I always have these grandiose ideas for children's parties, be it an Easter Egg Hunt, a birthday party or something for the season - I really dream big and wish I had an unlimited budget and time to do the things I really want to do! This Christmas I thought it would be fun to do a kids cookie decorating party. It certainly was! We invited 28 kids (and ended up with 20) to come decorate 15 dozen sugar cookies at the Port Royal Beach House on Hilton Head. We asked all the kids to bring a toy for The Deep Well Project, a local organization that helps families in need. We hired the most fantastic Santa of all time, who read the children "The Night Before Christmas." We also had a card making station where the children made holiday cards using PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamps!
I must say that this party could not have been done with out my parents help. My parents not only baked the cookies (all of them!) but helped take care of the kids while I set up. They helped fund the event and do a lot of the grunt work (like clean up...) It was as much hosted by The Evaniskos as it was The O'Regans!
The party was from 2-4 pm on Sunday, December 9th, and because of the mid-afternoon time frame we only had a bit of food. My mom made her famous Hambuns, we had a pizza roll tray and veggie tray from Publix, and some chocolate cupcakes made by Ronnie's Bakery. I set up a food table with some Christmas tree decorations and created a stocking banner to make things look extra festive.
This banner was super easy since I purchased the pre-made stockings. I spray painted clothes pins red, and I stamped the white stockings with 4 different stamps from U.B.U. Peppermint Swing and U.B.U. Mrs. Claus. I chose a stamp to represent each of the 4 members of our family.
Molly and I made this reindeer decoration. I purchased the die cut reindeer, we painted them red and green, and then added googly eyes and pom-poms for noses.
Here she was painting them!
I marked all the food on the buffet table with little signs. I stamped from U.B.U. Mrs. Claus to dress them up and used my hunter green ink in my PSA Stamper. I wrote in red marker to be festive!
I made easy cupcake toppers with my 1.5" inch and 2"inch round punches. I stamped all 18 stamps from U.B.U. Mrs. Claus and U.B.U. Peppermint Swing using hunter and red ink in my stamper. I just switched out the middle and kept the candy cane outer border.
The cookie decorating stations were set up on three long tables (we had 20 kids, afterall!) I had signs that said "please take 8 cookies each" so everyone knew how many to decorate.
I loaded a bunch of Stampers up with different inks (holiday red, hunter green, hunter and red, espresso, royal blue) and different holiday stamps from PSA Original holiday ones (Tree-O, North Pole, Whimsy Trees) and put out a bunch of crafting supplies for the kids to make cards.
Cookie decorating was a lot of fun - Molly, my daughter just loved it!
Of course many of the kids also ate the cookies they were decorating...
Santa arrived around 3 pm. There was some mixed excitement with the kids - some very enthusiastic, others didn't care, a few were scared of him!
Connor woke up just in time to meet Santa, too! (And he was a little red nosed from his nap!)
It was a great afternoon and a fun party!
%20-%20Mad%20in%20Crafts){kind=link}