Christmas In July – More Traditions

Yesterday I reminisced about Christmas traditions, specifically ornament making. I have so many other traditions I could share and maybe I will but in going down memory lane I’m reminded that traditions are fun and important too but they shouldn’t consume us or close the door on new ideas and traditions.  Sometimes as we grow older and our families grow older and change and traditions have to grow with us and sometimes be tweaked, added to, or even let go… maybe for a time or even forever.

Last Christmas was the first after both kids had moved away but they both came home for Christmas.   YAY!!  I wanted to make our time together extra special but knew I needed to make things a little more ‘grown-up’ but not too much so, as that’s the magic of Chrismas!  Child-like wonder.

So… Instead of ornament making, we had fun decorating graham cracker ‘gingerbread’ houses.  I will say that my personal creativity doesn’t really lean in this way, we all had fun laughing and decorating.  The girls get a little competitive but it was fun.

We can’t pass up on the cookie decorating no matter our age so we had a blast with too!  They were a little bit more… fancy in their decorating of course. We used piping bags instead of just knives to spread it.  It’s always fun the bake and decorate them together.  Great family time!

As a kid growing up, we always did Christmas cookies, but for me the fun was just cutting them out and then putting a few (very few) sprinkles on them and then eating them.  Raw, cooked… it didn’t matter to me!!  I don’t really care for frosting or icing so I didn’t really get into that until my husband.

He tells stories of going to his granny’s to decorate the cookies.  It was a big deal!  So this is why it has become a big deal for us too.  I still don’t care for the frosting/icing so I don’t really eat the cookies but since I don’t really need them anyway, it’s all good.  We usually have lots of other goodies for me to eat!  Oreo balls, chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps, brownies, caramel corn and so on…  I definitely am not deprived!

What fun sweets do you make at Christmas?  Do you go all out with the cookie decorating? Have a favorite recipe?