Christmas Cookie Baking Party Ideas for Families

In a lot of families, the Christmas cookie bake is the real start of the season: flour everywhere, a playlist on, and a kitchen full of every generation. A little planning keeps it fun instead of frantic.

Here's how to plan the day, set up stations, give every age a job, and send everyone home with a box.

Plan the day

• Pick a date early in December so the cookies can be given as gifts and eaten before Christmas.
• Keep the guest list to what your kitchen can hold. Six to ten bakers in one kitchen is plenty; spill into the dining room for decorating.
• Choose two or three recipes: a cut-out dough for decorating, a quick drop cookie, and a no-bake treat for little hands.
• Make the dough the day before. Chilled dough rolls better and saves an hour on the day.

Set up stations

A baking party runs best as a little assembly line:

1. Rolling and cutting: a floured table, rolling pins and every cookie cutter you own.
2. Baking: one grown-up in charge of the oven, timer and cooling racks.
3. Decorating: frosting in piping bags, sprinkles in small bowls, and paper towels everywhere.
4. Packing: boxes, tins, parchment and labels for the finished cookies.

Jobs for every age

• Toddlers and preschoolers: sprinkles, cutting shapes, pressing thumbprints.
• Big kids: rolling dough, decorating, counting cookies into boxes.
• Teens: running the playlist, taking photos, managing a station.
• Grown-ups: the oven, the family recipe, keeping the coffee going.
• Grandparents: the head baker, the judge and the keeper of the secret recipe.

Decorating ideas

• A decorating contest with categories: most festive, funniest, most sprinkles, best tree.
• Ugly cookie awards for the gloriously bad ones.
• Name cookies