Charlie had his Gingerbread Party today (Dec 17)! As a bonus, his gingerbread kids ornaments came in the mail too. Every year he gets a new ornament for the tree. The first several years were tied to his age but that stops after about 5 or 6. Subsequently, I've tried to get an ornament that will remind him of that particular Christmas. For instance, he has a scooter ornament from the year that Santa brought a scooter. And this year, I found gingerbread kids. There are two and they're really cute. They have sticky decorations — hats and scarves in red and green.
Back to the party: Naturally, I covered the table and moved the chairs out of the way so everyone could get to the cookies and icing. I gave each of the nine children a dozen Gingerbread Kids cookies to decorate. I had piping bags for each of them and plenty of wet and dry towels on hand. I had oodles of decorations: nonpareils, colored sugars, jimmies, dragées, candies, and more.
There were nine kids, including Charlie, and it took them about nine minutes to finish! I'm being sarcastic but it didn't take them anywhere as long as it takes me (the perfectionist!). I loved their efforts though and they all enjoyed themselves! When they finished, they left their cookies on plates to dry while they played games and watched videos for the next few hours.
When the cookies were dry, I put each collection in a treat bag (decorated with gingerbread men, of course) to take home with them. Charlie had a blast and the cookies were delicious! It was great fun and I highly recommend it as a great creative outlet. You don't have to wait till Christmas or restrict yourself to gingerbread either. Why not bake some Sugar Cookie eggs for Easter and invite a crowd of children round to decorate? I promise you won't mind the mess when you see what fun they're having and how proud they are of their tasty creations!
