Nativity Cookie Decorating

Not many things evoke more memories of Christmas than traditional cookie decorating. Our family also centers this long-established activity on Jesus. We have a set of nativity cookie cutters that we use with a sugar cookie recipe. Our set includes all the key players, plus a nativity stable and star. I whip up a batch of thinned icing and then we tint the icing various colors for use in “painting” the cookies. I have a set of cheap, small paintbrushes that we use only for cookie painting. To make the brown color of some of the animals and the stable, we use a bit of cocoa. I mix up powdered sugar, egg whites, and a tiny bit of water to make our “paint” base. Then, we divide the paint into individual bowls for adding food coloring. Over the years, we’ve involved friends, neighbors, and even grandparents in our tradition. As a military family, we’ve loved gifting these painted cookies to Airmen and Soldiers through the Base cookie drives.  We feel is an evangelical way to encourage those far from home that the holiday was created to celebrate Jesus’ original entrance into the world and look forward to His coming again.  

Here is the cookie-cutter set we bought years ago:  

I also found a similar one at Walmart.