Each year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, we throw a party to kick off the season. You can read about the 2018 party here. We make Christmas and Advent wreaths, decorate cookies, drink cocoa, watch Christmas movies, and write letters to Santa.
It is everything, this party. Family. Friends. Fellowship. Festivities. Food. And fun. I look forward to it every year. But it is also a lot of work.
Over the years I’ve figured out what works best for us and that I need to start preparing in the weeks leading up to the party. I’ve figured out that by baking the cookies even a few weeks prior, I can freeze them and they will taste just as good the day of the party. This was a huge hallelujah moment for me. I used to spend hours and hours the night before the party to get them made.
I’m not sure where I got this recipe. I would give credit if I could. It’s not a family recipe. I’m sure I found it somewhere on the internet, but it’s been on this sticky note inside my cupboard for years. It’s our favorite. Except we substitute vanilla for the almond extract. Just a family preference. Here is a printable copy of my sugar cookie recipe
Lola and I made six batches to prepare for the party. (Then I made an extra a week later after we started eating frozen cookies straight from the freezer. And by we, I mean me. Whatever. I call it quality control.) This cookie cutter was a gift, but it is the Hearth & Hand cookie cutter from Target. It is amazing for preparing for events like this. We can make so many cookies at once.
After they cool completely, I stack them and put them in Ziplock bags to go into the freezer.
The night before the party (or sometimes the morning of) I’ll take them out and stack them on plates alongside the frosting. Frosting is placed in squeeze bottles to minimize the mess that comes with many, little hands and oodles of sprinkles.
The cookies are delicious and sturdy. They look beautiful piled high with (this) amazing, “everyone-will-ask-for-the-recipe” frosting and sprinkles. They might not be the fanciest cookies. But they say Christmas. And tradition. And unmastered goodness.
Unmastered 
All of my family’s best recipes look like that – written down on mottled, sun-bleached index cards and scraps of paper, copied down by my grandmother from sources unknown. The cookies look great!
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Awh I love that. I have some of my grandmother’s recipes as well. For all the links and recipes available on the internet, nothing is quite the same as an old family recipe.
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[…] that might find this post “yucky.” STOP now! Do not read any further! Go read the post about baking cookies or finding a Christmas tree. Let’s all be able to look at each other over our cocoa mugs on […]
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So sorry I missed the party this year, always had a good time! Hope to be there next year.
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