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I realize that his is late and 99% of you have done the school holiday party already. That’s how I’m rolling this year, last minute. However this is all about how you can be last minute and still look like Martha Stewart, and most of these ideas can be used for other holidays. (or you can bookmark this page and save it for next year!)
Classroom Christmas Party Ideas
Snacks and Treats for Classroom Parties
Your child wants you to make an awesome holiday-themed treat like they see on their favorite baking show. You? You have no time and no baking skills. Your plan was to hit up a local bakery on the way to school.
No fear! No need to bake it when you can fake it!
How about these cuties?
I saw this recipe on Smashed Peas and Carrots and it’s become a holiday tradition that the kids now do themselves! If you do have time to bake you need to check out her eggnog bread recipe, it’s a great hostess gift!.
When I first saw these cookies I thought, “oh those are so cute and would be great for the kindergarten Christmas party!” Than I woke up and remembered that reality involved small children, busy schedules and no time to bake, roll, cut cookies, make the icing, and assemble. However I am a hacker, and I am great at faking it, so here’s how I faked them:
Not bad eh?
It will cost you more money, but a lot less time and even if you are a stay at home mom time is money right? Total time to make these was less than an hour.
I used the break and bake sugar cookies, so there was no time wasted rolling and cutting, you could also pick up a box of non-decorated sugar cookies from your local grocer. I cooked them during lunch and let them cool in the afternoon.
Now on to the decorating! If I was in charge I would have gotten small tubes of icing for the details, hubs picked up jimmies (sprinkles) you could go with a multi-pack and pick out colors. I used one chocolate pack and one multi-colored and was not particular over the color of the noses, so they are not all orange. If the nose fell off, it stayed melted, more realistic right?
The icing is where I splurged. Get the Betty Crocker Cookie Icing:
This cannot be substituted. I used one package (even though the container says it only does 12 cookies). This icing goes on easy, dries shiny, like melting snow, and is stackable!) From there I just followed the instructions from Smashed Peas and Carrots. I microwaved 4 marshmallows at a time and built the snowman while making dinner.
Classroom Party Goodie Bags
This Halloween it seemed like everyone at my daughter’s school did a goodie bag with their card (I did not). I was not planning on making goodies bags or gifts for Christmas until I looked at the calendar and realized I would be giving birth the week of Valentines and my kids would be lucky if I remembered to get them cards. So I decided to do some last minute non-food goodies bags.
I was able to find 10 packs of holiday pencils (4) and treat bags (2) for $1 each. We also decided to make crayons. I got a silicone candy tray (available at craft and fabric stores) to make snowflakes.
This was so much fun for the kids to help with. They got involved, helping me peel and make them and all it cost was the tray. You can make these without purchasing a tray, but being pregnant I didn’t want to bother with double boiling or washing. My kids have so many crayons and they don’t want to use broken or short crayons. This is a way to recycle them, give them new life and teach them about making gifts.
Kid Made Teachers Gifts
I like making teacher gifts and having the kids be involved with the process. We have in the past made bread or cookies, but honestly I know they get a ton of that stuff this time of year. So for the last few years we have been making cookies for Santa.
The recipe is Bakerella’s Cowboy Cookie Recipe made for Christmas. It’s easy, fast (less than an hour, 30 min if the kids don’t help) and all our teachers have loved them. It’s something they can use themselves to make their holiday easier (one teacher said she used it for a cookie exchange) or save for a less cookie filled season (or re-use for a hostess gift!). The kids can help, little hands are great for smooshing it down
I used fabric scraps I had on hand to cover the mason lids. You could purchase holiday fat quarters at a craft store or even use scrapbook or wrapping paper.
The Jars we used are smooth mason jars which you can purchase at most fabric or craft stores as well as some grocery stores. You can use the non-smooth ones that are sometimes easier to find they just don’t look as nice. I have used printed labels and handwritten ones, depending on time.
There you have it, 3 easy steps to fake a party like your Martha Stewart. I did all of these on Monday afternoon. The day before the party and still had time to watch some football.
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