I have been hired to provide a cookie decorating station at a kids Christmas party.  I plan to offer one very large per child to decorate and an assortment of icing colors and sanding sugars/ pearls etc. my questions are....

what type of icing would you use for an event like this??  I will be there for about 2 hours so my concern with using royal is the drying issue... however, it would be good for the kids to be able to take their cookies home so buttercream will just "smoosh" when they place them in a bag or on a plastic wrapped paper plate. suggestions??

do you think a paper plate with plastic wrap over it will work for sending their creations home?  do you have any better ideas,. please keep in mind I need it to be cost effective as the budget for this event is small if I actually want to make any money doing it.

 do you think piping bags or bowls of icing and spatulas/butter knives is better?  the age group is 3 to 8 year olds with a few older kids.

any and all tips/ suggestions are appreciated...

FYI - I operate a licensed, insured business so none of that stuff is of concern.... I've got that handled. :)

When I do big decorating groups I use disposable icing bags with no tips. I have shakers with sprinkles and a little wooden (coffee stirrer) spreading stick. I put the cookie on a 6 inch paper plate and  then package them in a Ziploc. I have the kid blow air in the Ziploc so it doesn't smash the cookie.

Good luck. Lisa

AI have been to decorating stations with children. The icing was in Walmart zip lock sandwich bag. One corner was snipped off as it was given to the child. A cookie on a six inch plate was in another zip lock bag (I think it was a quart size bag.). There was also a McDonald coffee stirrer (it was a Charity station!) and sprinkles, candy wrapped in cellophane in the quart bag. After the children decorated their cookie, they slid the cookie and plate back in the quart bag; everything else went in the trash. The quart bag could be "pinched" on the side to make the plate sit down on the table and be carried by the "pinch" to protect the cookie. (Or as long as there is some air in the bag when it's zipped, the cookie is safe.

Hmmm...I must have the only kids who would've eaten the cookie before they even left the building! No  worries about packaging....

Great ideas with the plate and ziplock.

I was going to say cheap plastic clamshell containers, but that may be out of the budget.  Easy without messing with lots of parts - just put the cookie in and close the lid.  They could probably even decorate the cookie in the clamshell.

Liz

AYou could bring a heat gun to set the icing.

what about candy melts in a bowl over a heating pad or in a crock pot? i did that one year with my class and marshmallows. we put them on pretzel rods, dipped them in the melts and decorated with sprinkles and so on. 

everyone gets a dollop of colored melt and a plastic knife.