Welcome to our countdown to Christmas Contest! …bring on the baking!
(This contest is now closed)
COOKIES!!
Break out the recipe box and the royal icing and bring it on! I know all of you have your favorites and I want to hear about it. To win one of TWO $100 Visa gift cards, leave me a comment telling me a little about your favorite holiday cookie tradition: your family’s favourite holiday cookie, cookie packaging tips, cookie swap ideas, etc. We’d love it if you’d also add (or update!) our new Holiday 2011 blog button (located in the sidebar to the left of the page) on your blog. If you don’t have a blog, you can follow us here on our blog (also on the left sidebar) and on our Facebook page (and please let us know with your comment that you did!) You may enter once a day. Again, the winners of our Christmas cookie contest will receive one of TWO Visa gift cards!
I will pick the winners on Friday, December 2nd!
(FOR COMPLETE CONTEST INFORMATION PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE A PDF OF THE
GIVEAWAY RULES UNDER HOLIDAY CONTEST RULES.)
GIVEAWAY RULES UNDER HOLIDAY CONTEST RULES.)
**Contest is open to U.S. residents only.**
No purchase is necessary to participate in the contest.
Best,
Matthew
Matthew
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Buy our expanded keepsake edition of Holiday with Matthew Mead 2011 here.
One of our favorite cookies is a cream cheese cutout that bakes up nice and thick(I don't roll them too flat)frosted with cream cheese frosting and then decorated with all the different colored sugars. I really like to eat them plain with a cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteI follow you on FB.
Ruth
ruthann46@aol.com
My boys and I love making gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies and decorating them with red hots, chocolate chips, gum drops, peppermints, etc.
ReplyDeleteheatherdemke(at)gmail(dot)com
Cookie baking is probably my favorite part of the holiday season. A few years ago, I started this tradition of making about six varieties of holiday cookies and then giving plates to family and friends. I LOVE doing it and finding new recipes to share. I'm so ready for cooking season!
ReplyDeleteWe love snickerdoodles with some yummy cream cheese frosting. We also make chocolate snowflake cookies and chocolate chip cookies then package them up to give out to friends and teachers.
ReplyDeletesherrodstudio (at) yahoo (dot) com
Last year I made some vanilla cut out cookies and my mom loved them. I'm thinking I'll be making them again.
ReplyDeleteI would say my family's favorite cookies are amish sugar cookies. The kind thats super fluffy! [My mom has the recipe and she either lost it or told me she lost it because she doesn't want to share it!]
ReplyDeleteI also follow this blog.
Baking cookies with my children, my mom, and my sister is out favorite Christmas tradition! We even stay over night at my mom's. We make it a two day event and into the wee hours of the night.
ReplyDeleteCut out sugar cookies are my favorite. They are so fun to decorate (we take our time and do them extra special) and it is so fun watching my children get so excited after they have decorated them. Not to mention, they taste awesome! One of the best cut-out sugar cookie recipes I have ever found.
Thanks for the chance!
Tonya
I still use my great grandmother from Norways cookie press to make cookies every Christmas. We make a TON of cookies, almost too many!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the fab giveaway!
Cary
hrhcary@aol.com
I make a black walnut raisin rugelach. I even harvest all the black walnuts by hand months in advance. It's a lot of work but they disappear off the plate faster than I can make them. I remember my Grandma making these so it brings back some happy memories.
ReplyDeleteGrandma always made special sugar cookies and gave each family some for home.Every christmas morning we were alllowed to eat her sugar cookies for breakfast.They were just simple cutout cookies with sprinkles but they were always sprinkled with love and magic.Warm Blessings!~Amy
ReplyDeleteOur tradition began many years ago when children were little and waiting for Santa. Friends would gather to create sugar cut out cookies for a large party that Santa magically attended. Alas, all the children are older and Santa is going to other parties. Yes, we still gather to create cookies, however, these cookies are all packed up to go to those who may not have as wonderful a Christmas as we.
ReplyDeleteLet the holidays begin with cookies of course....my favorite cookie memory is of my Mom's Swedish Heirloom Cookies made with butter and sprinkled with colored sprinkles that she always places in her special glass cookie jar with a ribbon around the top.
ReplyDeleteI follow your blog and facebook....thanks for all your inspiration Matthew!
XOX Karen
One of my favorite traditions have been going to midnight mass at my church right before Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have become known for is making toffee with saltine and also cookies that are called Kitchen sink cookies. Those plus I also make a brownie that has a mint topping and then a chocolate ganache topping over the mint.
ReplyDeletei have two christmas cookie favorites: red velvet whoopie pies and gingerbread men. i remember eating gingerbread men cookies as a child...and it's a tradition i love to share now with my own children!
ReplyDeletechocolate chip cookies and cut out sugar cookies the kids decorate is what we do at our house. my in-laws cover sandtarts with the kids. {i love burnt sandtarts}.
ReplyDeleteBeing gluten-free not by choice now is hampering the cookie baking excitement. I promised the grands that we would make Buckeyes this year together. They are stil pretty litte and I know they will have fun doing this esp. since we are from the Buckeye state. Wouldn't they look cute in a mason jar with a but little topper.
ReplyDeleteLast year while all of our guests muched on the flour goodies I had a light bulb moment. I had some gluten free ginger snap cookies. I made sandwich cookies with them using cool whip. My celiac son (he has my genes) and I loved them. Happy Holidays.
we stick with the basics and our favourite has always been HO Oatmeal cookies. They were my MIL's favourite and she shared the recipe that originally came off a box of HO Oatmeal. They are a slice and bake cookie so you can make them ahead and only bake what you need. mmmmm good.
ReplyDeleteOur absolute favorite baking party is our Gingerbread Night with our kids. We bake gingerbread cookies and spend the evening decorating them with icing, sprinkles, and chocolate chips. Mysteriously, one of the gingerbread cookies escapes and runs through the house leaving flour footprints :) We wear matching aprons, given to us by my late mother, who started this tradition about 8 years ago. It is the best Christmas memory my kids cherish.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love my mom's sugar cookies.
ReplyDeleteMy best friend and I just started our own cookie tradition though... we get together every year and bake a few kinds of holiday cookies together. Our girls (3 between the 2 of us) are just old enough this year to help some. Love it!
Our favourite holiday cookie is gingerbread, we love baking batches and share with friends.
ReplyDeleteBlog follower and FB liker
ReplyDeleteJessie C.
tcarolinep at gmail dot com
My favorite cookie is oatmeal! I love when the oatmeal cookies are chewy. Our tradition is dunking them in milk!
ReplyDeletemami2jcn at gmail dot com
I follow you in GFC (mami2jcn) and on FB (Mary Happymommy)
ReplyDeletemami2jcn at gmail dot com
We have a couple of traditions, one being on the 24th, we make sugar cookies pulling out all the cookie cutters and the kids paint them with a dyed egg yolk wash and paintbrushes... fill the hours before bedtime quite nicely. The other is that I spend one quiet morning by myself preparing to mail tins of cookies to far-flung family, and I like to try out different new recipes each year, but I always include pecan blondies. Yum!
ReplyDeleteI also follow you on FB... in a few ways, since you have a few pages! :)
ReplyDeleteif not cookies, would a baked good do? my german mother has made stollen bread with the candied cherries every year since coming to this country. it would not be christmas morning if stollen was not on the table.
ReplyDeleteshe has been ill for 3 years now and i have made the bread under her guidance while she sits at the counter, directing. last year i photographed each step in the long process to be sure, after she is gone, i can carry on this wouldn't-be-christmas-without-it tradition.
When our girls were little, we made the cookies and left some for Santa along with a glass of milk as I'm sure many others do/did to. Santa always enjoyed them!
ReplyDeleteRuth
ruthann46@aol.com
follow on FB and blogger
My cookie list is provided by my kids. They tell which ones to make and then I add one of my own to try something NEW! Then there's the sugar cookie decorating. And with teenage boys, I need to supervise we we have "appropriate" holiday decorations. We always have cookies here through the holidays. A daily treat!
ReplyDeleteI"m a follower and a fan! For our family, it just wouldn't feel like Christmas without making a batch or two of my Grandmother's Shortbread cookies. The recipe has been in the family for at least four generations and was being baked back in the 1920s. The original recipe only called for a moderate oven, which was guidelines for cooking with a wood stove. I did a blog post about them here: http://gracie-senseandsimplicity.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-cookie-week-shortbread.html
ReplyDeleteMany years ago my Nana shared with me the secret family recipes for Italian cookies...fig-filled cookies, sesame cookies, marbled and sprinkled rainbow cookies and glazed chocolate balls. Every year there's a week of baking and wrapping and definite sugar buzzing!
ReplyDeleteHer hand-written recipes, now decades old, are one of my most cherished possessions. I hope to preserve them and secretly pass them on someday too! :)
Hello!!!
ReplyDeleteEvery year I bake sugar cookies in holiday shapes using large copper cookie cutters. I ice with Royal Icing and add special edible glitter and silver beads.
They are so beautiful, you almost hate to eat them...but eat them we do!
janet xox
PS...thanks for the generous giveaway
Daily entry 11/29
ReplyDeleteMy favorite cookie is oatmeal! I love when the oatmeal cookies are chewy. Our tradition is dunking them in milk!
mami2jcn at gmail dot com
I make gingerbread cookies. I've used a Martha Stewart recipie for years. Also, since I was a child we have always decorated sugar cookies...over 40 years! My daughter continues the tradition. She is 14 and loves to do it.
ReplyDeleteMy family makes chocolate chip oatmeal cookies around Christmas. The recipe came out of an old Amish cookbook. I love the smell cookies at winter time. Yummo! reitzell7@aol.com
ReplyDeleteOur tradition for Christmas parties is always the cheeseball. My parents are practically famous for it in our little circles. They have to get this semi-formable cheese, I know that there's a certain brand that they get every time. Roll it into a ball, and with some crushed walnuts on the outside. Makes a DELICIOUS treat to spread on crackers!
ReplyDeleteMy family loves what we call Goop. It's a wonderful desert that has marshmellows, cherry pie filling, cream cheese and more layered together.
ReplyDeletedallen75@columbus.rr.com
We make molasses cookies, which are close to gingerbread, but still kind of soft....oh so yummy! :) A great holiday cookie!
ReplyDeleteWe love, love, love decorating gingerbread men! They are "styled" and named after family members!
ReplyDeleteWe make an old family recipe passed down from my husband's grandmother - Beef Dripping Oatmeal Cookies. They are a ginger & molasses based cookie with only a small amount of beef drippings. We make and give them every year to family and friends as gifts.
ReplyDeleteDaily entry 11/30
ReplyDeleteMy favorite cookie is oatmeal! I love when the oatmeal cookies are chewy. Our tradition is dunking them in milk!
mami2jcn at gmail dot com
I've always loved trying new recipes, especially in baking, so when a cousin told me about my grandmother and father taking Chocolate Drop cookies to the soldiers at their local USO, I decided that this year this would be my "new" recipe. I guess my dad called them Soldier Cookies and I vaguely remember making them with my sister when we were growing up, but this was so long ago and I'm excited to get this family recipe and make it my go-to exchange cookie this year. I'll be changing it up a bit by cooking them a little less, adding chocolate chips and sprinkling the tops with Maldon Sea Salt. My cousin said she's won first place in several contests with it, too. I only wish I'd had this a long time ago but am glad to have something to pass on to my children now!
ReplyDeleteI'm a follower, too :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays
I would love to enter your giveaway!
ReplyDeleteWe like to get out the cookie cutters and make sugar cookies, then decorate them with icing and sprinkles! :-)
I'm a follower, and will post this in my sidebar.
ReplyDeleteIt just wouldn't be Christmas without baking cookies tog as a family. Each year we decorate a bird tree with seed decorated cookies, we share yummy favorites with elder neighbors and one year my son assisted me as we put together a box of cookies to mail to the Dad of very dear friends. We wanted to bringa smile to his face for what we knew would be his last Christmas. We rolled little balls of gingerbread dough strategically placing them on our gingerbread angels creating a buxom box full. :-) I was told by his bedside family he guffawed.......making my Christmas that year the best ever.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Holiday Cookie is an Egg Nog Cookie. I love Egg Nog so an Egg Nog Cookie was a no brainer..although mine don't quite taste as good as my Mothers...
ReplyDeleteI follow google connect "anash"
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly.
My favorite cookies as sugar cookies and my kids love them, they are so easy to make! Thanks for this splendid giveaway
ReplyDeleteanashct1 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Daily entry 12/1
ReplyDeleteMy favorite cookie is oatmeal! I love when the oatmeal cookies are chewy. Our tradition is dunking them in milk!
mami2jcn at gmail dot com
Daily entry...Grandma always made special sugar cookies and gave each family some for home.Every christmas morning we were alllowed to eat her sugar cookies for breakfast.They were just simple cutout cookies with sprinkles but they were always sprinkled with love and magic.Warm Blessings!~Amy
ReplyDeleteWe've never been a Christmas cookie family, and I guess it's because I grew up watching my mom and aunt make cakes! Fruitcakes...every year! And fresh coconut cakes--I'd watch my dad pound three nail holes in a coconut and turn it upside down to drain into a glass for my mom's cake. And Peter Paul Coconut Mounds cake--a Christmas tradition and my very favorite.
ReplyDeleteSo we were always a CAKE family, and I passed that down to my daughters. A few years ago we were invited to attend a Christmas cookie swap. We had never been to one before and had to really scout around for cookie recipes to make. Chocolate chip and Snickerdoodles were our choices. We also made an orange ball cookie--unbaked, dipped in orange juice, and rolled in coconut. I think our Christmas cookie baking was a success, and we look forward to trying out some new cookies this year introduced in this blog post! Thank you!
Daily entry Dec. 1...
ReplyDeleteSugar cookies are of one our favorites! They don't last long at our house! :-)
Favorite holiday cookie tradition: Our girl scout troop bakes cookies every year. After the batter is prepared, we help the girls cut out and let them go at it with the sprinkles and decorations. You know the rule, more is always better in that department. After baking, we freeze the cookies because the following week the girls package them up and then we go caroling. The scouts present the cookies and sing songs for those who could use a little cheer. Now these people can't wait for the girl scouts to come around - it makes them so happy - and the girls learn a little more about the true meaning of Christmas. This will be the 5th year my daughter are involved in this tradition.
ReplyDeleteI make spritz cookies at Christmas and a few other special cookies, and almond roca, and package them up along with a jar of homemade jelly for teachers, friends and neighbors. I love giving homemade goodies!
ReplyDeleteMGM
I always make thumbprint cookies with buttercream icing in the middle and mexican wedding cakes
ReplyDeleteMy favorite cookie tradition is to pop in to my sister's house when she is done baking and raid her amazingly yummy cookies and beg for a baggie to take home!
ReplyDeleteDaily entry...Grandma always made special sugar cookies and gave each family some for home.Every christmas morning we were alllowed to eat her sugar cookies for breakfast.They were just simple cutout cookies with sprinkles but they were always sprinkled with love and magic.Warm Blessings!~Amy
ReplyDeleteMy mother used to make traditional German cookies. I like to make them too, especially the aromatic gingerbread. I can't get enough of them this time of year
ReplyDeleteDaily entry...Our family loves sugar cookies. They don't last long around our house! We love to decorate them with icing and sprinkles. :-)
ReplyDeleteDaily entry 12/2
ReplyDeleteMy favorite cookie is oatmeal! I love when the oatmeal cookies are chewy. Our tradition is dunking them in milk!
mami2jcn at gmail dot com
Pooh, big time tradition for my family. My mom used to make about 20 different kinds.....I am down to about 15. She'd bake pretty much the entire month of Dec and store them in the freezer. Then we'd take trays around to friends and neighbors to wish everyone a merry Christmas. I love carrying on this tradition....my favorites are Pennsylvania squares (a Maida Heater recipe)
ReplyDeleteThe family favorite cookie is the Snickerdoodle. Can't get enough of them!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
Lori
Hmmm...not sure we could all agree on a favorite, but we love lots of different kinds. The kids love sugar cookies coated in frosting, the hubs and I like the chocolate crinkle cookies...
ReplyDeleteLast year we tried making ginger bread men cookies for the first time and my kiddos LOVED them. They had so much fun picking the shapes to cut out and then to decorate. It was heaven for them. inkomite at gmail.com
ReplyDelete