MyMilitarySavingsHappy Holidays! My kids have been BEGGING me lately to make homemade ornaments. Now, I like to craft, but I usually enjoy solitary crafting. It’s MY time to unwind and relax. The thought of crafting with the kids stresses me out just a little bit. HA! Being in the holiday spirit though, I decided to round up a few EASY crafts for the kids to enjoy, and how can you have a crafting afternoon without snacks?! I whipped up some super cute reindeer cookies to enjoy with our hot cocoa. Guys, we had SO MUCH FUN throwing this little crafting party. I don’t know why I was so worried. The kids thoroughly enjoyed being creative and decorating ornaments for our tree (and for the grandparents!) They make great gifts! And the cookies? Well, they may have been everyone’s favorite part! 😉 I’ve included all you need to throw a little cookie and crafting party below. Check it out!
For the Reindeer cookies:
- A tube of Pillsbury cookie dough, I chose peanut butter!
- Small chocolate covered pretzels, I picked these Reese’s dipped pretzels and they are AMAZING!
- Two different sizes of m&ms. I used mini for the eyes and RED peanut m&ms for the nose. You also use chocolate chips for the eyes!
These reindeer are SO easy to put together! Simply preheat your oven according to the package instructions. Slice the cookie dough (I got 16 cookies out of mine) and bake, also according to the directions on the package. While they’re baking, separate your m&ms by eye color and red noses. You also need to cut your pretzels in half to make the reindeer antlers.
Once they’re baked, let them cool for 1 minute and then get to work building their faces. Press everything gently into each cookie and the heat from the cookie will slightly melt the chocolate coating and allow everything to stick to the cookie perfectly. Are these not the most adorable and tasty reindeer you’ve ever seen? I love them!!
For the crafting part of our party, I chose popsicle stick ornaments because they’re easy enough for kids to paint, glue, and design without too much input from the parents. At your local dollar store or big box store, gather some supplies! I made sure we had pipe cleaners, pom-poms, glitter, paint, glue (I did have a hot glue gun on standby) googly eyes, and of course popsicle sticks! Also, make sure you have something to protect your table from the crafting adventure about to ensue. 😉
Our first step was to paint the sticks. I found a ton of popsicle ornament ideas on Pinterest so we chose our favorites and got to painting. You need 3 sticks for each Christmas tree, 3 each for Santa hats, 3 for each reindeer face (my personal favorite!) and 5 sticks for each star. Once the kids painted, we had a cookie break while they dried! YUM!
Regular Elmer’s glue worked for most of the sticks, pom-pom, and googly eye gluing. If they don’t seem to be sticking on, go ahead and use the glue gun to speed up the process. We had modge podge for the glittery stars and simple white cotton balls for Santa’s hat.
Check out the selection of ornaments we made! It was such a simple idea that turned into an amazing afternoon being creative and laughing with the kids. I loved watching them bring to life their own ideas and they were just thrilled that mom let loose with the paint and glitter! 😉
We had such a great time making these popsicle ornaments, I think we’ll have another party next week and invite some more friends over! I’ll have to make a double batch of reindeer cookies and hot cocoa because they didn’t last the afternoon! I hope you have a great time throwing a Cookies and Crafting party with your kids too!
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Lasonja Williams
