All Holiday Traditions Start with One Year

Think back to when you were a child. Chances are there is something about the holidays that you remember as your family's tradition. Something you did every year and started to look forward to months in advance. Are these traditions still alive in your family? If not, what are your children going to look forward to every year and look back on with memories that still bring a smile to their face decades in the future?

Every tradition starts with one year, followed by another, and then another. Nothing has simply been done forever. Over fifty years ago, the best tradition I can remember started in our family. It has evolved over time, but it is still a tradition and will hopefully be something that continues for years to come.

When I was a child, our family baked and frosted cookies from early the morning after Thanksgiving until sometime Sunday afternoon. The only cookies made ahead of time were gingersnaps, the white cutouts were started Friday morning, and when they were done then ginger cutouts could be rolled and baked. Most of us sat in the basement, frosting until our fingers were stained and aching.

Most of the time, my grandmother was upstairs with my dad and my uncle, rolling, cutting, baking, and stacking the cookies once they cooled. The kids took turns cutting them out with careful guidance from grandma. If we were lucky, we would get a nibble of the cookie dough. There's nothing special about the recipe, but they are the only cutout cookies I like.

Grandpa made all of the frosting. He passed away 13 years ago, but his memory lives on that weekend through the recipe card he held in his hand for so many years. It's yellowed, the ink is muddy, and there are food coloring stains on it, but it's part of the tradition. Again, it's not a magical recipe, but it's our family's recipe. The leftover frosting was frozen and taken out during visits to their house when we would put it on graham crackers or fried raisin bread.