9th Day of Christmas: Why not deck your cookies with bows of holly?

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is our cookie decorating party. A few weeks before Christmas a group of family and friends get together to decorate cut-out cookies that are baked the night before. It’s mainly an activity for the kids who have as much fun decorating as they do eating their creations.

But when the adults get involved, it is a different story. We have judging and prizes because with our family if we can turn anything into a competition, we will. One of my favorite memories is the year that the winner was the ugliest cookie. This cookie was one in which my mother just slathered on all the leftover frosting. To quote one of her favorite sayings “can’t let that go to waste.” My father was the judge that year, and needless to say, he had a great sense of humor. However, some of the other cookie decorators did not seem to appreciate his sense of humor and wanted a recall. Did I mention that we are a competitive family?

In the past few years we have gotten more elaborate in our decorating techniques. What started as just four colors of frosting and red & green sugar sprinkles has evolved into eight colors of frosting, frosting tubes, mini candies and every other type of decoration you can imagine. Last year we even had a cookie decorated with a lottery ticket (to bribe the judge). But the most creative is when my nieces decided to decorate my nephew. What a great sport Tyler was – that is not a rash on his face but red sugar sprinkles.

A good time is always had by all and everyone gets to leave with a container of cookies.