Christmas Traditions

I won't deny that I absolutely love the holiday season. Maybe it's because I was in a childrens chorus for so many years and we started practicing carols in early October, or because my father painstakingly crafts his wonderfully eclectic mix CDs of Christmas music instead of cards every year, or because I agree with my mother that white lights just look pretty in house windows any time that it's cold outside. Even though I shudder to see all that plastic glitz show up in department stores as soon as Halloween's over, I will admit to being a total sucker for holiday traditions, especially since most of my friends are old enough now to start creating their own. And of course, this includes food and drink.


As long as I can remember, my mother and I have pumped out a ridiculous amount of Spritz cookies every year to give to friends and family. I still break out the cookie press every year and distribute as many pink poinsettias and green Christmas trees as I possibly can. As soon as my fall semester night classes ended this month, our Somerville kitchen was transformed into a workshop for the mass production of baked goods. This year, I added one of my other old favorites - the thumb cookie - with Trappist Preserves (from Spencer, MA) including raspberry jam, ginger preserve, and orange marmalade.

In the past few years, my friends have also come to expect loaves of gingerbread and orange cake. The gingerbread recipe comes from my mother's Scottish side of the family, and she's done her best to translate it into American ingredients. I'm still not convinced I'm making it correctly, but everyone else seems to disagree with me, so I'll go with it. Gingerbread is almost a misnomer, since it's actually the obscene amount of molasses in this sucker that gives the distinct and addictive taste - my coworker commonly refers to this as "Molasses Crack Cake o' Death" and asks obsessively about it every year. The recipe is occasionally given out, but for the most part, I feel that it's too dangerous to provide for general use ;)

The orange cake, however, was my own new addition based on some random recipe I found after Chris and I first moved in together. I think it provides a nice, comparatively light contrast to the gingerbread.

It's Chris' family recipe, however, that takes the prize for addictive and dangerous - Grandma Wilson's eggnog. This recipe is also rarely given out, which is probably good for the rest of the world, and is traditionally the responsibility of the Wilson men to make. All you really need to know is that it involves almost a dozen eggs, a whole lot of dairy product and sugar, and about 3 cups of alcohol. Part of the fun of this drink is watching the unintiated get knocked silly by its strength, then spend at least 10 minutes using their fingers to scoop every little bit left in their glass.

But there's always room for more traditions, right? I've already got my eye on a few possibilities...well, maybe next year....