This past weekend we celebrated my daughter’s 2nd birthday by hosting a cookie decorating party! My kids absolutely love decorating cookies and it is a great activity for parties and get togethers. Today we are sharing details from the party along with tips on hosting a cookie decorating party!

Brendals party started at 10:30am, so we decided to have a donut bar. The donut bar included mini donuts from The Dapper Doughnut and donuts from DoughBoys! We also had fresh fruit salad, pirate booty, and animal crackers. We also had a variety of beverage choices for both the kids and adults.

The main event was decorating sugar cookies! My friend Sharon from Balls of Heaven offers cookie decorating kits and they are perfect for holidays and special occasions. We ordered a dozen decorated cookies for display and over 2 dozen cookies for the kids to decorate. Her kits include frosting and sprinkles as well!

The party was a success and I think all the kids and adults had a great time! We had 14 kids total ranging from 2-11 and all of them loved decorating their cookies.  A few of us mamas even got to enjoy some decorating ourselves! Below we are sharing tips on hosting your own cookie decorating party.

Tips on hosting a cookie decorating party:

Picking a Theme

The theme can be as simple as you’d like. Whether it is for a holiday party, birthday or just because. You can do anything from Christmas to Halloween themed or even a fun princess, farm, or dinosaur themed party.  Going with a theme you can also encourage people to come dressed up. We had a pajama party so everyone was in their pajamas. You could do Halloween costumes for a Halloween themed party, wear their favorite sports team for a sports themed party, etc.

Invitations

Invitations never go out of style! Lahontan Letterworks created our invitations and they were so perfect! She was so wonderful to work with and brought my vision to life! You can make the invitations as simple as just a jpeg to send out via text or have them printed and send them in the mail!

Cookies

If you are making your own cookies, prepare them a few days in advance and store in an airtight container. I absolutely recommend this, just in case they don’t turn out and they need to be redone. Or if your like me and can’t bake shaped sugar cookies for the life of you, then place an order from your favorite local cookie shop!

How many cookies?

Kids love decorating, but depending on the age, their attention span can only last so long. I’d plan on 2-3 cookies per child under the age of 6. For ages 6+ plan on 3-5 cookies. I’d also include 2-4 different shapes to pick from.

Other Supplies:

Table cloth

Either disposable for easy disposal or cloth. We used cloth and after the party I just shook of the sprinkles and tossed into the washer.

Paper Plates or trays

Have paper plates or trays for each kid to set up at and decorate on. Make sure the plate is big enough to contain a little bit of the mess!

Spreading Tools

Either spoons, knives, or piping bags. For younger kid’s we used these mini wooden spoons to spread the frosting and they worked perfectly. Older kids may be able to handle piping bags easily.

Sprinkles

offer a variety of sprinkles and don’t forget to include eye sprinkles if you have any type of cookie that needs them! For us we needed them for gingerbread man cookies. We had 6 spinkle options at our party.

Icing

Include a variety of icing colors. You can easily make your own at home and add in icing color. Make a day ahead to save on time and set out the day of the party to get to room temp for easier spreading! We had 4 icing color options.

Food Gift Bags

Have food gift bags available for the guests to take their decorated cookies home in. We used these christmas themed food gift bags.  For a more budget friendly option you could use sandwich sized ziplocks.

Party Favors

The cookies the kids decorate could easily double as the party favor.  If you want to do a little more we also did little favor bags that included an individual playdough and a cookie cutter that matched our theme.    

There you go! Your ready to host your own cookie decorating party. I think a cookie party was super fun to plan and host.  I seriously love any excuse to gather with close friends and spend time together. I’m also a huge fan of birthdays and tend to go a little overboard. But the cookie party was by far one of my favorites I’ve ever hosted.  I also think having an activity for the kids helps keep the party somewhat structured while also entertaining to everyone. Have you hosted a cookie decorating party before? What other tips or information would you include?