Holiday Family Rituals

This post is sponsored by Target.

We love Christmastime in the Mueller household. It really becomes a special time of the year, and it forces us {especially me} to slow down and make time for all the things that Christmas is about. The magic of Christmas - such as building and decorating a snowy gingerbread house {more on this later}, trimming the tree, and making some of our favorite Christmas cookies.

Here, I wanted to show you how one of my favorite holiday family rituals, our annual Christmas-cookie activity, has inspired my holiday décor.

 Throughout the house, I have tiny plates holding small ornaments, a festive green ribbon, mini cookie cutters, and mini bottlebrush trees. In the kitchen, you'll find a set of said plates on a tray that holds the sugar for my morning cup of coffee.

In the living room, I placed another one of those plates on my coffee table atop some books.

Finally, on my dining table, you'll find the platter, as seen below, with the cookie cutters as my centerpiece. Simple yet festive, and this platter of cookie cutters, oddly enough, has sparked a conversation or two about the meaning of the holiday season.

By now, you may know how much I love collecting Christmas cookie cutters. This year, I was happy to find the perfectly sized gingerbread-man and candy-cane cookie cutters, and the tree cookie cutter, which I just really like its shape. All three of them are available from Target. The rest are from last year's collection.

And when I say perfectly sized, I mean they are perfect for little hands to grasp fully, and carefully tear the pre-cut dough and place it onto the cookie sheet. You have to think about those things when you have little hands helping.

I love that my kids like to help me out in the kitchen, especially when it involves making their favorite Christmas cookies. They certainly enjoy this activity -- maybe even more so than I. And we always make sure to have a holiday movie or some Christmas music playing in the background. It warms my heart that they always look forward to this activity this time of year.

On this day, we made gingerbread-men cookies and sugar cookies.

Here's a tip: Make the dough a day ahead. This way, the dough is pre-chilled and ready to be rolled out and cut.

And we are getting good at perfecting our icing "buttons" on our gingerbread men. It takes a lot of practice, but, like they say, practice makes perfect. And even if they don't look perfect, it's this special activity and the making of memories that ultimately matters most.

My son had the great idea that on Christmas Eve, Santa would love some gingerbread-men cookies and a glass of milk, and that's just what we will do.

We'll be writing a note to Santa to go with his cookies and milk.

Now tell me, please: How will your favorite family ritual inspire your décor this holiday season? Find your style @TargetStyle.

Happy holidays!

shop the post

Target Christmas Cookie Cutters, sold separately {available in stores} | Target Kids Rolling Pin {available in stores} | Target x Sugar Paper Ornament Gift Topper | Target Holiday Brights Mini Bottle Brush Trees | Target Marble and Copper Side Table | Target Threshold Oval Platter with Gold Rim | Target Threshold Small Appetizer Plates

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