxed and well received this party was. If you’re looking for your own traditions, I highly recommend one like this with your own personal twist to make it your own of course.

Below are the pictures the kids took with Santa which are so sweet, but my favorite parts about them are the reflections in the window. All the parents huddled together smiling at their kids smiling. Tell me what can be more Christmas than that.