We received this delightful holiday kit from Koala Crate, featuring both pretend and real Christmas cookies. The craft would be easy to put together yourself, simply by purchasing felt and stickers! I love that we not only engaged Travis’ imagination with the make-believe cookies, but then got to whip up real Christmas cheer with the included recipe.

First, we played with the felt cookie set. Travis thought the cookie cutters were very neat, since the pre-cut felt let him pop the trees and gingerbread people right out.

The stickers for decorating were a big hit, and although we didn’t decorate the suggested Santa, snowman, and gingerbread people as depicted, we certainly had fun creatively applying the decorations!

Then it was time to really bake! This recipe is super kid-friendly; tots can help measure, pour, or mix ingredients, as well as help to roll the dough and use cookie cutters.

For the sugar cookies, you’ll need:

1 cup Earth Balance butter

1 cup sugar

1 Ener-G egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons baking powder

3 cups flour

1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in the vanilla and Ener-G egg.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients. Once a dough forms, finishing kneading the dough with wet hands.
3. Divide the dough into portions (we worked with one quarter at a time) and roll out to 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured surface.
4. Use round cookie cutters (or holiday ones!) to make shapes, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.
5. Cool the cookies briefly on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.

Travis did take a quick turn with the rolling pin, but then he loved crumbling the dough and pressing cookie cutters into his mess, so we lost some of our dough to toddler madness!

Luckily, we still managed to bake enough cookies to decorate.

For the icing, you’ll need:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons non-dairy milk

3 tablespoons brown rice syrup

Food coloring

1. Mix together the powdered sugar and milk. Add the brown rice syrup – your frosting should be thick.
2. Divide into zip-top plastic bags, and add a sprinkle of food coloring to each bag, kneading to incorporate. Snip a small hole in one corner of each bag and squeeze onto the cookies.

Travis loved this part – be prepared to get messy!

For a final dose of fun, we added colored sprinkles to some of our cookies, and crushed candy canes to others.

In sum, a crate-ful of holiday cheer!