Hosting a Cookie Decorating Party

My daughter wanted to have the girls in our neighborhood over for a Valentine’s cookie decorating party. I have always wanted to do a Christmas-themed cookie decorating party, but find myself overwhelmed during the holiday season. We picked a relatively low key day (after school) to host the party which helped keep it casual. Overall, I would say it was a success and I came away with some tips.

Location, Location, Location

• Set up an area that is easy to clean, somewhere you won’t worry about frosting/sprinkle stains. An ideal location is outside! You can hose off the sprinkles and frosting after the party. I was going back and forth on whether or not I should have mine outdoors because of the weather. Once the sun dipped and we were shaded I decided it was too cold and kept decorating station indoors.

Set the Scene

• I wrapped the tops of our playroom tables with fabulous black and white striped gift wrapping I found at my local HomeGoods. It made the decor pop and also helped minimize any tough to remove stains.
• Take all of your candy you plan on decorating with and put them in small containers and spread them out…I’ve found that using more containers with less candy is better because little hands can get what they need easier and there are no arguments. I found these adorable cupcake wrappers and baking containers for mini cakes at HomeGoods. Great decorating candy: m&ms, nonpareils, gummies, licorice laces, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, kisses.
• Frosting can either make or break your cookie decorating party. And by break I mean it can get so messy. I found (affiliate link) these awesome plastic squeeze tubes that allow for better decorating (more controlled) and less mess. You can buy them by clicking (affiliate link) here. It came in a large multipack…so pretty much every guest had a tube available to get deliciously creative! I prefer buttercream because not all kids like cream cheese frosting.
• Sprinkles were pretty much the end of me at the party. My daughter decided to take two bottles of sprinkles and empty them on the frosting-less cookie. So guess what happened when she picked it up to take a bite. Sprinkles spilled EVERYWHERE. So this one is tricky as I don’t think there is a solution. I kept them in their dispensers for ease. I had taken them out and put them in a dipping bowl at a past party and I think that was a lot messier.

Outsource What You Can

• Cookies are obviously the most important part. I totally cheated here and had a local bakery bake them for me. They were awesomely HUGE and sturdy. If you are a sugar cookie goddess, please share your secrets. In the meantime I will continue supporting my hometown bakery.

Feed Your Guests

• Choose snacks that aren’t very sugary as the kids will be overloaded with sweets during decorating. I had cheese, crackers, chips, dip and these frozen mini pizzas from Whole Foods that were a big hit.

We had so much fun with our girlfriends! I am tempted to do this again for Easter!!

With love,

Shahla