Make Your Own Christmas Cookie Tree

How to trim your Christmas tree with homemade cookies Wilton Industries - All rights reserved .
 

This year, why not trim your Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments you could eat and we're not talking about plastic-wrapped candy canes or strings of stale popcorn.

It's time to bring the Christmas cookie out of the kitchen and put it front and center this Christmas - right on the tree. With a little foresight and planning you can bake and decorate cookies for use as Christmas tree ornaments. Of course, that means you can't eat them as they come out of the oven. At least not all of them. :-)

"Think of Christmas cookies as a sweet canvas," said Zella Junkin, consumer affairs director for Wilton Enterprises, the nation's leading supplier of cake decorating and holiday entertaining supplies. "By using a few simple cake decoration techniques, cookies can be made into absolutely stunning ornaments and hung from the Christmas tree. It's a fun way to get the family in the kitchen for Christmas and involved in trimming the tree."

Of course, not every type of Christmas cookie can serve as a Christmas tree ornament. The best type are rolled cookies - with a stiff dough that you roll out and use a cookie cutter to shape. While most families have at least one rolled Christmas cookie recipe, variety is always welcome both on the tree and on a plate. Two of the best types of cookies to bake as Christmas ornaments are Sugar Cookies or Gingerbread.

Using a drinking straw, make a small hole in the cookie ornament about 1/2 in. from the top before you bake the cookie. You will also need to re-cut the hole with a straw while the cookies are still warm, to eliminate any filling in produced during baking. Once the cookie has cooled, use this hole to tie a ribbon, string or wire to hang the cookies on the tree.

"The key to making these ornaments is completely cooling the cookies before decorating or hanging," explains Junkin. "If the icing is placed on the cookies while warm, the details will melt, or if hung too soon the cookies will break."

Turning The Ordinary Into The Ornamental

Plain Christmas cookies will look nice on your tree, but decorating them with multi-colored piped cookie dough tinted with food color or painting them with Royal Icing (recipe attached) will add to their visual appeal. In addition to varying the recipes for the cookies used as ornaments, vary the shape and size. Cookie cutters are commonly available shaped like Santa Claus, gingerbread men and women, bells, toy trains, drums, Christmas trees, stars and nearly every shape you can think of.

Before putting the cookies in the oven, plan out a few designs. Since these cookies are going to be used for ornaments, it's important to touch on every detail right down to the locomotive's smokestack. A useful technique is to trace the shapes of the cookies on wax paper and use icing and other decorations to practice your designs. The planning of designs (and some simple decorating) is a great activity for parents to do with their older children. Let younger children help by cutting the holes in the cookies, or by applying icing to the cooled cookies.

Trimming The Tree

When decorating a Christmas tree, more is usually merrier. And a Christmas cookie-decorated tree is a great excuse to also throw a Christmas cookie exchange. Just be sure to hang the lights on the tree before your guests arrive - it's usually a time consuming job.

For a cookie exchange, ask your guests to not only bring a few decorated cookies for the tree, but also a batch of their own favorite Christmas cookies to share with everyone at the party. This gives partygoers the opportunity to try different cookie creations and expand their selection of Christmas cookies at home. While the types of cookies exchanged are really limited only by your imagination, favorite recipes include Chewy Dark Chocolate and Orange Cookies, Cranberry Nut Meringues, Snowballs, and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies.

"Each guest can contribute by bringing a few decorated cookies from their own homes and adding them to the tree," Junkin says. "I like to make each person a special cookie every year and sign it with icing - it gives the exchange a personal touch that everyone appreciates."

A Cookie trim a-tree party doesn't have to be only about cookies. For more substantial fare, offer your guests a light buffet menu to compliment the sweets. A selection of appetizers and other finger foods can be offered during the actual trimming of the tree for guests to nibble.

Thanks for visiting my I Love Christmas.com holiday decorating blog. Please use the Contact Form to request permission to reprint or quote from this article. For more Christmas decorating ideas visit my Christmas blog: https://www.i-love-christmas.com/Christmas-Decorating-Ideas . Get beautiful, handmade glass ornaments, garlands, metal ornament trees, ornament hooks, tabletop Christmas trees, photo ornaments and other holiday decorations at I Love Christmas! https://www.i-love-christmas.com . Please note that I assume no liability for the use or misuse of these instructions or those provided by the manufacturer.

Visit http://www.wilton.com/recipes/partyplanning/christmas/trimatree.cfm for more baking and decorating ideas for the holiday.