A Sugar 'n' Spice Soiree - holiday cookie party tips

Girls' Life, Dec, 2000 by Muffy Fenwick

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, and what could be more delightful than a holiday cookie party!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.... Enough already! When the blustering wind and swirling snow make sledding and building snowmen feel like work, ditch your icy mittens and spend the afternoon by a warm stove, sipping hot chocolate and munching on cookies. Invite your best gal pals over for a holiday cookie party and recipe exchange!

Gingerbread Greetings

Don't let holiday expenses sour your spirit! If your bank account is about the size of an elf's pinkie toe, save on invites by making your own. You'll need: red and green construction paper * black pen * gold glitter * ribbon * spray glue * large gingerbread man cookie cutter. Trace the cookie cutter onto green paper, and cut out. Add a bow tie, hat and mustache. Pen in party details, including time, place and RSVP info.

Then, using red paper, create a party partner for your jolly gingerbread man. Just add a dress and eyelashes. On the blank gingerbread lady, write "Recipe," and instruct each guest to write down her favorite holiday cookie creation and bring it to the party for a recipe exchange. Spray some glue on the blank areas and bedazzle your gingerbread pair with gold glitter. Tie 'em together with ribbon. Decorate envelopes with red and green paper, rub-on decal snowmen (at any craft store for under $2) and...more glitter!

Pre-Party Prep

The focus of your cookie party is (duh!) your kitchen. Make sure you're fully stocked for your holiday bake-off-- cookie cutters, baking trays, flour, cooling racks and rolling pins. Elbows fly when the rollin' gets goin,' so make sure your Betty Crocker buds have plenty of working space.

You can't have a cookie party without holiday music, so hit the record store for a few new CDs to add to your collection. Christina Aguilera has a new soulful one titled My Kind of Christmas. Charlotte Church's holiday release is Dream a Dream, or go for Billy Gilman's Classic Christmas. (Charlotte and Billy do duets on both CDs.)

Deck the Halls

FIRE AND ICE Whether it's snowing or not, make sure it feels like it is--and this doesn't mean slipping ice cubes down your bud's back! Go nuts with that cool snow-in-a-can. Try Snow Accents paint, available at craft stores, to create a magical winter wonderland inside your own home!

GINGER GARLANDS Adorn kitchen walls and holiday halls with colored lights and garlands. Think yuletide paper dolls, and whip up some red and green gingerbread man garlands. Fold each colored page into accordion folds wide enough to fit a small cookie cutter. Trace, cut, unfold and voila! Lengthen your garland by connecting each row with clear tape to deck the whole room! Just punch holes in the tops of their heads, and string with ribbons. Even easier? Take two-inch strips of colored paper, bend one into a circle and close ends with clear tape. Slip a second strip through the ring, and tape ends. Soon, you'll have a chain of holiday color. Or string different shaped cookie cutters on silver ribbon, secure above windows and door frames to dangle like ornaments!

The Nitty Gritty

Transform the kitchen table into an efficient work space. First, clear it off! Then throw on a festive cloth of fun holiday fabric. Put out all the goods and ingredients.

Don't incite a cookie war! To satisfy choosy cooks, pre-select recipes--and all agree on making just two or three kinds of cookies. We suggest mixing the dough in advance so when everyone arrives, you can get right to work. Chill the dough at least two hours (or overnight) before rolling. Don't get caught with your hand stuck to the cookie jar! Have a flour canister handy because dough can be very sticky.

Finally, don't forget to preheat! Allow the oven 10 to 15 minutes to warm up before baking. Plan on baking two trays at a time, rotating them halfway through cooking.

Cookies

Time to make the cookies... Depending on how many guests you have, you may want to double or even triple recipes so each girl has plenty to take home--and enough to munch hot out of the oven!

SUGAR COOKIES (Makes 3 dozen)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons cream

In large bowl, mix sugar and butter with wooden spoon until creamy. Add egg, and mix well. In small bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Gradually add cream and flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring well. If dough seems too sticky, add a tad more flour. Divide dough into two balls. Place dough balls between two sheets of waxed paper. Flatten dough into disks with rolling pin. Chill dough in refrigerator several hours or overnight.

When chilled, remove waxed paper. Sprinkle flour on work surface, rolling pins and dough. Flatten dough with rolling pin, and use cutters to create shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, and decorate with colored crystals. Bake at 350 degrees about 12 to 15 minutes until light, golden brown. Repeat with unused dough scraps. Remove cookies from oven, and cool. Use decorative frosting after cookies have cooled completely.