Our schedules are hectic and our pace is quickly. Our calendar is over-booked and we rush by means of our lives. Yet we want the holiday season to have that very same good quality of specialness and innocence it seemed to have lengthy ago.
We yearn for the days we had the time to produce exquisite strings of popcorn and cranberries for the Christmas tree or painstakingly craft garlands of colorful construction paper or decorate the windows with fancy holiday decorations.
There\'s a way to make the essence of past holidays in a simpler way than you might believe involving one of my favorite subjects, cookies.
See the list below for 12 effortless methods to serve up a memorable and warm Holiday season. With a little bit of creativity, and just a couple of cookies, you can develop unique memories for everybody on your list.
1. Write a personal note on holiday stationary about your favorite childhood memory or memories baking cookies. Contain a copy of your favorite family-treasured recipe. Put your personal \"cookie story\" and recipe in a special holiday card. For the far more creatively courageous, mount both together in a box frame for a gift that every person will notice!
2. Invite 10 of your finest girlfriends to a holiday \"Cookie Exchange\" party. Ask everyone to pre-sort their cookies in uniquely decorated holiday containers that can be taken home. Guests not only walk away with exciting new recipes and a number of dozen freshly-baked holiday cookies but a re-usable \"one-of-a-kind\" container! For additional fun invite your guests to tell the \"story\" of the favorite cookie they brought to share.
three. Take a trip to your local crafts outlet with your youngsters to make a brightly-colored ceramic cookie plate for Santa Claus or give as a household-made gift to Grandma & Grandpa. It\'s a gift that\'s certain to last for years to come.
four. Style a gift basket chock full of cookie-baking supplies. Include a bright ceramic mixing bowl, a cookie spatula, numerous cookie sugars, high-end vanilla, a cookie sheet, parchment paper and a variety of festive holiday cookie cutters. Don\'t forget to include your favorite cookie recipe!
five. Make and decorate keepsake cookie dough ornaments to hang on the tree. Your family will treasure hanging these homemade ornaments (and admiring the artwork) year after year!
6. Collect favorite cookie recipes from aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, brothers and sisters and bind all of the recipes together in a special family \"cookie book\". You can decorate with family photos and/or stories about each and every recipe (and recipe contributor!).
7. Schedule \"official\" family time so everyone can participate in baking traditional holiday sugar cookies in all shapes and sizes. Acquire a selection of cookie-decorating supplies, put on your favorite holiday music, a bubbling pot of hot apple cider and let the creativity loose!
8. Don\'t have a lot of time? Don't know what to obtain that \"hard to acquire for\" individual in your life? Shop on the internet for a \"cookie a month\" service that can deliver a variety of fresh cookies to someone\'s door step every month. They\'ll bear in mind your thoughtfulness every time their monthly delivery arrives!
9. Treat the cookie connoisseur in your life (and you!) to reserved seats at an upcoming cookie-decorating class. You\'ll not only appreciate the time together but you\'ll be sure to understand some new tricks you can use appropriate away!
10. Don't feel like going out? Throw a personalized cookie-decorating class at your house! Invite your friends and neighbors to come over for a hands-on cookie decorating class in your own kitchen taught by a local, expert baker. You\'ll adore the camaraderie and sharing in an intimate (and comfortable) setting and guests get to take house all of their goodies!
11. Don't forget the pets on your holiday list. Search the web or your local pet store for unique \"doggie\" cookies you can bake by scratch to give to your own pets or package in a little, airtight container with brightly colored ribbon to give to the other canine pals on your holiday gift list.
12. Browse your favorite local bookstore for fascinating, colorful, delightful cookie cookbooks. My personal favorite, of course, is Cookie Stories: Life Stories and the Cookies that Inspired Them (Falling Star Press, 2005). Wear your most comfy holiday pajamas, turn up the holiday tunes and bake a \"new\" recipe from your cookbook (try decorated sugar cookies!). When they\'ve cooled, wrap these goodies in festive, brightly-colored, holiday gift wrapping and ribbon.
So there you have it. It\'s possible to tap into a small bit of that \"old-fashioned\" holiday even on today\'s 2006 fast-paced schedule. All you need are a few ideas, a small bit of creativity and of course, delicious holiday cookies.
Pleased Holidays!
