Perfectly Simple Party Rules (for kids)

Parties need not be stressful and overwhelming! 

Follow these ten simple rules for pulling off a fun and memorable event.

1) Sent invitations using evite.  Tempt 

guests with pictures of perfectly Martha cookies, impossible for grade school children to recreate. Hee hee.

2) Go potluck.  Stress that guests bring hearty, non-sweet items like chili, dumplings, or pasta that don't add any more sugar to the kiddos.  This enables you to focus on cookie decorating rather than a feast.  If you do the food yourself, your pals will bring food anyway!

3) Use store bought cookie mix.  Set aside a few hours a day before the party for turbo baking and crank out about 6 cookies per kid.

4) Purchase tons of little goodies, like licorice lace, marshmallows, coconut, chocolate chips, white chocolate pieces, raisins, red hots, m&ms and anything else kids can individually add with their fingers. Provide small containers of frosting with tiny plastic knives or tongue depressors.  Stay away from too many containers of sprinkles because kids will just dump them all over the cookies and make a huge mess!

5) Have your party outside! This creates less mess, stress and destruction, because once the sugar enters their bloodstream you really don't want 20 youngsters climbing your walls.

6) Encourage kids to take their time and come up with wonderful works of art.  Sweeten the deal by offering a 'contest'! All works submitted to the contest go on a special gold platter.  Simple wrapped prizes are strategically hung in plain sight so kids stay motivated to make creative specimens and not frosting slops. (For a Christmas cookie decorating contest, I used nutcracker ornaments ~ about $1 each ~ as prizes)

7) Hire a neighborhood teenager to help control the chaos. This also allows you to socialize with the parents rather than just oversee the decorating! It is $10/hr well spent!

8) Provide fun alternatives to cookie decorating, like a train set for the younger kids, a simple art project, and karaoke.  Have music (and lyrics on hand) that coordinate with the theme of the party!

9) Make a big deal of the judging contest (we had four categories "Most Creative Cookie -Girl", "Coolest Cookie - Boy", etc).  Hem and haw over the details of all the entries.  While kids are gathered around, snap your group photo!

10) Have fun! Parties never go exactly as planned, but if the hostess is having the mostest fun, others will too!