Every family has special holiday dishes; Aunt Mae’s sweet potato casserole, Grandma’s corn relish, or honey butter for biscuits. However, holiday dinners with my family are fairly basic. The food is good and there is plenty of it—always a salad or two, different vegetables, white and sweet potatoes, and stuffing to go with the turkey—but dinner is not the main attraction, and it is definitely not the main focus of the preparation. That is given to the various baked goods coming out of the oven almost continuously during the last two months of the year. Baking is the biggest holiday tradition in my family.

My mother and I decide in October what kind of pies to make for Thanksgiving and which to make for Christmas. We are only feeding eight or nine people at the average holiday meal, but we make almost that many pies because we can’t have just one of each kind. We make at least two pumpkin pies for each holiday, and two apple pies. Sometimes we have extra apples and make a third pie with crumb topping instead of crust. We discovered pecan pies several years ago, and Dad’s favorite is raspberry. We often thrown in something else to satisfy a new significant other joining us. We won’t freeze the pies, either.

They must all be made within the few days before the holiday so they are as fresh as possible. Of course, we don’t eat them all that day, but we each save room for at least one piece of our favorite. Pie is well worth forgoing that extra helping of potatoes or turkey and pies make tastier leftovers than turkey and stuffing!

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas the oven and kitchen counters are full of our secret family Christmas cookies. I have been offered money for the recipe (I don’t know how much it would take for me to actually give it up). For us, holidays would not be the same without these cookies, and my coworkers are starting to feel the same way. I am no longer allowed to the Christmas potluck without my cookies! They are the softest, sweetest butter/sugar cookies anyone has ever tasted. We make dozens and each cookie has to be frosted and decorated with sprinkles or colored sugar. The cookies are special because we only make them for Christmas. I made them once for another holiday and it just was not the same. I had to buy new cookie cutters, which wasn’t easy because not all kinds will work with this dough. The frosting colors and sprinkles felt all wrong, the weather wasn’t snowy, the tree wasn’t twinkling, and there were no carols playing. These are and will remain Christmas cookies.

We have other traditional baked goods as well: Swedish nut balls, chocolate cookie-press cookies, little green Christmas tree cookies. These are recipes we don’t make any other time of year. Other more common recipes that receive special attention during the holidays are our dinner rolls, made in various shapes, and our cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls are our traditional snack after returning from midnight mass; they tide us over on Christmas morning until all the gifts are opened and we make a real breakfast. My in-laws make cinnamon rolls from a can and don’t even do that right. That’s how I realized not everyone grew up knowing how to bake. My mother and grandmother can bake in their sleep and have passed on this talent to me and my four sisters. We grew up baking cookies and cupcakes in an EasyBake Oven over a light bulb. It didn’t take long for us to graduate to the real oven—and Grandma had two. She let us make cookies all summer whenever we wanted, which was almost every day. She just froze them and kept them on hand for family Sunday dinners (my cousins now number 35 and counting). I still remember the time my sister forgot to take the last sheet of cookies out of the oven. When we heated up the oven the next day, we discovered a dozen chocolate-chip dog biscuits. Such disasters were rare; usually it seemed like baking was in our blood. From cookies, we moved on to cakes, bread, rolls, and pies. By the time I was ten I could make a perfect flaky pie crust without even looking at a recipe. I still enjoy baking because it is such a multisensory experience—the tastes, smells, textures—they don’t call it comfort food for nothing.

Although many families do not bake as often or with the passion of my family, if you look around at holiday time you can still see nostalgia for baking. Some of the most popular Christmas smells are cinnamon, cloves, oranges, and cranberries. There are Christmas cookie-scented candles and apple pie potpourri. Baked goods are popular as gifts because recipients often do not have the time or the knowledge to make the treats themselves. I love holiday baking because it is a wonderful way to share holiday spirit.

Here’s a holiday favorite for your family, from mine.

Cherry-Peach Pie

©2002, Sue Styles, All rights reserved

Page last updated: 05/11/2005