Christmas

When it’s time to put up the Christmas tree every year, I must confess that it does not have a theme or a dominant color palette. And I don’t even hang the same ornaments every year. Oh, there are a few favorites, like those that remind me of special people and events, new babies, and beloved pets. The final touch always involves hanging a lot of long crystal ice cycles that twinkle as they reflect the tiny lights that wind around the tree. Each year the tree looks familiar, but slightly different. But there’s always a tree at Christmas.

Several years ago I bought some old-fashioned tin animal cookie cutters in a local antique store with no real idea in mind of how I’d use them. They were larger than I normally use, but I liked their shapes and the variety of animals. I finally brought them out for my “Christmas Comes to the Zoo” project and they became some of my favorite shapes ever.

When my great niece was two years old she met Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. He actually showed up at our house! She was terrified. To her, he was not a “jolly old elf.” He was a giant and a scary dude. That was the last time he appeared at our holiday gathering!

A few Christmases ago, I bought a kit to build four small Gingerbread houses with my sister and her grandkids. Yes, I said “bought a kit!” I always make my own cookies but in this case I was not above letting someone else make the gingerbread for these houses. I was 99% certain that no one would want to eat the houses, especially after they sat around for a few weeks being admired and collecting dust. So I reasoned that I didn’t have to go to all that trouble of baking the extra-sturdy gingerbread and planning out the correct dimensions, etc.

I lived in “snow country” as a small child and remember the fun part of snow with fondness...making snow angels, letting snowflakes melt on my tongue, building snowmen. Snowflake cookies remind me of that time. And like real snowflakes, each cookie is different.

As everyone knows, red and green are the traditional colors for Christmas. Red Santa hats. Green Christmas trees. Red ribbons. Green garlands. Red and green icing on Christmas cutout cookies. Perfect. Unfortunately, I lost all but one of my photos of these cutout cookies, which leaves this page a bit wanting. Instead of complaining, I’m going to consider it a challenge...a challenge to make traditional red and green Christmas cookies this year. Come back in December and see how they turned out.