Every year around Christmas all the women on my mother’s side of the family merge together for days to bake holiday cookies. Let me define what baking holiday cookies means to them: spending three days together crammed into a kitchen mixing, measuring, cutting, baking frosting, bagging, and eating at least twenty different kinds of cookies. My family makes these cookies for neighbors, teachers, co-workers, friends, coaches, postmen, bank tellers, and more.
My mom’s family has been baking Christmas cookies annually for 4 generations. This family tradition originated from my great-great-grandmother who started baking during the holidays with her children. On average, every year my family creates 20 different kinds of cookies ranging from Rice Krispie wreaths to icing stuffed whoopie pies.
This year, we are baking cookies at my grandmother’s house. We arrive early in the morning and leave late at night with cookies crammed into every open crevice we can find in our car. My sister and I only participate in exchange for the deformed cookies that we can eat!
As my sister and I became older, our family wanted us to become more involved in the process of baking and decorating cookies because they want to pass along this tradition. When I was younger, I always felt like it was a chore during the holidays to stay home and bake loads and loads of cookies for my teachers and friends.
Now that I am older, I understand the true meaning of why we make cookies. Yes, we make cookies for friends and family but the real meaning of making these cookies is to spend time with each other, share memories, and tell stories that we can pass down to future generations. This year, I am very grateful that we are able to spend time with our family and are healthy enough to keep the family tradition alive for another year.
As a result of the generations of family cookies, my mom created a family cookbook full of passed down cookie recipes. Here are some of my favorite recipes. Happy Holidays!
