The holidays are just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than to gather all the kids around the kitchen table with some cheap cookie cutters and lots of flour, sugar, a little water and a lot of creativity to have a day full of baking fun.

Kids love to get their hands dirty, especially with food and what better way to enjoy your children than having them alongside you while you’re baking your holiday cookies.  In order to be fair, give everyone a job at the beginning of the day and then after one or two batches come out of the oven, have everyone switch jobs so they receive a turn mixing the dough, kneading the dough, rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies with a special Mickey Mouse cookie cutter or another one from your large collection.

And mom should not worry about the mess if they prepare their kitchen in advance of the children waking up or the night before.  Purchase a roll of butcher block paper, which can always be used for coloring or other projects once the cookies and baking have been completed, and spread this out on the kitchen table covering every inch and leaving plenty hanging over the edge.  You might even want to cover the floor with some of the butcher block paper for an even easier cleanup.  When the day is done, simply roll up the butcher block paper and all its little messes and dispose of in trash.

Be sure the children understand that the grown up is in charge of the oven; however the children can use all the other utensils including the New York State cookie cutter you ordered online because it is durable and will withstand a child’s clumsy hand.

Once all the cookies have been baked, it’s time for the fun part of making cookies: icing, sprinkles and even food coloring so they can ‘paint’ their cookies to be given away as gifts, saved for Santa and of course eating them.