Christmas is just around the corner! Soon, the kids will be off from school and we’ll be counting down the days until Christmas morning. Here’s a few tips to make some memories with your kids this holiday season.
Mosiac Cookies
I saw this idea recently and thought it was great! Just take your favorite sugar cookie dough (even store bought will work), and divide it into three equal portions. Use food coloring to dye at least two of them—I did red and green for Christmas and left the other white—and form them into balls, a bit smaller than a golf ball. Put them randomly on a floured surface, then ‘scrunch’ them together so they touch and gaps close. Roll out to desired thickness and cut out your cookies. You get all these cool, random designs. And for a bonus, as you re-roll your scraps, you get a tie-dye effect on the second cut. This is a great idea, not just for Christmas, but for any event. You can color match your cookies (orange and white for UT games; pink, red and white for Valentines.), plus kids love the tactile experience of forming the dough.
Rice Krispy Fun
An oldie but a goodie! Kids love to eat them, and bakers love how easy they are to make. Add some food coloring to the marshmallow mixture before adding the cereal, and the possibilities are endless. Trees, wreaths, snowmen, Santa, even ‘gingerbread’ houses. A great way to keep the kids occupied and use their creativity.
Graham Cracker Houses
If you don’t want to bake your own gingerbread, you can just use graham crackers! They are more fragile, so when cutting, I find a serrated knife, like a steak knife, works well, sawing it back and forth. Royal icing is great for house construction, and when you make it with egg white powder, you don’t have to cook it to get rid of any salmonella risk.
Royal Icing with Egg White Powder
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon powdered egg whites
2 tablespoons water
Simply beat together until stiff peaks form. You can color with food color if desired. By changing the amount of liquid, you can use this frosting for glazing sugar cookies or as strong construction glue.
The Christmas ‘Poke’ or Treat Bag
When I was a little girl, one of my fondest memories is of the Christmas ‘pokes’ I would get when we visited my mom’s side of the family. Their little mountain church, near Jellico, TN, would pack numerous small brown paper bags with fruit, nuts, and candy, handing them out at Christmas time. Many years before in Appalachia, this would be the only present some kids would ever get for Christmas. This humble but heartfelt gesture is a simple one to carry on and perfect for blessing teachers, neighbors, and visitors during the Holidays.
