Cookie-Themed Kid's Party Activities

Cookie Decorating

• Have a party where kids can express their creative sides through cookie art. Cover your table or workspace with a plastic tablecloth and bring out batches of sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. Arrange bowls of different colors of frosting, tubes of gel icing and an array of edible decorations like multi-colored and chocolate sprinkles, miniature candies, flavored baking chips and colored sugars. Let the kids use plastic knives or wooden craft sticks they will use to spread the frosting and then turn them loose with the add-ons. Take photos of the finished products before the kids gobble down their masterpieces.

Mix-and-Match

• Invite a few of your child's special friends for an afternoon of cookie-baking. Ask each guest to bring a favorite easy cookie recipe. Lay out a supply of the standard baking ingredients like sugar, flour, eggs, butter and vanilla. The kids can show each other how to make their favorite cookies. When the tasty treats are finished and have cooled, give each child a decorative container to load up with some of each type of cookie. Not only will the guests will have fun -- they will take some of that fun home to share with their families.

Cookie Games

• Thread two-foot long pieces of ribbon or clean string through the center of large, iced sugar cookies -- enough for at least one per child. Have the kids form two rows and ask them to keep their hands behind their backs. Two adults hold the ribbons so the cookies dangle in front of the kids' faces. Time the kids so that each child gets 20 to 30 seconds to eat as much of his cookie as possible. The team that eats the largest chunks of the highest number of cookies, using no hands, wins. For a quick game that will appeal to boys, set out plates of plain cookies in front of each child and see who can eat the most cookies within a set time.

Rainbow Cookie Critters

• Make a large batch of sugar cookie dough. Separate the dough into four or five equal lumps and color each lump of cookie dough with a different food coloring. Chill the dough before using. Let the kids make small balls out of the colored dough, and then let the kids roll the balls between their hands to make long dough ropes. Challenge the kids to twist the dough ropes together to make rainbows, lollipops, fantastical creatures or whatever else they can imagine. Encourage the kids to guess what their friends' creations are supposed to be or have a contest with prizes for categories such as "most colorful," "most creative," "most realistic," and "tallest cookie." Bake as you usually would.