Every year I love to plan what goodies I will include in my holiday packages.  In fact, I think about it basically all year long (sad, but true.)  Though I’m always thinking of many new ideas, and have ridiculous anxiety about narrowing it down to five or six treats, the one thing that will always be a constant in these gift bags are my favorite sugar cookies.  Now of course they’ll always be decorated with royal icing, which can make such a stunning presentation.  I can’t believe it’s been just one year since I first attempted using royal icing, and I feel like I have come so far with my decorating skills.  Here’s hoping I improve just as much next year!


This year I made and decorated the three shapes seen above.  The snowmen seemed to be the popular favorite of everyone who received the gift bags, but I loved the Christmas trees the best.  The “Joy” cookies really looked way too much like the Italian flag until I added the dots to the letters – haha!  In case you feel inspired to try your hand at royal icing, check out the recent royal icing tutorial I did.  Have a happy holiday, all my wonderful readers!