home and tree decorations

edible christmas decorations

decorating ideas for cookies

These days there is an amazing array of Christmas decorations on offer to make your house sparkle. If, however, you'd like to make your Christmas a little more personal and special, why not make your own decorations? Older children will love the sense of involvement and achievement at seeing their creations and showing them off to visitors. For younger children the magic of watching snowmen, Santas and other shapes appear out of seemingly nowhere is a treat in itself. Most of the ideas we present here require no special excursions to the shops and use easily accessible materials.

home and tree decorations

• While you're out walking in the local park, collect twigs and pine cones. Use craft paints from an art shop to paint them in gold, silver or, for a snowy effect, all white. Place them around the tree or use them to make a table centrepiece.
• The sheer amount of paper that falls out of newspapers and supplements can be made into paper chains. Cut a sample length and use it as a template so that all the links will be the same size. These can be glued or stapled together.
• If you've saved last year's cards, ask your children to pick out designs they like and cut them out. Provide a pot of glue plus silver balls, glitter and cotton wool to create a personal touch. Punch a hole in the top and hang on the tree with ribbon.

edible christmas decorations

Christmas cookies that can be eaten or hung on the tree are enchanting and fun to make. Older children can roll out the cookie dough and decorate them before cooking, while younger children will enjoy using tubes of icing afterwards.

You can use the recipe below or, if you're pushed for time, buy some refrigerated dough.

Christmas Cookies

• 1 1/3 cups castor sugar
• 250gm (8oz) butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups Plain flour
• 2 cups Self Raising flour
• Pinch salt
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon or mixed spice

1. Cream butter and sugar together until pale
2. Beat eggs and add gradually to creamed mixture
3. Sift flours and add to mixture. If it seems a bit wet, add a tiny bit of flour
4. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour
5. Preheat oven to 350°F
6. Roll out dough between cling wrap to just over 1/8" thick and cut shapes with cutters
7. If you want to hang them on the tree then it's better if they're a bit thicker at one end. Put a hole in cookie with a drinking straw before you bake
8. If you're not planning to decorate your cookies, paint them with some beaten egg

Bake for between 12-18 minutes (this will depend on your oven- you want the cookies to be a light golden brown).

decorating ideas for cookies

Before you bake let the kids sprinkle cookies with hundreds and thousands, silver balls, Smarties or chocolate buttons. Do this while the cookies are on the oven tray. When the cookies are cooled, they can be decorated with different coloured icing from easy to use tubes.