Yes, you can BAKE your way into the holiday spirit! (Some of you are paying attention now – say what? Food? What?)
Think about it. Baking something together, with family, with friends, with your children – promotes spending time together. Baking something to give away – um, hello, GIVING?
You can even decorate with food. Oh yes.
Christmas Cookies
At least once a season, the kids and I will make Christmas cookies together. We have an assortment of cookie cutters that we use – an angel, a wreath, a bell, a star, a Christmas tree and a candy cane. You can make cookies from scratch, or you can “cheat” and buy cookie dough at the store. I’m not picky. 😛
Allrecipes.com (where I get most of my new recipes) is having a Christmas Cookie Countdown – posting a different cookie recipe each day. The first one? A sugar cookie of course!
Cookies are an easy gift to give away, whether it’s a small group wrapped in cellophane or a dozen in a cookie tin. You can also wrap them individually and tie them with a ribbon to hang them on your tree! What a SWEET Christmas morning that would be! **NOTE, this suggestion may not work well for those with young children or low will power.**
Cakes & Pies
Come time for the Christmas dinner, there’s bound to be some cakes or pies involved. My favorite? Pecan. I do tend to be a pie person. But check out this Christmas cake! Isn’t it beautiful?
One suggestion for baking during advent is to make a Birthday cake for Jesus – with or without a small party attached. Here’s a few variations that I found:
Candy, Fudge & Other Goodies
I’m sure people make fudge at other times of the year, but Christmas is when I actually think about it. Not that I make it, mind you, but I think about it. If you’ve got the time and talent to make homemade candies, they easily tie up for thoughtful little gifts. (And you could tie those on the tree, too! WHAT — YOU don’t put food on YOUR tree? Bah!)
If you want to give it a try, browse this list of fudge recipes (and then send me some fudge in the mail. I will give you my mailing address.)
Other Baked Goods
You can bake breads, fruit & nut breads, brownies.. whatever. People like to eat and they’ll feel loved with some homemade goodies. And none of these has looked SO FULL OF HOMEMADE GOODNESS like Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls. MY WORD!
And there’s coffee and maple in that icing. Did you hear? COFFEE. And MAPLE. That has got to be one killer combination.
Her family has a tradition of making PANS of these things and passing them out. They’re on a mission to make us all grow out of our clothes, y’all. But they DO look so good.
Hang on, lemme wipe the drool off my keyboard.
I’m good now. Moving on.
…
So. Now you know. Baking. Holidays. They go hand in hand.
Do you bake more during the holidays? If so, what’s that one recipe that you make every year? That one that would make the holidays a little LESS cheery if you didn’t make it? Tell me (and then send me samples.)
Amber
Don’t forget to stop by the Advent Event and read more about our Advent traditions and tips if you haven’t already. You can also sign up for the giveaways by linking up with your own post or commenting on any or all of the Advent Event posts.
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