If you would love to decorate cookies with the kids but have a to-do list as long as mine, my new favorite, and delicious, shortcut to easy Christmas cookies may work for you. It's those amazing, pure butter shortbread cookies from Walkers, the Scottish company that you can find all over the place.
Unlike some other store-bought cookies, Walkers' aren't made with a bunch of preservatives or ingredients like hydrogenated-or-high-fructose anything. If you've never looked at the label, there are only four ingredients: wheat flour, butter, sugar, and salt. Just like I'd make, if I didn't have that pesky to-do list.
So for easy cookie decorating, I grab their Festive Shapes packages of cookie which features shapes like a bell, Christmas tree, star, and Santa head. They've even posted an easy decorative icing recipe on their site to get you started, though feel free to embellish with sprinkles or whatever else you like. (We're all fans of India Tree's natural food colors and decoratifs.).
Since shortbread isn't overly sweet to start with, I like is that my kids' final creations don't induce as big a sugar shock as when they decorate sugar cookies. And of course you don't get those adorable imperfections of snowmen cookies that spread off-center or slightly burnt edges on your stars. But I do really love that on busy days, we can squeeze in some fun decorating a little more easily and still have time for one more crucial Christmas tradition: Eating holiday cookies.
You can order boxes of Walkers Shortbread Festive Shapes from their website for the world's easiest Christmas cookie shortcut that still looks great, or you may find them in your local grocery store.
