Christmas Sugar Cookies

Baking Christmas sugar cookies has been a tradition in my family since my girls were old enough to stand on a chair or stool and roll out cookie dough.  It is a VERY messy tradition... yet one that brings so much pleasure, it is worth the mess and clean up afterwards.

I will include my sugar cookie recipe at the end of this blog... this is the recipe I have been using since 1986... it continues to be the easiest dough to work with, and the flavor of these cookies are absolutely delicious!!!  The baked cookie is very tender, and yet also crisp.  The sugar cookie is one of those foods that have fans for both types of the cookie... some like them soft and chewy and decorated with icing, some (like me and my family) like them thin, crisp and decorated with colored sugars... either way... my family just has to have sugar cookies as part of our Christmas morning tradition... we eat them for breakfast along with chex mix!  Weird... but OH SOOOOO GOOD!!!

I have cookie cutters from when I was a child, some I have found in antique stores, and others that are newer versions.  The old plastic ones I use have lots of details carved inside the cutter... my newer ones are just outline shapes of bells, trees, stockings, and such.  I really like the intricate designs of the old cutters, but they are a bit finicky when trying to get the cut out dough onto the baking sheet... they are very delicate and take lots of care getting them cut out correctly and transfered over to the baking sheet.  My newer ones that are much easier to use, make the task go quite quickly.  However.... the nostalgic-ness of the older ones, and the tradition of just taking an entire day to bake cookies, always win out over the newer cookie cutters... but in the end... my cookie tin contains a mixture of old and new cookie cutter shapes.  Making these sugar cookies is an 'event' and it's ok if some cookies take longer to cut out than others... the eating of them, and the deliciousness of them is all the same on the tongue, and in the tummy!

I keep LOTS of colored sugars on hand for any occasion when I make these sugar cookies, these cookies are good for all holidays and occasions.  I make lips and hearts for Valentines, Shamrocks for St. Patty's Day, and Egg shapes for Easter.  Even though these sugar cookies are DELISH for all occasions, they always remind me most of Christmas... and I never skimp on sprinkling of the sugar on these cookies... my lips always are the color of whatever sugar is on the cookie I am eating... which of course makes it hard to sneak a cookie without getting caught!  :  )

When we visit various relatives houses over the Christmas Holiday, there are always lots and lots of cookies of all varieties to enjoy.  My Mom makes wedding cookies, chocolate peanut butter balls, and majestic's... just to name a few.  Chocolate chip cookies are usually among the mix at most houses, as well as the sugar cookies.  My sister-in-law (Kari) is quite the baker and will arrive at the family gathering with a platter of cookies with at least a dozen variety of cookies.... each one more delish than the next!  Kari's sugar cookies are the softer kind with the icing... but... the detail she puts into decorating her cookies with that icing is amazing!  She must bake for weeks to accomplish such a plethora of goodies!  My other sis-in-law (Linda) makes these amazing sesame cookies native to Georgia, and always brings tins of wonderful decadent fudge too.  While I enjoy each and every type of cookie served at each and every house we visit... the simple un-prententious sugar cookie remains my all time favorite.

Tis the season for so many wonderful family traditions... from caroling to cookie baking, and everything in between... may you experience many joys with your loved ones as we all continue to carry our traditions forward to the new generations following behind us.  Here now is my all time favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Put on your aprons, bring out the sugar sprinkles, and start making a wonderful messy memory with someone you love.


Vickie's Sugar Cookies 


3/4 cup - shortening - (part butter)... I use 1/2 cup crisco and 1/4 cup real butter (NOT margarine)... but        
                                                       you can reverse it and use 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup crisco... it's a
                                                       personal preference and both work beautifully.

1 cup - sugar
2 - eggs
1 tsp - vanilla (use real vanilla extract NOT imitation!!!  this is VERY important!  the better your vanilla,
                       the better your cookies)
2 1/2 cups - all purpose flour -measure flour by the dipping/leveling method.. sifting not necessary
1 tsp - baking powder
1 tsp - salt

Cream shortening and sugar til smooth and creamy... add eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next.  Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together and add to creamy mixture.  Shape dough in to disk, cover in plastic wrap, put in refrigerator to chill at least one hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Roll dough out to 1/8" thick on a lightly floured surface.  Try to incorporate as little flour into dough as possible.  Cut dough out with cookie cutters of your choice.  Place cut out cookies onto an un-greased baking sheet (I prefer the baking stones... but any baking sheet will do just fine).  Bake 6-8 minutes or until cookies are a "delicate" golden color.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies using 3" cookie cutters.  Quantity will vary with different size cookie cutters.

Remove cookies from baking sheet and let cool on a wire rack... then... enjoy eating these delish cookies and wear your colored sugar lips proudly!!  :  )

The Hutchinson Christmas Symphony Concert

The other day while driving down our tiny Main Street in our tiny town... I noticed that the Fox Theater was presenting it's "Christmas Symphony Concert" on Dec. 15th... immediately checking my calendar, I see that Joe and I have that night open without any other obligations... so once I got home, I called up and ordered our tickets to attend.  WOW WOW WOWZERS is all I have to say about last nights program!!!  It was AWESOME and I'm soooo glad I noticed the advertisement and bought the tickets.

Last year I went to this event with a bunch of new lady friends I had met in the few weeks since we had moved here.  And last years program was soooo good I knew I wanted to make this an annual habit.  I also remember last year while I was watching the program just how much Joe too would enjoy it.

There were 3 local folks who performed singing solos and a duet last night... and OH MY GOODNESS!!!  Who knew this tiny town had soooo much talent in it.  The songs sung at last nights program were all the old traditional and spiritual songs that literally made the hair on your arms stand on end because they were so beautifully sung!

If you really want to witness the "Spirit of Christmas", the best place to do so is at concerts and programs put on by your local town... whether it is a school performance or a professional performance, both will leave you in the Christmas Spirit, a smile on your face, and a jingle in your step!  Joe and I talked about our wonderful experience all the way home... and sung snippets of the songs we had just heard... although... our singing was no where near what we had just heard... but all the same... tis the season for lots of singing!!!!

Among my favorites sung last night were... "Ave Maria", "Breath of Heaven", "Mary, Did You Know" (accompanied with a sign linguist),  and "Cantique de Noel"(which was sung in Italian).  The Hutchinson Symphony Orchestra played all the music for the program, and they too did a marvelous job!  The music, the singing, the atmosphere... all of it made for a very magical night.

I am sure that next year, if it is at all possible, Joe and I again will be amongst those in the audience who want to capture and enjoy a moment of true Christmas "In The Air" Spirit.  Going to the Christmas Concert has quickly become one of my new favorite Holiday traditions!

Jingle Bells... Jingle Bells.... La La La La La........

The History of The Advent Calendar

My huband (Joe) really enjoys reading his Wall Street Journal every day, especially on the weekends.  He often clips and sends articles to various family members, and friends when he spies an interesting article pertaining to a specific person.  When one of his clippings arrive in one of our mail boxes or email in-box, we are all delighted to be the recipient of one of his clippings, and eagerly begin reading the article.  Well today was my day!  I received the following article, clipped from the Wall Street Journal... his timing on sending me this particular article is absolutely perfect!!!  So.... now I am sharing the same article on my blog... this blog ties into my other blog "Christmas Countdown Advent Calendars" in which I spoke about these calendars being a tradition in my family and how much I personally enjoy them each year.  This is a very interesting article... I hope you enjoy how these precious calendars began.

Americans can thank Germans for a holiday tradition besides the modern Christmas tree: the Advent calendar, a card counting down to Christmas in which children open one "window" a day, finding a picture, a poem or story, a sweet or a small gift.

Photos: The Advent of the Advent Calendar

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State Museums of Berlin

An Advent calendar from 1947

As a new exhibition in Germany shows, the old calendars also mirror the nation's past. "It's amazing how the twists of Germany's history—the charming, the good, the bad" are shown in the calendars, says Tina Peschel, an ethnographer at the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin. She curated the exhibit of around 200 of them.

The father of the Advent calendar, Gerhard Lang, drew his inspiration from his late 19th-century childhood, when his mother baked 24 meringue pastries and affixed them to a carton, indulging her son in one each day through Christmas Eve. (Advent begins around the end of November or the beginning of December.)

Mr. Lang published his first Advent calendar in 1903, a cheerful jumble of illustrated children's toys surrounding Christmas-themed poems. Youngsters could paste illustrations of dancing pretzel makers and angels working for the German post office over the verses. In 1920, Mr. Lang's publishing house invented the perforated doors used on modern Advent calendars—but failed to get a patent. Copycats profited.

After the First World War, Advent calendars were "demilitarized," and docile animals replaced drawings of cannons and toy solders. But "Hitler quickly co-opted the calendars," says Ms. Peschel. Nazi symbols were substituted for Christian ones: swastika-clad children building snowmen and Nazi soldiers enshrined within Advent wreaths.

After World War II and Germany's division, brightly colored Christian Advent calendars returned in West Germany, garnering G.I. fans who sent them home to their families with pamphlets in English. The calendars took off in America when Newsweek published a photo in 1953 of President Eisenhower's grandchildren grasping for an Advent calendar. Demand and production jumped.

State Museums of Berlin

A 1951 East German calendar with rare Christian symbols

Meanwhile, East Germany launched a successful campaign to abandon Advent, advertising Christmas as an atheist holiday and marginalizing publishing houses that added Christian symbols to what they dubbed "pre-Christmas calendars." Instead, state-approved calendars featured Young Pioneers frolicking in the snow—though parents resisted buying galactic-themed calendars with rocket sleighs promoting the Soviet space race. "Even communist parents still wanted winter scenes," says Ms. Peschel.

And what became of edible calendars like those of Mr. Lang's childhood? They thrived in the 1930s, were cut short by war rations, but picked up speed again with the postwar proliferation of preservatives in candy.

Despite all the marketing to children, Christmas can be fun for German parents, too: Some modern breweries offer relief to parents weary from buying presents via "calendars" providing a can of beer each day of Advent.

Christmas Countdown Advent Calendars

Tis the time of the year for counting down the days til Christmas with Advent Calendars.  This tradition began in my family when I was just a child, and my Grandma bought all of us Grandchildren a cardboard advent Christmas Advent Count Down Calendar... each day we would open a door with the days date on it and retrieve a chocolate coin hidden inside... these calendars are still available today either in stores (The Dollar Store/Dollar Tree Store always carry them) or online for just .99 cents!  Because I enjoyed those calendars (and still do) so much, I kept the tradition going with my own daughters and made sure they had an Advent Count Down Calendar every year too.

For those of you who know me... know I have an addictive personality and when I like something... I really like something!  So... my obsession with Christmas Advent Count Down Calendars has continued to grow each year since the year I received that first one.  I currently have 10 Count Down Calendars I enjoy each year... although this year I did loan two of them out to the two sons of our dear friends, the DeLuca's.  This is the DeLuca boys first experience with Christmas Count Down Calendars, I hope they are enjoying them as much as I do.  The two calendars I lent them were from Starbucks 2007 and 2006... these are cardboard shaped trees with a little drawer for each day of December... each day the boys will open a drawer and retrieve the candy treat hidden inside, then they will turn the drawer around before reinserting it back in place and reveal a piece of a puzzle... the drawers are in random order all over the tree, so they not only get a treat, but are working on a picture puzzle at the same time.  Just silly fun... but isn't most fun just silly!??

I have Count Down Calendars in various sizes, and with various ways to Count Down til Christmas Eve.  Some... like the Starbucks Calendar... a treat is placed inside each box or drawer... I particularly like to get a selection of chocolates to put inside the drawers so you just never know what to expect on any day... such as... I get the gold wrapped coins, Hersey kisses, minature bars, Lindor truffles, etc... but putting just a single Hersey kiss in each drawer is enough too... and even though I mix my treats up... I only put in one treat per box per day.  I have all 3 versions of the Starbucks Count Down Calendars (2005-2007)... unfortunately Starbucks no longer make these.... darn it.... because they came with really good chocolates in them too!!!  Some years my girls would have to share a Count Down Calendar that had chocolates in them, some years they had their own... but either way they were excited each day before Christmas to see what their treat would be, or what their sister's treat would be.

In the 1980's my Mother-in-law made my girls a wall hanging Count Down Calendar from a fabric panel (she loves to sew!) that she found in JoAnn Fabrics... it's called "A Beary Merry Christmas".  It is a drawing of a house with rooms and the yard outside... it has a little stuffed bear with velcro on it's back... and each place the bear must visit on his search to find Christmas also has a piece of velcro... each day the bear goes to a new location looking for christmas (such as... looking in the mailbox, looking on the pond, looking under front porch steps, looking in the bathtub, etc.).  This calendar was, and still is the very favorite of all my girls... and all 3 of them have tried to claim dibs on it to be passed on to them!  Because my girls are now grown, and 2 of my 3 daughters have a child of their own... just this evening I tried to find this fabric panel online so that I could make 2 more, and then each daughter would have their own to enjoy with their children.  However.... much to my astonishment.... not only is this fabric panel no longer available... but on ebay they are selling for over $100 per unfinished panel!!!! WHAT!!!!!????? Are people crazy??????  I'll keep searching... like a dog wanting to unbury a bone... and I WILL find these panels, and I WILL make them for my children's children.... but it may take me awhile!   :  )

I also have the Count Down Calendars in which you add an ornament to the tree each day.  The ornaments are kept inside a drawer(s) or behind a door(s), and each day you decorate the tree.  I have 5 of this kind... and this kind is my personal favorite.  Of these 5, two are snowmen holding a fake twiggy tree and have little resin ornaments that get hung on their trees, two are wooden and have ornaments numbered 1-24 on them and you either turn the ornament around to show the painted decorated side, or you add an ornament to a nail peg each day... and last but not least... in fact one of my new all time favorites (I just got it this week after finding it on ebay) is this 3D wooden tree that sits on a wooden box and rotates.  All around the wooden base are little doors with little magnetic ornaments inside and the ornaments just stick right on the tree.  The two wooden ones and the 3D Count Down Calendars were recently added to my collection just this year.  All 3 were such a surprise when they arrived, and I truly felt like a little kid on Christmas morning because they were nothing like I expected... they were sooooo much better than I could have imagined!  I really feel like I hit the "Mother Lode"!!!!

Occasionally I like to peruse around ebay with a curious frame of mind, just to see what is available out there.  On items that I like to collect... such as... old mixing bowls from the 1940's/1950's, Count Down Calendars, ornaments, vintage hand bags, etc... I can spend hours and hours just cyber window shopping.  Then once in awhile I will literally hit the "Mother Lode" on any particular item and I feel like I have found secret treasures!  That is exactly what happened one day last week when I was bored and went on ebay looking at Christmas Advent Calendar Count Downs.  Each one I saw was cooler than the one before, and each one was "Buy It Now"... and... they were so reasonably priced... as in CHEAP... that I just couldn't help myself... and the next thing I knew I had hit the "Buy It Now" button 5 times!!!!!  OOPS!!!! Then... because I am '50 something' and have 'mushy brain' at times... I totally forgot about ordering these Count Down Calendars until they started arriving this week!!  I did most of my Christmas shopping online on Cyber Monday... therefore... I have lots of deliveries this week with all my purchased Christmas gifts, so when I am going through whatever boxes have been delivered, I'm not looking for the Advent Count Down Calendars, I'm just looking for my purchases... and then I open a box containing one of my new Advent Count Down Calendars and am THRILLED beyond words with it!  During the month of December, I pop out of bed each morning to do my morning routine of updating all my Count Down Calendars, then I light my Yankee Candle Mistletoe candles, then turn on my Christmas music.. and thus begins another day of Christmas Cheer!

Who knows... one day I may be that crazy lady you see interviewed on one of those magazine shows because I have rooms full of my collections of Christmas Advent Calendars... but probably not!  All I know is how much I truly enjoy my Count Down Calendars each year!  As in all things I love, I like to share with others, so I am hoping this blog might just inspire you to begin the Christmas Count Down Calendar tradition too.  It doesn't matter your age, these calendars are enjoyed by all, and start each day of the Christmas season with a smile and/or a treat!  Some of these Count Down Calendars 'can' run into hundreds of dollars (if you are crazy!!!), but you can get a decent wooden one that costs around $20-$30, and while this may seem a bit pricey for a holiday decoration... these kind of calendars can be used over and over for many years, and will definitely pay for themselves... but the $1 ones bring just as much joy!  And if you think it's too late to get started this year... it isn't... you can still catch up... but if you want to begin this tradition next year, it's always great to be on the look out for these Count Down Calendars after Christmas when they are even bigger bargains!

Tomorrow is Day 8 already and Christmas Day will be here soon!! I hope everyone is being good for Santa... My Elves Home ornaments are hanging on my tree... therefore... I know those sneaky elves are watching me, and I'm trying my hardest to give them good reports to send to Santa each and every night!!