Tonight my grandchildren will be here to make Christmas cookies and treats. With my first granddaughter, we began to bake together from the time I could stand her in a chair beside me. She is nine years old now, and says she is going to have a worldwide bakery chain when she grows up. She loves to cook, and is very adventurous in her recipe choices.
Sometimes that doesn’t work out well, as with the raspberry meringues she tried to make for our Thanksgiving dinner. At this point, her enthusiasm outpaces her experience and skill, but even her failures will teach her much.
Several years ago when my youngest grandson was two, we started making gingerbread men, and he so loved his “ginger-men” that he always asked to make them when he came over, and eventually his cousins were included, and Christmas cookie night got a little out of control.
Since then I’ve been able to find ideas and recipes for holiday treats the kids can make without a lot of trouble and mess. From witches’ brooms at Halloween to pilgrim hats at Thanksgiving, we’ve been able to have tasty treats, as my littlest grandson calls them, without too much effort.
These are the two treats we will be making tonight. I hope you guys have favorite recipes to share, easy or more challenging. Some of my favorite memories of making Christmas treats with my kids involve our gingerbread houses, which were actually made with graham crackers, canned frosting, and lots of candies.
Cookie cutter brownies here.
Chocolate candy Christmas trees here.
Christmas Treats for kids huh. Who are we Kidd here? Merry Christmas
One of my greatest joys is baking cookies, brownies, cakes, biscuits and breakfasts with my grandchildren. They have a good time but they don’t realize that their wanting to be in the kitchen with me creating treats for their family and friends puts a permanent smile on my face and pure contentment in my heart!
As I am experiencing thinking of doing cookies w/my mom and friends of yesteryear, you are creating memories that will last them a life time. Makes me a little teary eyed.
You are so blessed! My younger son used to be by my side when I pulled out the stand mixer. He now has the basic skills to make cookies, cakes, and even pies from scratch. His fiance is lucky that he enjoys doing most of the cooking too. I so longed for a daughter to share that with though. Some day, maybe I’ll have a granddaughter.
I went with six different cookies this year that are mostly done and wrapped up in the freezer. They look lovely on a festive tray shared on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, my office, and my husband’s work party.
Cowboy Cookies with dried cranberries & white choc.
Caramel spritz.
Gingersnap sandwiched with a lemon creme.
Thumbprints with currant preserves.
Chocolate chip.
Brownies half-dipped in white choc and sprinkles.
Chocolate amaretto truffle cups.
(I apologize, I don’t know how to attach anything to a post.)
I love this very homey story of Christmas with the grandkids. Just lovely. In the coming years, those memories will be worth more than gold. Lucky you.
I pretty much am done with Christmas cookies…It is just hubby and I now… but… decades ago I found a recipe in a magazine for cookie mice. There are a ton of recipes available online.. but here is one. These cookies are adorable, they are easy to do, and everyone thinks they are great. Kids can help with the decorations…
Here ya go. https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mice-cookies/
I have never seen these before. They are adorable! We will be making these this weekend. Thank you for posting ❤️
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I make teddy bear breads every Christmas to give away as presents. My grandchildren love to help with these. I first saw the recipe in a photo montage book for children by Jill Krementz, The Fun of Cooking, but there are many online now. The bears are so cute, especially with a festive ribbon bow. Here is one online recipe: http://www.tipsdiy.com/2013/11/teddy-bear-bread.html
If only these treats included bacon I might be tempted to try out my minimal-to-non-existent baking skills
I once made chocolate chip cookies with bits of crisp bacon in them and they were delicious! 🥓🍪
No doubt. Bacon rules!
A box of vanilla pudding in choc. chip cookie dough makes them the best cookie ever, next time I make them I am going to add some crisp bacon! Gonna be fun.
Russian Teacakes was always my favorite.
I bought the pecans earlier today and am baking a batch tomorrow!
What joy, Menagerie.
Not only will you and your gifts from God be baking treats now, but you yourself will be making those mental cocktails for the years to come. When you partake of them, the warmth and love and memories will come flooding back. The best recipe I know.
My daughter (who will be 35 in February…) and I will be doing our annual Christmas Cookie baking tomorrow. These are rolled butter cookies that melt in your mouth, and decorated with a confectioners sugar glaze made with butter, half & half, vanilla, and almond extract. They after icing the cookies we have fun using various sprinkles in various colors!! She sets up her laptop and we watch “White Christmas”, and then either “A Christmas Story” or “Elf”. We drink glasses of wine, and laugh and laugh.
Have you made your dough and refrigerated it for several days? I need to make it ahead of time, but read conflicting number of days it can be stored in the refrigerator. Thanks!
Absolutely you can! Two days in a sealed bag works fine. Just make sure to let the dough come back up to room temperature before baking.
Thank you Menagerie,
Your kindness and positivity is greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
We have always made Toll House chocolate chip cookies but brown the butter first and let it cool. The other trick is to use a cookie dough scoop (like a small ice cream scoop with a lever) to make golf ball sized balls. One kid scoops, another kid rolls the balls to make them nice and round. Make all the dough balls first and put them on a big tray with plastic wrap and clean up the rest of the dishes. Kids sometimes have short attention spans so break is better than a marathon. At this point you can refrigerate the dough balls and bake them later, or sometimes we freeze a few dozen for a snowy day too. Just make sure the dough is room temperature before baking or they won’t spread out right. And we always under bake for the perfectly soft and chewy cookie.
Popcorn balls, using the recipe from Karo syrup’s website. Butter up the kids hands and let them make the balls themselves, just be sure the mixture is not too hot before they start.
But the favorite thing for my kids was on Christmas Eve, after our guests had left, we would settle down with hot chocolate with a mini candy cane and marshmallows, and watch the Polar Express before bedtime. Mom and dad might have slipped a little peppermint schnapps into their own mugs.
Merry Christmas! 🙂
If you want a fast and quick clean up recipe try this: One box of cake mix, any flavor, two eggs and a 1/4 cup of oil. Mix in one bowl- flour hands and roll into balls and cook 5 or 10 minutes at 350. Hubby’s favorites are cheery, lemon and butter pecan. I lob a dolt of of icing on the top while they are hot, top with a nut or cherry.
If you are short on time but want the kids to feel part of the decorating, here’s what we did every year with our 4 kids. This became a family favorite tradition!
Order a bakery sheet cake – whatever flavor batter you like best. Instruct your bakery to not decorate the cake, just ice it. You’ll also save money on the price of the cake since it is plain. We order whipped cream white icing (but you have to have room to refrigerate.) Put out a bunch of small bowls with various candies, M&M’s, sprinkles, etc. I had my kids pick 2 types of candies in advance for this — even gummy worms. LOL. This is a great way to save time and stress, and the kids love it.
Great idea! For some bizarre reason I can’t make sugar cookies correctly. I bake my own Amish Sweet Bread and artisan rounds and baguettes but I can’t make sugar cookies. I’m calling my bakery now.
Something tells me a lot of bakeries phones are ringing right about now!
Try leaving the butter on the counter a few hours before you make the cookies, and then cream the unsalted butter and sugar for 8-10 minutes scraping the sides down often (until it changes color and looks white-ish), then add the egg (one at a time if 2) and vanilla. And use a little extra baking soda if it has been around for a while. I have the world’s worst time getting yeast to cooperate!
Wonderful to read your posts, as usual. Enjoy the evening with your grandchildren! Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.
I always helped my son make Christmas gifts to give to family so he could learn the joy of giving from a young age. When he was 3 I traced his hand on paper, transferred that to a Solo plastic plate, cut that out and used it as a pattern to cut out rolled chocolate gingerbread cookies. Then I’d make royal icing, thin it, divide into bowls and let him chose the colors. I’d give him a cheap new paintbrush for each color and let him paint the cookies with the icing. When the icing dried we’d package in treat bags, he’d decide who got which cookie, and we’d do gift tags. We did that for several years until he thought he was too “grown up”.
Another thing we did that was easy was graham cracker bark. Line a pan with foil, cover with graham cracker squares, melt chocolate chips (your choice, semi, milk or white) or candy melts and spread over the crackers. Before the chocolate firms up, sprinkle with your choice of goodies — m&m’s, peanuts, pretzel sticks, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, whatever you like. When it sets completely (refrigerate if you want), break into pieces and package in treat bags. This is fun for any holiday and is a good treat for birthdays too.
When he was older he made Santa sleighs for gifts. The base is a Snickers bar. 2 wrapped candy canes are glued to the bar using a glue gun. Then a mini box of raisins was glued on top of the bar for the seat. A marshmallow Santa was glued to the raisin box and either a marshmallow Rudolph or snowman were glued behind Santa and a bow was glued to the front of the Snickers right in front of the raisin box. If you fold back the bottom of the wrappers on the marshmallow items and glue the fold down to the raisin box you can make the figures sit up (sort of).
Everyone, kids and adults alike, enjoyed receiving the sleighs. The last time he made them I think he did 24, and then our family switched to a gift exchange for adults (but still giving gifts to all the littles), and the next year he’d aged into doing the adult exchange.
I looked for a pic of a similar sleigh, didn’t find exactly what we did but plenty of others using some different candies. And the raisin boxes we used were not the tiny mini ones, but ones that came in a package of 6.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/25895766578857432/
Rudolph’s Peanut Butter Play dough
1 C. smooth peanut butter
1/2 C. honey
2-1/4 C. powdered sugar
Mix peanut butter and honey, stir in powdered sugar until stuff and pliable. Refrigerate for 15 minutes before using, store in fridge airtight for up to 3 months. Note: peanut butter is safe for kids older than 8 months if they’ve had no previous allergic reaction. Honey is safe for kids over a year old. White Karo syrup can be substituted for honey.
Challenge the kids to mold Rudolph out of this, but it also makes decent candy, just roll into balls or logs, roll in finely chopped peanuts or powdered sugar or sprinkles. Beware: there will always be some smart alec who makes reindeer poop out of it.
Always remember the best gift of all: Jesus Christ!
When things look bleak have HOPE IN CHRIST!
I’m trying to go low carb🥵 help !!!
So is my husband! It is very difficult to find good low carb foods and recipes.
These are great: https://www.egglifefoods.com
And I found the recommendation here: https://mariamindbodyhealth.com along with tips to use for lasagna and to slice up, boil for 1 minute, drain and use as noodles
Thank You!
Merry Christmas 🎄
And Merry Christmas to you! Hope you enjoy, much better than shiritaki noodles.
I posted a couple of links below in reply to InAz that you might be interested in too.
If you like peanut butter, use 1 C. natural peanut butter (less sugar), 1/2 C. granulated Erythritol (it’s a low carb sugar substitute that doesn’t raise blood sugar, a brand name is Swerve and you can get it granulated or confectionary), 1 egg and mix all together. From 1 T. balls, flatten with a fork, bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.
Not exactly baking but sugar free jello and heavy cream whipped together is a sweet treat. Keto Chow (I don’t gain anything from them) has many flavors/recipes. I like their shakes. You can reduce the liquid to make them more like pudding. There’s a lot of keto subreddits. When I’ve done keto it’s worked. When I stay committed I lose my interest in carbs. Not sure how low you want to go but good luck!
I’ve learned to be careful about opening my laptop and pulling up CTH this time of year, lest it expose a thread and photo like this one where Pa McGriz can see it.
The instant begging and whining are unbearable. ; )
Date Balls
My mom and I used to make these for our Christmas Open House every year. There are numerous variations out there, this is the recipe we used. The coconut and dates together are yummy. Rolling balls always keeps the kids busy! These are no bake so once my mom got the mixture done, I did the rest. While I was doing the date balls my mom dealt the other cookies that needed baking. We also did peanut butter balls, Mexican Wedding Cakes, and more. I learned to be quite the roller.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25786/coconut-date-balls/
We used to make these for our Open House, they look pretty and festive on the cookie platters. As a kid I found it fun to try to shape the dough into a strawberry. Over time I got really good at it. We made the strawberry stem out of slivered almonds that had soaked in green food coloring, the almond added flavor to the cookie. I like the way this woman does her version though. Of course dabbling in red jello turns your fingers red for a few days, so that was always fun.
https://noshingwiththenolands.com/aunt-lils-coconut-strawberries/
Thank you Menagerie! I am a terrible cook except if I really really try and have a good recipe.
I’m not lucky enough to have my own family but I have 2 grand nieces I get to spend some of Christmas with. I am into consumables as gifts. The materialistic consumerism of the season is out of control and with 10 adults- Santa, Grandparents, aunts & uncles those 2 kids get a bunch of chinese crapola.
I found the cutest idea, because I am incapable of making a sugar cookie-not kidding – I found a cookie kit with pre-made cookies with all the fixins that you decorate. I plan to spend the time decorating these cookies at Christmas with my family & young nieces, a much more rewarding a cherished experience than getting a bunch of junk they don’t need.
I am saving your recipes for my annual cookie party – where I actually will attempt to make a cookie ;0
God Bless & Merry Christmas Treepers
Those are great, Costco used to have a kit with 5″ tall gingerbread men and when they discontinued it one of my customers had me bake some for her.
I saw an ugly sweater prebaked cookie and decorations kit at Wal-Mart a few years ago.
Pure joy as my grandchildren and I built a couple of gingerbread houses together. One fully collapsed when the 2 yr old tried to press in the candies with all her might. At least one is still standing. I fully cheated this year and bought a couple of kits. I used to make them from scratch. My grandkids pull the long bench from the dining room table into the kitchen so they can all stand on it and help make things in the kitchen. Flour usually goes everywhere; I have to watch to make sure little fingers don’t get caught in the mixer; and of course they get to taste whatever we are making. Precious moments.
My all-time favorites are butter cookie cut outs from the Land O’ Lakes butter recipe with frosting made from powdered sugar & milk (somewhat transparent) and a variety of sprinkles.
Start with them and let them experiment with cooking with they are young and they will be great cooks when they are older. My three granddaughters are here and they just finished the dishes. Ages 2, 4 and 6. Yeh, they made a mess, but not quite as bad as last week. They are learning. Cookies are a “let’s use every dish” experience” at this age, but they are getting better at it. We are using the easiest recipes to make it simple.
I may do a “Snowman Soup” (hot chocolate / marshmallow craft) for my youngest niece (https://www.glorioustreats.com/snowman-soup/).
Thanks for the cookie info!
And while on the subject of cooking; a while ago there was a thread about nifty kitchen gadgets. I did not have time to respond then but I do now.
Handheld Foodsaver vacuum sealer!
Small footprint on your counter, does the same job as the big boys. Requires special vacuum seal bags but the trick there is wrap the food in a super cheap plastic bag before putting it into the vacuum bag. Often the vacuum bag never gets soiled, and they are easy to wash clean for reuse. I hang them over potato mashers etc on my counter to air dry. Bags can be reused several times this way.
Anther trick is when you have an extra bloody steak in there hold the bag vertically up against the fridge or wall with the vacuum extraction circle up high. Keeps the blood out of the device. Getting juices/water up into the device will kill it, which is why it has a clear cleanable inspection chamber on the bottom. Keep an eye on that if there is a chance some juices got sucked up.
Great for freezing meats and preserving cheeses!