Easy 4th July Cookie Decorating Activity for Kids

I couldn’t resist making these SUPER quick and EASY cookies with the kids. The best part about them, is that you can use plain store bought cookies, or use your family’s favourite basic cookie recipe. And as these 4th July Cookies are so easy to decorate, they make for a great party activity with lots of kids and grown ups. Just stock up on cookies and icing sugar and have fun on the day! Perfect for anyone looking for American Flag Activities for Kids!

I think you will also love our 4th of July Paper Fans. You can make them from scratch or use our easy DIY Paper Fans Template – they make a wonderful Patriotic Kids Craft , but also double up as great 4th Of July Rosette decorations – cover a whole wall with them or hang them from trees or garden fences!!

Easy 4th July Cookies for Kids to make - use store bought cookies or use our #EggFree Shortbread recipe. Super fun and easy Patriotic Cookies #americanflag #patriotic #4thjuly #july4th #forkids #forpreschool — **Note: these patriotic cookies were first published in June 2014 and I have updated and republished it for your convenience!**

Also, you may like these cookie painting technique for slightly older kids (10yrs+):

4th July Cookie Decorating Activities – you will need:

East Patriotic Cookies - 4th July Easy Cookie Decorating. Easy 4th July Cookies for Kids to make - use store bought cookies or use our #EggFree Shortbread recipe. Super fun and easy Patriotic Cookies #americanflag #patriotic #4thjuly #july4th #forkids #forpreschool

Plain biscuits (in the UK, Rich Tea or Digestivs are great, or make your own shortbread recipe)
Star shaped sprinkles (ours are white chocolate sprinkles from Morrissons) – if you can’t find stars, I would use silver balls instead, you will still roughly get the same effect
Icing Sugar
Lemon (optional)
Food colouring

I have added some affiliate links for food dyes for your convenience:

We recommend the beautiful and vibrant AmericColor Fingerpaints to US readers and Sugarflair to UK readers. They are strong vibrant food gel dyes.

Making your cookies:

Patriotic Cookies - wonderful 4th of July party food for kids. Easy 4th July Cookies for Kids to make - use store bought cookies or use our #EggFree Shortbread recipe. Super fun and easy Patriotic Cookies #americanflag #patriotic #4thjuly #july4th #forkids #forpreschool

1) Mix a little icing sugar with water and your food gel. We started with blue first (be warned, we ended up with blue tongues!!). Let the kids drizzle over cookies. Let it dry a LITTLE first and then sprinkle on your stars. The reason I let it dry a little first, is that sometimes the water in the icing sugar, does funny things to our sprinkles and we didn’t want the blue to run into the white chocolate stars.

2) Move onto the next colour: white. Mix your icing sugar with the lemon and water (the lemon is optional, but oh so tasty). Add to your cookie. Again let it dry a little..

3) Drizzle your read food colouring (the kids loved this best and did get a bit messy).