Creative Cookie Packaging + Baking Christmas Cookies! #SpreadCheer

Allison’s 2 now and getting bigger by the minute, and I’m so excited that she’s old enough to start helping out in the kitchen! The other night she helped prepare her quesadilla, and even though she only took like 2 bites at dinner, she still had a lot of fun dumping the cheese and beans on her tortilla. One of the things I wanted to accomplish this year was bake Christmas cookies with Allison, and she’s definitely showing signs of readiness for helping; just in time for the holidays! This year I wanted to #SpreadCheer to those we love to show Allison the true giving spirit of Christmas, and that we can have fun with more than just presents. So here’s my setup:

I have these very pretty Christmas treat bags, and two pieces of Christmas craft paper/cardstock. What I wanted was a good way to stack cookies and still make them look presentable, so here’s what I did.

For the first two bags, I simply cut a piece of the cardstock to fit inside the bag. This will be a cute backdrop for the cookies.

For the other two, I cut the paper the same length, but folded one end less than half an inch in to form a lip, and then folded it again a couple inches to create a little stand for my cookies! This is going to be so adorable.

Oh wait, now we need cookies to go in them! Off to Meijer! I swear, I’m there like 4 times a week.

Ohhhh yes, the awesomeness of Betty Crocker cookies! I decided on a bag of peanut butter cookies and a bag of sugar cookies, because you totally need more than one kind. I like to bake my own sometimes, but with a 2 year old and her attention span, I need something easy and fast, and Betty Crocker’s mixes are perfect.

I don’t think she’s excited at all to bake her first batch of cookies.

Looks good! I added some white icing and red sugar to help decorate the sugar cookies. After using a new coupon for the cookie pouches, it was time to go. Let’s get home and start baking!

Sometimes when I’m making dinner I’ll give her an empty bowl and whisk for her to “help”, so right now she’s like “Really mom, I can stir REAL food?”

She chose the snowman and Christmas tree cookie cutters, and she actually did really well with cutting them out! While these were in the oven, we mixed the peanut butter cookie dough and then put those in as soon as the sugar cookies were done.

Beautifully decorated, the way only a 2 year-old can do! She also decided to mush the peanut butter cookie dough with her fingers instead of using the fork to flatten them out. Surprisingly, they turned out great! Now let’s see how they look in their packaging.

Eek, this worked out so well! The peanut butter cookies do nicely stacked up like this and look so amazing with that Christmas backdrop.

And the sugar cookies lay flat in the other bag so their beautiful decorations will stand out.

I love how these turned out! I used a couple of Betty Crocker’s printable gift tags, tied with a ribbon, and they are now ready to be delivered to some very special people!

First we stopped by my good friend Teresa’s house. We caught her just as she was getting ready to leave, but she was super excited to get these homemade cookies! Next we went to Grandma’s house, where she and Aunt Kady answered the door and absolutely loved the basket. I think Allison did pretty good!

Giveaway Ahead!!!

Betty Crocker has done an amazing job putting together this #SpreadCheer campaign. I can’t think of a better way to bless someone than to surprise them with a basket full of goodies, and Betty Crocker’s cookie pouches made it so easy to spend a short amount of time in the kitchen to make a huge difference in someone’s life. We want this campaign to go viral, and so I’m giving away a $20.00 Meijer gift card to help you do the same! Here are the rules to enter.

• Simply share my blog post on social media! Scroll down a little to see all the sharing options.
• Make sure you use #SpreadCheer and @BettyCrocker in your post! Then post the URL of your social media post in the giveaway entry. That’s it!

The giveaway ends Wednesday, December 30th! Good luck, and have fun spreading cheer this season!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jaime Bacon

Jaime is a Nutrition Coach through the ISSA and professional writer. She has 4 years experience coaching and 9 years experience in writing. She enjoys cooking easy meals, running, and learning more about food.

Jaime specializes in helping women with ADHD learn to meal plan and cook healthier meals without getting overwhelmed.

See full bio here