Close your eyes and remember December, the smell of cinnamon in your mother or grandmother’s kitchen and the warm aroma of the dough baked in the oven. Imagine opening the oven door and, with help, pulling out the heated baking sheet. Devour cookies, small works of art, with your eyes: Fudge Brownies, Gingerbread, Nut Rolls, Painted Cookies, Sugar Cookies … With each bite, savor your childhood and your family history. You can trace their blood and traditions not by DNA, genealogies, and family heirlooms, but by recipes given from one generation to the next, such as oral histories passed down in clans before recorded facts became popular.
Scholars once sniffed out “women’s tradition,” but the notations for “1 pinch of nutmeg” and “1 cup of chopped walnuts,” handwritten on a yellowed page, are just as important to memorize as the dates of the American Revolution. They are a tangible reminder of love, care, and craftsmanship in any society, but particularly in America, where the encouragement to eat bags of store-bought artificially sweetened Christmas candy leaves people craving sugar, guilty, physical, and emotionally empty. Christmas cookies are the opposite. of this trend. They represent home, family, comfort, joy and tradition.
It is a miraculous event when generations gather around the stove to spend a day together, get their hands dirty and share of themselves. It is miraculous because those memories are irreplaceable. It is miraculous because children are curious and ask, for example, “Why are Christmas cookies German? What was Christmas like when you were my age? Did Santa Claus visit you?”
Mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather can share family history and everyday moments from the past with children, such as “Your grandmother made a mistake and measured a cup of walnuts when the recipe called for half a cup. But the cookies tasted “Better, so to this day we always use 1 cup of walnuts in the recipe.” By reliving these rare glimpses of a life you may have forgotten, you honor and celebrate yourself and your family. The holiday cookies themselves convey and they record history and tradition.
In addition, Christmas cookies are a common thread of the Christmas past, not only of our past, but also of the past. The word cookie arose thanks to the Dutch settlers in North America during the years 1700 to 1900. Koek means cake in Dutch, so koekje, later cookie in English, means “cake”. Christmas cookies like the German Springerle continue the custom of serving Christmas baked goods started by the Romans, Teutonic / Germanic tribes, and other pre-Christian civilizations. Christian religions sanctified these symbols of worship to the harvest gods by adding a “J” to the top to mark the loaves as offerings to Jesus Christ. The peoples of ancient Europe ate gingerbread at winter solstice festivals. When you bake gingerbread and springerle, you are participating in a tradition that endures.
In that spirit, here is a recipe for successful cookie making:
Start with 1 family, 1 kitchen, and a recipe box. Add an uninterrupted period of time. Subtract phone calls, televisions, or any other distractions. For best results, add the CHRISTMAS BEFORE BAKING PRAYER COOKIES ARE TO GIVE:
“God bless this mixture with the sweetest and tastiest ingredients: joy, faith, family, friendship, love and health. May the aroma of this Christmas offering rise to heaven and make the angels sing, because the happiness of humanity is his feast. Let us taste our blessings with each bite as we share the company of our loved ones. Amen. “
Sprinkle with laughter. Add fun family stories with a generous hand. Add 1 cup of patience and understanding, mixed with 1 gallon of youthful enthusiasm and a dash of baking experience. Eat your mistakes with joy. Bake well and with love. Enjoy warm and delicious memories of baking miracle Christmas cookies for years to come!