Cookies for Santa
If you’re like me, this year you may have felt like the tradition of baking and exchanging Christmas cookies wasn’t quite the same. After all, it’s about more than just the cookies. It’s the nostalgia. Spending time together, sharing and passing down recipes and making memories. It’s about teaching the younger generation to create in the kitchen, and of course, feed Santa’s sugar tooth. Sharing baked treats with neighbors, friends and family is a big part of why we bake, bake, bake during the holiday season. Baking Christmas cookies actually dates back to medieval times when it originated as a way to share gifts when visiting friends and family. In the 17th century, the Dutch and German brought Christmas cookies and cookie cutters to the United States, changing the cookie game!
Sugar cookies from !00 Cookies cookbook, rolled in my signature aqua blue sugar!
Today there are so many delicious cookies to choose from. Everything from regional traditions to family favorites. I often feel like there’s not enough time to bake all the cookies I want to bake. And deciding between the cookies I grew up with and trying new cookies is always a dilemma! Growing up in a family of seven, we had lots of cookies at our house. My Mom made the same cookies every year. Crescents and Chocolate Dainties – buttery shortbread-types of cookies heavy on the walnuts and rolled in powdered sugar (twice I’m pretty sure). We had lots of spritz cookies (again, lots of butter) with colorful sprinkles and lemon flavoring. Us kids would help make sugar cookies covered in a mess of red, green, yellow and white frosting with sprinkles and candies on top. She also made fudge, peanut brittle and a strange white nougat-like candy called Vermillion Creams. (I still know no one who makes these. My brother swears it’s a “secret recipe.”)
My mom would bake, bake, bake and then the cookies would be hidden out of sight in coffee cans and tins in the pantry under lock and key. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But it’s true, we weren’t allowed to just help ourselves. Instead, it was a special production. My mom would bring the cookies out on special nights, when we had relatives stop by, and the big show was Christmas Eve. She displayed them in a gold Lazy Susan definitely from the 1970s avocado-green era. Each cookie warranted its own little compartment making them that much more tempting as a kid.
When I had my own family, I took some of these traditions from my childhood but each year our cookie cast changes. I usually make something that fits into these categories:
Sugar and shortbread-type cookies: These were a must when my kids were young. As they got older, I had a harder time with the multi-colored mess and started to make my own variations of snowflakes, trees and stars. I tried Spritz Cookies mostly for the nostalgia but never had that much luck with the darn cookie press.
Peanut butter: I love peanut butter, so over the years, we’ve made Peanut Butter Balls, the classic Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies with Hershey Kisses, and last year, Peanut Butter Cup Cookies (pictured below).
Ginger: When the kids were young, we made gingerbread men to hang on the tree (until the year our dog Mocha Mae ate them.) I still make this recipe for Frosted Ginger Cookies (with a lemon glaze) published in the December 2006 Sunset magazine, from Nancy Bolton-Rawles from Eagle Point, Oregon.
This year I had big plans, but unfortunately, my Santa’s Workshop sprinkles from Sprinkle Pop never arrived and sadly I only just got my Ho Ho Ho Glittery Sugar. I tried to pick a variety of flavors, colors and shapes. Here’s what I planned … and what happened instead:
Olive Oil Sugar Cookies with Pistachios & Lemon Glaze in the shape of Christmas trees (below) to highlight the green of the pistachios. These turned out wonderfully. My first time making olive oil cookies. These are interesting in a really good way.
Alison Roman’s Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread because everybody loves chocolate chip cookies, and these are a fancied-up version for sure. I was going to roll them in the red & white Ho Ho Ho glittery sugar to make them more festive and to complement the green trees. Alas, they are not made. However, my daughter has made these a couple of times and I highly recommend them. So so good. The shortbread, the dark chocolate, the crunchy sugar … and flaky sea salt. A little party for the tastebuds.
Chocolate Espresso Thumbprint cookies from Half-baked Harvest because chocolate and coffee and ganache! Need I say more? I really wanted to spring for the gold leaf but used multi-colored nonpareils, which turned out cute. One bite and I felt like I had a coffee buzz. Hmm, maybe it’s just all the sugar, you think?
Sarah Kieffer’s original sugar cookies with my signature aqua blue sugar crystals (recipe in her 100 Cookies book). I really wanted to use my aqua sprinkles but wished I would have made her pan-banging variety. I literally thought I was until three quarters of the way through the recipe! No worries, these were yummy as well.
Gingerbread Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting: My big ideas was to use these delicious gingerbread bars (which I made last year) and top with pink tinted cream cheese frosting and these adorable Christmas Morning sprinkle mix from Sprinkle Pop like in this photo. I also wanted a square cookie to round out the plate!
Santa’s Workshop Sprinkles from Sprinkle Pop!
Dark Chocolate Orange Slice & Bake Cookies were a last-minute decision inspired by my mom’s love for Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Orange Sticks. I will forever equate this candy with my mom. This is a shortbread cookie with chocolate, orange zest and flaky sea salt on top—which definitely makes the cookie.
Although my cookie-making plans didn’t materialize quite like I’d planned this year, Santa will still be fed. In the meantime, I’m already planning for next year! Hopefully we can go back to cookie exchanges and big baking parties. I may try my girlfriend’s tradition of inviting friends to come over with their cookie dough premade, and then the party is basically turning on the oven and drinking wine while the cookies bake! It’s great fun. Or … check out the Grossy Pelosi post about his Annual Holiday Cookie Party. This looks like the perfect 2021 celebration! Get a really long table and cover it with butcher paper. Invite everyone you know to stop by with homemade cookies, pile them on the table and write their name and what cookie they made with a sharpie. Santa will be jealous for sure.