Christmas Cookies

Who doesn't like Christmas cookies?  They are the quintessential food of the Christmas season. Everyone has at least one favorite to bake or just to eat (if only someone would make them for you). Baking cookies is a tradition shared with family, friends and even strangers who are invited in out of the cold to enjoy some seasonal joy. We make the cookies not only to eat but use them as ornaments on trees, give as gifts, use as bribes (think Santa).  Christmas cookies are traditions passed down from generation to generation, bringing back many memories.  I remember the first time I made Scotch Shortbread.  My grandfather had given me the recipe from his mother who hailed form Kilmarnick, Scotland.  It's an easy recipe, four cups flour to one pound butter to one cup sugar, all mixed together, baked at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  My grandfather instructed me as I prepared the dough, proceeded to teach me how to knead the dough and put into the traditional petit rounds.  I treasured the time spent with him, learning something from my Scots great-grandmother.  Since that time, I've made it every year at Christmas, usually just after Thanksgiving. Once it's made, I feel the Christmas season has started and I have something to munch on while trimming the tree, and watching Christmas specials on T.V. Another cookie favorite from the past is Spritz. This was my father favorite cookie and I usually was the one to make them.  They are very labor intensive and the dough has to be the right temperature in order for the cookie press to mold them.  I had not made the cookies in sixteen years (since my dad died).  This year, my sister wanted to make them again and asked for my assistance. Well, it was an interesting cookie making session. The dough just would not cooperate going through the press. Finally, we both just laughed and started to mold the cookies by hand into flattened balls.  The taste is the same, just not the shape.  At the end of the session, we decided this was one tradition that will no longer be performed by the two of us.  The younger generation can take a try at it from now on. And that is OK. There are still several other traditional cookies that I will make which again bring back memories of years past. It's the memories which are the important part of the process.  If you are tempted to go out to buy cookies, I would encourage you to try and make a memory instead by baking some. Make a memory with your children, grandchildren, niece, nephew, friends...someone who you would love to share and make connections with at a joyous time of year. You never know "how the cookie will crumble". It just might make someone very happy.