This past weekend I hosted a Christmas Cookie Decorating Party, BeingBrigid style and it was a huge success! I hosted some of my Mom friends and their 12 kids with low-sugar, metabolically friendly, gut-friendly, dye-free treats. The kids loved the grain-free, gluten-free cookies and left happy—no emotional breakdowns or GI issues that typically follow traditional kids parties.
As a Dietitian and Mom, I’m committed to creating special memories for my kids that don’t revolve around foods that leave them overstimulated and sick. For as much as I love sharing the science of using food as medicine I also recognize how important it is to have tangible ways to make this work in real life with your families.
Christmas Cookies
I made 48 cookies so that there was enough for each kid to make four cookies. I made the Christmas Sugar Cookies from my membership, The Being Collective (TBC members, just search Christmas Sugar Cookies in the portal). They are gluten-free, grain-free and lower glycemic. The base is almond flour and coconut flour to help make it lower glycemic. It’s important to refrigerate the dough for a few hours so that it holds together and the cookies don’t break.
McKinley had two cookies at the party and James had his first cookie at the party. For McKinley we waited until she was two to give her added sugar. For James, I let him have one cookie at the party as his first introduction at 18 months old. Here’s more information about limiting sugar for kids 2 and under.
For the icing, I used the recipe from The Being Collective but had to make significantly more so that each bag of icing had about ¼ cup of icing.
- Piping Bags Link
- Natural Food Dye for icing (no artificial dyes) Link
- Red and White Holiday String Link (I’d recommend tying this several times around the top so that icing doesn’t come out of the top)
I ordered sprinkles with natural food coloring too with a variety of different textures and poured them into cups that we kept at the table.
- Green Softie Sprinkles Link
- Rainbow Crunchies Sprinkles Link
- Green Twinkles Sprinkles Link
- Pink & Red Twinkles Sprinkles Link
- Christmas Tree Plates Link
- Disposable Tablecloth Link
For as much as I limit purchases of disposable items, this tablecloth is key! I set up two foldable tables from Costco with the disposable tablecloths which saved me hours of cleaning.
Healthy Hot Chocolate Bar
We made a cute hot chocolate bar for the kids but to be honest none of them drank it! I ordered the Just Ingredients Hot Chocolate which doesn’t have sugar but is still sweetened with monk fruit. While I will occasionally give my kids things that are sweetened with stevia and monk fruit, I limit treats like this because research shows that exposure to sweeteners that are even sweeter than sugar still impacts the microbiome and kids’ sweet preferences.
Brunch
I pulled together a super simple brunch that both the kids and Moms loved
- Pancake Sheet Bake from The Being Collective (TBC members, just search Pancake Sheet Bake in the portal). This recipe was a huge hit with the kids. You don’t need syrup because it is sweet enough from the protein powder and bananas.
- Organic Breakfast Sausage
- Fruit Salad with Blueberries, Blackberries, Pomegranate Seeds
- Siete Chips Mini Bags from Costco
- Bubbly Water
From One Health Conscious Mom to Another
This is just a reminder that you don’t need to serve kids a bunch of processed foods, added sugar and artificial dyes in order for them to have a great time, enjoy the food and make beautiful memories. I know that it often feels like you’re going against the grain but stay with it. Just because society normalizes the conventional way of celebrating doesn’t mean it’s a normal behavior. It’s not normal to load kids with a bunch of synthetic ingredients that cause them to be wired, emotional, and sick to their stomachs. I prefer to think of “normal” as creating experiences and habits that set my kids and the kids of my friends up to thrive and feel good after they leave my house. Wishing you a healthy, happy holiday season!
