Christmas Cookies With a Kiss

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

Baking cookies at the holidays holds many fond family memories for me. And it certainly is that cookie baking time of the year. From when I first remember watching my mom drop the teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet, to cutting and sprinkling sand tarts with colored sugar, it’s been many years of good eating—but it’s those fun times together that really mean the most. While we had our old stand-bys and favorites (iced chocolate drops, jubilee jumbles and sand-tarts), we always tried one or two new recipes each year (Lepp cookies, French lace rolls). And while sometimes they turned out to be a family favorite—sometimes not—all this traveling down cookie baking memory lane got me to wondering about how the whole holiday cookie-baking thing got started.

What I learned is that the Christmas cookies we know and love today have roots all the way back to European Medieval recipes, thought to have begun with gingerbread and animal crackers. And long before Christmas was even celebrated, they were a way to commemorate special occasions. The use of spices such as cinnamon, ginger, almonds and dried fruits were introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages, which probably helped spur this tradition of baking—and by the 1500s, Christmas cookies were popular throughout Europe.

While it is thought that the first Christmas cookies were brought to America with some of the Dutch settlers in the 1600s, times truly changed in the 1930s when little tin cutters in fun shapes were affordable and abundant—and those fanciful shapes became popular and synonymous with the holiday traditions.

Thankfully today we don’t have far to go to gather our ingredients—and we can choose from a wide array of recipes and make only our favorites. Even grocery stores get in on the holiday spirit with tantalizing displays of flour, sugar and baking decorations to tempt you as you look for other essentials.

Baking Christmas cookies is the perfect opportunity to welcome kids into the kitchen. No matter their ages, there’s a handy task for those little fingers.

Even amidst my kids’ busy-active toddler years, I sat them right up on the kitchen counter (or a high stool) so they could help mix, scoop and stir. A little older and we talked about the different measuring cups and techniques (scooping flour, sifting dry ingredients, packing brown sugar). And those cookie cutters just seem to be made for little fingers—give them an expanse of dough and off they go.

As the years fly by, I see their ability and confidence grow to where they’ll soon be measuring, mixing and baking without my input. This could definitely be dangerous to my waistline!

Here’s one of our old family recipes that is a guaranteed kid favorite—not only is the combination of peanut butter and chocolate divine, they’re just downright fun for kids to make.

Serves/Makes: 72

• 1 cup margarine or butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 small eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

***Topping***

• 6 tablespoons sugar (or as needed)
• 1 1/2 pound Hershey Chocolate Kisses