Christmas Cookies are always a MUST at Christmas time. I have several Christmas shapes for this exact purpose but in the end we usually stick with the 3 favorites: the Candy Cane, the Christmas Tree and the Star. These 3 shapes are made from sugar cookie dough. The Gingerbread Men are made from gingerbread dough.
I always buy the pre-made cookie dough since its easier and when the kids say "lets make cookies" I can roll out the dough and whip up a baking sheet of shapes in no time. I've had too many sighs and "aw mom" when I tell them I have to make the dough from scratch, so lesson learned!
The stars always come out fat and out of shape - kind of like how I am between Thanksgiving and New Years!
The Candy Cane shapes behave themselves in the oven and they usually turn out well.
The trees usually get soft around the edges while baking so they look like triangles when they are finished. Maybe I need to start making my own cookie dough again - the store bought type doesn't seem to like me.
I always burn the bottoms of the Gingerbread Men and I think its because of the molasses that is in the cookie dough recipe - or maybe its because I'm too busy doing other things instead of watching for when these guys need to come out!
Being the artists that my boys are, they tend to prefer paintbrushes to decorate with so I make sure they are set up with all the colors and goodies they need to get the job done. I'm less pedantic. I'll just use a teaspoon and a shaker to decorate mine!
These were meant for Santa but they were all eaten before the end of the day. Sorry Santa!