If you've ever made holiday cookies or a gingerbread house, you know that things can sometimes get a bit messy! One of my favorite discoveries this year was Eleni's Color Me! Gift Tins, because they bring you all of the fun of cookie decorating without the mess. Eleni's is a bakery and cookie company based in NYC. Their cute cookies come in a variety of designs and themes, and they are perfect for birthday parties, holidays, and other special occasions. (I feel a little late to the party when it comes to Eleni's; their cookies are wildly popular and have been featured on many t.v. shows and an endless number of magazine articles.)

Eleni's Color Me! Gift Tins come with handmade sugar cookies that are already iced and a pack of edible ink markers. So, each cookie is like a blank canvas ready for you to create your own work of art. I ordered Eleni's Color Me! Gingerbread Men Cookies for the holidays, and it was a great mini-activity for kids on Christmas Eve. What surprised me most was that the adults loved decorating the cookies too! Everyone enjoyed cookie decorating so much that we ran a few cookies short in the end. (On their website, Eleni's recommends ordering two or three cookies per person, and that's a great rule to follow. In an effort to avoid stifling the creativity of our resident artists, we also ordered extra markers.) This may become a holiday tradition!

* * *

Here are a few more ways to celebrate the holidays with Eleni's cookies:

Decorate the cookies on Christmas Eve and leave a few out for Santa.
Use the cookies as personalized place settings at your holiday dinner. Guests can take them home as a party favor or enjoy them for dessert!
For large holiday gatherings, an assortment of cookies and edible ink markers can make the inevitable "kids table" festive and fun.
Have a cookie decorating contest!