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Cookies and more
Christmas is a time for children. It’s a time for all of us as adults to revisit the excitement of the season through the eyes of a child. Remember? The sights! The sounds! And the cookies! Oh, the COOKIES!!!
My mom and my grandma’s kitchens were bursting with all the wonderful aromas of cookies. My mom made the best sugar cookies, you know, the cut out kind. Stars. Trees. Candy canes. Santa Clause. Decorated with red and green sugar. The crumbly melt-in-your-mouth kind that cannot be savored properly without a glass of cold milk to wash them down.
And then there was my Grandma Corl (mom’s mom) who made the most scrumpdelicious raisin filled and sour cream cookies on the planet! And believe me I was there to not only scarf up any cookie dough I could sneak from the bowl before they hit the oven and the first one to steal one from the cooling rack when they were too hot to handle. Really! They made the best cookies.
And now there’s my wife, and frankly, she outshines both mom and grandma in the baking department. Her culinary skills are renowned in my neck of the woods. Mom and grandma have graciously passed the proverbial spatula to her to carry on the holiday baking traditions. And she’s added a few from her side of the family tree, like Russian tea cakes and cranberry nut bread. Toss in some chocolate crinkles, Danish puffs on Christmas morning that are to die for and yes, the much maligned fruitcake that is an out-of-this-world favorite of my kids and me, and you have a veritable smorgasbord of sweet delights around the Jackson household over the Christmas and New Year’s Day celebrations.
Cookies are part of the Jackson Christmas traditions that we look forward to with anticipation every year. But not merely because they taste sooooo good. While I’m certainly not denying that it’s true, traditional foods at special times of celebration provide a flavorful way to transport us back in time. Taste is a provocative memory stimulant. A simple flavor or texture can flood our minds with past memories–good or bad. We don’t have to think about it. We’re just there.
That’s what makes traditions so important. They are memory markers that transport us back and reconnect us with our story, like our family and where we grew up. They can reconnect us to the past that gives greater meaning to our present, a context for our stories. After all, how many times have you delighted in a meal together with family or friends and afterward sat around the table sharing stories? Remember? Some that made you laugh till your sides hurt, and others brought tears of fond memory as well as painful loss?
But there’s even more during the Christmas holiday celebrations than connection with our immediate past. There’s a connection with The Past, The Larger Story and our part in the continuing saga of God’s purpose for His people.
There’s the larger story of God’s redemptive invasion of our planet in the form of a helpless baby named Jesus. He is the ultimate occasion for our traditions and celebrations. I know it sounds trite, but it is nevertheless true: Jesus is the reason for the season.
Another of our traditions is to read the Christmas story together as a family from Luke 2:1-20 on Christmas Eve. We light candles, sing carols, and pray together, thanking God for the greatest of all gifts, His Son, Immanuel–God with us (Matthew 1:23). We want to remember and celebrate. Traditions help us do just that.
So, this year, as we’re fast approaching Christmas day, do you have any traditions that help you celebrate and to remember the ultimate gift of the Child that started the revolution of redemption that has been transforming individual lives for the last 2000 years? If not, maybe this is the year to start some in your home, in your church, and maybe even in your community.
Check out our discussion about the importance of building meaningful traditions for your family. They can be a source of incredible frustration or a wonderful bonding experience. Some are just fun while others are deeply meaningful and highlight rich spiritual realities. Check it out:
So, now that you’ve heard from us, what about you? Feel free to share some of the traditions from your home that have been meaningful to you. You just might help someone else establish a new tradition that could last for generations. But don’t worry, the cookies don’t last nearly that long at my house. 
Merry Christmas from the HelpForMyLife family here at RBC Ministries. And in the words of another more famous “Tim” . . . “God bless us every one.”
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A big farm style breakfast, watching football and telling jokes all at the same time.$:=)!
I started a tradition of sorts back when our two adult sons were about six and three.
That Christmas morning I overheard them asking each other what they had gotten shortly after we opened the gifts. I realized that both were so intent on opening their next gift that they had failed to even notice what there brother was excitedly unwrapping. I decided right then that something needed to change, so the next year I wrapped a small treasure map in a little box, which went into a slightly larger box, and so on. Five or six boxes in the beginning. That first year the treasure map was given to our oldest, since he was the only one who could read at the time. Christmas morning they began tearing into their gifts without a thought about the other, until big brother opened a box to find another empty box. By the third empty box he had attracted his little brothers attention. “What is it?” “I dont know, it’s an empty box.” “Well open that one!” Now little brother was helping open the empty boxes with great excitement. Finally, a treasure map. They scrambled away following the map, to find the long awaited gift. Later that day they were still talking about the empty boxes and treasure map leading to the gift. Little brother announced that he hoped he would get the empty boxes next year.
All these years later and with two more brothers joining the crew, the empty box is still the most anticipated event of the day. Who will get it? Christmas morning all eyes are on the one opening a gift. They have the floor and everyone watches with excitement and shares the joy over what they’ve received.
The question “What did you get?” has never been asked again. The most anticipated gift is always the smallest and least expensive, and everyone is excited for the one who receives the empty boxes. But there is some, “I hope I get it next year,” whispered around. It may be a matchbox car or a guitar pick, but that’s not the point.
This year it was our son(second oldest)who is home on leave from the Army. There was almost disappointment as gift after gift was opened by each of them, only to actually find a gift in the box. Finally, he opened a gift to find another wrapped box. “Yes!” was shouted by all of them. After getting to the final box and treasure map, commando boy took off rolling and pretending to shoot his way to the anticipated gift, to hoots and shouts of laughter as his three brothers followed behind. The gift? A bag of chocolate chips, because as he was growing up I never had a full bag when I went to make cookies.
And only twelve hours later, they’re almost gone.
Cindy,
That’s a sweet idea. It get’s the focus of just getting more stuff. And you started when the kids are young. I think that’s key. Now, even as they are all older, they all look back and remember with great fondness . . . and anticipation. And I’ll just bet that when their children arrive on the scene in each of their homes that someone’s going to get the empty boxes . . . and the tradition continues.