Christmas Cookies- House Favorites

My parents did not celebrate Christmas but I was always fascinated by the Carolers who came around during Christmas time to sing and they joined the festivities and always handed out tokens of appreciation.  I introduced some family traditions that warmed my heart and I would like to think warmed my girl’s hearts too. R introduced the tradition of decorating the house with the ever lighted Christmas tree and the wreaths. Although this year I think he got carried away shopping for lights for our front door too!!!



Well, many years back during the Christmas holidays we started a joint activity and an ongoing tradition of baking cookies for Santa. For me it was a great time to dust off my baking tools and make treats. For the girls it was a fun activity. We baked our tried and true classics like the chocolate chip, snickerdoodles and sugar cookies and also decorated them as we pleased and this was the beginning of a ritual that has stayed on in our house. 



 It is wonderful to know that my young ladies have cherished memories about the good times we spent in the kitchen. Of course, it soon expanded into a project of it's own, and eventullay I started using disposable table spreads on the table allowing them to roll the dough, use sugar-frosting and sprinkles on cookie dough cutouts. I used to  dig up from stores at ‘after-Christmas’ sales all kinds of sprinkles and new cutouts, whenever I found opportunities to stock up my pantry.

Despite all the chaos and powdery faces, I enjoyed the laughter and time spent watching those tiny hands as they rolled, poured and sprinkled, all while giggling at each other. Once exhaustion took over the girls, we would clean up,  then on to a cozy sofa where we enjoyed the cookies with milk. V was always particular about leaving out a large plate of cookies and milk for Santa before she went to bed on Christmas Eve.

Many years have gone by since then, but I have continued to bake the cookies and share them with friends and colleagues over the years.  The girls still get their fair share, and sometimes they even bring home some of their own baked cookies and I hope I have handed down this tradition to them.  Anyway, this year, here is my share of Christmas Cheer on a platter….our assorted house favorites that I served up after dinner