This year was the first in a long time that I made and decorated Sugar Cookies for the Holidays with my girls.  I used to bake a TON but pretty much gave up after needing to go gluten-free. This year, I decided to give gluten-free baking a go (Spoiler Alert: Huge Success!).  My daughters eagerly anticipated rolling out the dough, cutting out the shapes, frosting, etc. We made the dough from scratch and dug all of your standard shapes, mittens, bells, stars, and gingerbread men out of storage.  And we had tons of frosting colors.

The Art of Cookie Personalization

After the dough was ready, we started cutting out the cookies.  The girls wanted to differentiate the people cookies somehow since I didn’t have a gingerbread woman shape. To do so we made a teeny-tiny little indentation with the side of the spatula for a vulva on one of the cookies.  The girls giggled with laughter at the simplicity of the solution. Everyone wholeheartedly agreed that a cookie doesn’t need a skirt to be a woman.

Frosting, Fun, and Unleashing Creativity

The time came for baking.  The girls could hardly wait for the cookies to get out of the oven. But finally, once the yummy goods were cooled, the fun of frosting began.  I needed to run out to get something for dinner, so a sitter stayed with them for this part (I also had to bow out because, knowing how much of a control freak I could be, I wanted to step away and not squelch their creativity).

From Dirty Christmas Cookies to Holiday Classics

I returned to see the typical shapes decorated with a more traditional style, but it got a little creative when it came time to decorate the people!  The girls figured out that you could layer the frosting for breasts, so some people had extra frosting mounds on them.  Cindy put a little extra frosting on the crotch of one (to indicate a bulge for a penis).  Cindy also made a cookie dressed like Red Foo from LMFAO’s video “I’m Sexy And I Know It” complete with hair (black frosting) under his arms.  My boyfriend came over while this production was underway and noted that this style of cookie decorating was what he and his friends did when they were teens.

Of course, as expected, after a few dirty Christmas cookies, the novelty wore off, and they resumed the more traditional cookie decorating—those we will share at holiday parties. Or set aside for Santa Claus.

Celebrating Unconventional Holiday Fun

I know it is not typical in most households to allow kids to be silly in this way. – I’m sure my own mother will have words with me in some way about this when she reads this – but we were having so much fun together.  Perhaps this was how you wished YOU could have made cookies when you were growing up?  Perhaps you did…are you any worse for the wear?  Like I said, the silliness was short-lived and the bottom line is we had a ball.  I’m sure this will be a lasting positive memory for them as it will be for me.

There is so much lightness and fun to be had around this topic. I truly believe that making this difficult topic easy now will make the more challenging conversations that will undoubtedly come later easier.

xxoo

Lanae

p.s., If you want help figuring out how to talk to kids of different age groups, click here. And here.