Festive feast treats
Kids love sweet treats (well, don’t we all?). Here are a few that they can help you prepare as well as eat.
Edible tree decorations
Make your own Christmas tree decorations which look good enough to eat – and in fact are!
- First of all, create your own decoration templates by drawing them on a piece of card (eg a cereal packet) and cutting them out, but use the outline for your decoration templates. You can’t go wrong with Christmas trees, stars and snowmen!
- To make apple and cinnamon decorations, mix equal amounts of apple sauce and cinnamon together until you have a nice, thick dough. And here’s a tip – buy cinnamon from an Asian food store if possible, as you’ll get a lot more for your money.
- Roll out the dough on some greaseproof paper until it’s about a quarter of an inch thick.
- Use your card templates to cut out shapes, then poke a small hole with a straw in the top of each shape. You can either leave them to dry for a few days, or bake them in the middle shelf of the oven at 150°C for 5-6 hours, or until the dough becomes firm.
- Finally, thread some ribbon through the hole at the top and hang on the Christmas tree.
Marzipan dates
These are really colourful little nibbles and couldn’t be easier to make. Which means the kids can ‘help’ as much as they like!
- Simply cut a slice in the dates and remove the stone. Roll up a thin ball of marzipan about the size of the stone and pop it inside the date so it’s sticking out a little.
- Then put a glace cherry on top. They even look a little like miniature Christmas puddings.
Vegetables…yummy?
Try doing something to the vegetables to get the kids to eat them all - orangey carrots, cheesy courgettes, honey parsnips. It works every time.
Popcorn garland
This is simply popcorn strung with a needle and thread. Make sure you pop some extra corn for eating while sewing the garland.
Reindeer droppings
These are really easy to make with the kids and they absolutely love them. Bizarrely, they love telling relatives they’re eating ‘reindeer droppings’ over dessert. Here’s how to make your own reindeer droppings.
Support us
If you’ve enjoyed using these ideas and would like to make a difference to children’s lives, please support us – visit the rest of our website.
The Children's Society transforms the lives of over 48,000 children and young people each year. We work with those in greatest need, including young runaways, disabled children, young carers and looked after children. Many have no-one else to turn to. Please support us - we need your help to make childhood better.