1 - Decorating cookies has been a huge part of my family's Christmas tradition, since I was a kid. It all starts with this well-used recipe.
2 - The recipe comes from this very cookbook, which my mom has used since she was a new bride.
3 - Sometimes the ginger cookies end up as drop cookies, but this year my mom decided to go for two types of Christmas cookies. I have to say - as a fan of gingerbread, this recipe is unsurpassed.
4 - Mom's rolling pin has smoothed out many, many lumps of dough in its day. And it's more than up to the job.
5 - These are the little packets of cookie dough, chilling for a few hours before they can be baked.
6 - 40-year-old cookie cutters do their magic.
7 - Sugar cookie angels bake in the warmth of Mom's oven.
8 - The sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies cool off, waiting for the big event. When I was a kid, my mom started inviting my best friend and my cousins over to decorate them during Christmas vacation from school. She always made enormous amounts of cookies, because the invited kids could take home whatever they decorated.
9 - We kept on holding the Cookie Decorating Party even when we grew up. This is my best friend Connie collecting her goodies from the 1983 event. She was at university then, studying office management. I was taking my Early Childhood Education at St. Joe's in Halifax.
10 - Not sure exactly which year this is, but it's mid-80's. These are my high school choir friends, several years into university. Home for Christmas and attending the Phillips Cookie Decorating Party. L to R: Shelley, myself, Andrew, Philip, Maureen and Mark
11 - Fast-forward a decade and a half - here you have my sister Michelle ready to bake up the cookies at my cousin's place, when we were all gathered for Christmas.
12 - This cookie party was right here in my mom's kitchen in 2004. L to R: my best friend Connie, my mom and my husband.
13 - Here's a few cookies from this year. Hope you all have a chance to relax, put up your feet for a minute and have a cookie or two, a cup of tea or a glass of milk. Don't worry about the crumbs!
NO WAY! My mom has that same cookbook, and that's the same sugar cookie recipe she uses. We have these old (like 40+ years old) cookie cutters made of thick metal. A staple of my childhood. I want to start baking them again next year now that the girls are getting old enough to appreciate these things.
ReplyDeleteI have that exact same cookbook, too, having snitched it from my mom a couple decades ago. She bought me a new one, and I traded her for the old one. :)
ReplyDeleteYum. Looks like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteLast year my youngest daughter and I baked and decorated dozens of cookies.
This year we're doing something different - cupcakes all decorated for Christmas.
What a neat tradition! Sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteChristmas cupcakes sound fun, Anne!
ReplyDeleteMy mom has that cookbook, too! I don't think she uses it much anymore, though. (Bummer, clearly. Maybe I should help myself to it. You know: so my sisters and I can't fight over it once Mom's not around to step in and mediate.)
ReplyDeleteI was helping a friend bake her cookies yesterday, and over the weekend, I took #2 to a cookie decorating party. What fun! I wish I had a reason to do that sort of thing!
Happy TT, my friend.
I love the Better Homes and Garden cookbook! Great recipes, easy to use. Thank for sharing the old photos. It's fun to see some history in the making!
ReplyDeleteHappy TT!
My TT is up: Reasons my life sucks! ;)
Cookies used to be a big part of our family tradition but haven't been in the last few years. Happy TT.
ReplyDeleteI love this - talk about getting you into the spirit. I'm cookie challenged, although I am a great cook. For some reason, I don't do baking well. Your cookies are so pretty - makes me want to have a cookie party!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful. I just want you to know that I have my mothers cookbook #2, just like the one you show. My mother is gone and that is such a special cookbook. I saw it almost daily while I was growing up. Thanks for the wonderful memories and have a great TT Julia. :)
ReplyDeleteI love baking cookies...but one thing is, I just started learning to do it. I may have a little burn at the bottom..but I'm learning.
ReplyDeleteThe Gingerbread cookies are among my favorite too. I enjoy reading your cookies tradition and how it been pass down to generation.
I hope you have a good relaxing time with your cookies and family. And a Merry Christmas to you and your! :)
That was a very nice 13!!! Ahhh sugar cookies, makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming over for cookies!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteHappy TT!!
The Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook is my favorite! I have 2 different editions (not counting the Junior cookbook my mom got me when I was a teenager). My mom has her mom's BHG cookbook and has said that she would hand it down to me one day. That's really a family treasure.
ReplyDeleteMy mother has that same cookbook too! I had the kids' version as a child (I wonder what happened to that...), and now have my grandmother's Pillsbury one from about the same year. You can't beat the old ones for some of this stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful tradition! We have our old standards, but cookie making was never so social for us. What a blessing. I'll encourage this with my daughter.
ReplyDeleteYummy!! In case I don't get the chance before Happy Holidays!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat thirteen...I loved how you put it together...and Congratualtions on your Spirit of Christmas Award.
ReplyDelete