Christmas Cookies
A Look At Christmas Cookies
Cookies are standard Christmas fare – generally not for Christmas dinner, but Christmas cookies certainly provide the central focus at gatherings all through the season. Christmas cookies, easy entertaining and enjoyable times build many fond memories of happy times, regardless of the state of the economy in any specific year. A look at Christmas cookies reveals literally hundreds of tempting variations, and a look at Christmas cookie recipes can produce a very long list of “must try” recipes.
Christmas cookies are both gifts and refreshments. The experiences of baking them – and the aroma as they bake – become cherished lifelong memories. When weighing treasures such as Christmas butter cookies against economic conditions, only the cookies score any memory at all. A look at Christmas cookies 2011 likely will reveal a return to basics and to low-cost creativity, using standard ingredients that are basic items in most kitchens.
Christmas gives us the “excuse” we need to make standard favorites and experiment with new recipes. Many find it difficult to choose what they see as a reasonable number of recipes to try. Some of these will participate in or organize a Christmas cookie exchange. A group conducting a cookie exchange can allow busy bakers to make only their standard cookies, but share those and end with the ability to offer either expected or impromptu guests with an array of varieties of cookies that the host did not have to bake. In such a cookie exchange, a group of bakers make a specific number of one type of cookie, exchange single dozens with participants, and end with an interesting variety of cookies to offer their own guests throughout the Christmas season. As example, a group of six neighbors may decide to hold a cookie exchange. Each of the six individuals brings six dozen of their specialty cookies, and exchanges one dozen with each participant. Each participant then leaves the cookie exchange with one dozen each of six very different – and predetermined – types of cookies.
Christmas cookies can be important with the Christmas Eve dinner, but they are important all through the month of December. They can complement the Christmas roast, and they pair beautifully with any favorite holiday punch recipe. Perhaps most importantly in uncertain economic times, Christmas cookies are kind to the budget while yet upholding existing family traditions and creating new ones.
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