Our Favorite Christmas Tradition: Cookie Day
One of my family’s most cherished Christmas traditions is what we call Cookie Day. Today, I’m sharing some details on the tradition, along with our official 2024 Christmas cookie list!
If you’ve been around for past holiday seasons, then you’ll know that Cookie Day is a big deal around here. Every year, I share the list of cookies my kids and I plan on baking and I document the entire thing over on Instagram stories. It’s truly my favorite tradition we have, and my oldest ranks it right up there with Christmas Eve when he’s talking about his favorite days in December.
Ok, But What IS Cookie Day?
Put simply, cookie day is a day where we spent the entire day baking Christmas cookies. We start right after we wake up, and we usually wrap up somewhere around dinner time. There are breaks for movies and sugar detoxes but for the most part, the entire day revolves around listening to Christmas music and baking our little hearts out.
This is something I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid and we’d go to a big family Christmas Eve gathering at my grandparents’ house, the dessert was always cookies. Everyone would bring a few different batches and we’d pile them up in the dining room and we’d spend the entire day (the entire week, really) grazing on them.
One of my most tangible memories from those Christmases at my grandparents is sifting through all the little tins of cookies. I remember peeking inside to find the ones I wanted, and sneaking a few extra when the parents weren’t looking. As a kid, seeing the piles upon piles of cookie tins was such a mind-blowing experience every year. Now, I can’t imagine eating anything but cookies for dessert in the days leading up to and following Christmas.
In order to get all of these cookies baked, my mom and sister and I would always spend hours in the kitchen one day shortly before Christmas Eve. We’d all have specific recipes we worked on throughout the day, but we worked together in my mom’s tiny kitchen. I was always so proud of the cookies I created! It’s one of those memories from my childhood that feels so achingly special and sweet that it’s always been incredibly important for me to replicate it with my kids.
So, we have Cookie Day! Every year, on December 23rd, we bake. And bake. Then, we bake a little more for good measure. It’s such a blast, and we all look forward to it all month long.
What Do You Do With All Those Cookies?
These days, we have far fewer people at our Christmas gathering than we did when I was a kid. So, for the most part, we give our cookies away! Half the fun of cookie day has become packaging them up and dropping them off with friends and neighbors. We still pack a few tins of cookies to take with us to my mom’s house for Christmas Eve, but about 3/4 of them are given away.
After the cookies have been baked, the kitchen is clean, and we’ve fed the kids some dinner (almost always takeout because my poor kitchen needs a break), Corey piles in the car with them and drives them around the neighborhood. They drop the bags off on our friends’ porches and run away!
Tips for Baking With Your Kids
I know. I hear you. Baking with your children can be exhausting. They’re messy and chaotic. They don’t listen. They fight. Truly, I get it. I think the first thing to keep in mind about this tradition is that it is not meant to be relaxing. I love baking when I need a mindless activity that feels soothing and calm. Cookie Day is not that. Cookie Day is more like unleashing Buddy the Elf on your kitchen. There’s sugar everywhere, egg yolk on the floor, and somebody is probably crying.
But, I promise you, it’s so worth it.
Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to help make things a little less, um, challenging.
- Practice! The more time you spend baking with your children, the better it will be for everyone. We bake together all year long, so my kids know the drill (and I know what to expect). If you only ever bake together on Cookie Day, you’re definitely going to be adding an extra layer of chaos to the day.
- Know what jobs they can do. I always head into each recipe with an idea in my head of what jobs I can give the kids. They love to measure out the dry ingredients, turn on the mixer, and get things from the pantry. I try to give them as many jobs as I can – it takes longer, but they stay happier!
- If you can, split up! If your kids are old enough, I find it’s easiest to put each kid in charge of a recipe. Then, you can bounce between them monitoring and helping as needed. This works best if all of your kids can read! If they’re not there yet, it might be easier to stick together.
- Embrace the mess. And have some extra ingredients on hand. I started letting the kids crack eggs when they were about 3. Do they inevitably break a few all over the counter? Yes, yes they do. But you’d be surprised at how quickly they get the hang of it! Just go into it knowing that it’s going to be a mess, and let it be okay.
- On that note – clean alone! I’m a huge proponent of teaching your kids how to clean after cooking. HOWEVER, I’ve learned that when it comes to cookie day, we all stay saner if I kick them out of the kitchen when I clean. I like to clean as we go, so as we finish up a batch of cookies, I’ll have them leave the kitchen for 10-15 minutes while I straighten up. It also gives me a minute to just embrace some silence. And calm. Trust me, it’s helpful.
- Blast some music and keep a good attitude! And finally, I think one of the most important things you can do is just tell yourself you’re going to have a great attitude, turn on some Christmas music, and lean into the chaos. When it comes to baking with kids, I promise that half the battle is your own attitude. If you can keep a good mood, the entire day will go a lot smoother. Promise.
Our 2024 Cookie Day Recipes
And, of course, that brings us to the big reason we’re here – what recipes are we baking this year?! I’ve been sharing our cookie list here on the blog for a few years now, and I always hear from some of you who enjoy baking along with us. It’s become a bit of a thing. So, without further ado – the 2024 Christmas Cookie List!
Here’s what we’ll bake in the weeks leading up to Christmas (read about our activity advent calendar for more on this!):
- Decorated Sugar Cookies
- Vanilla Hot Chocolate Molten Cookies
- Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles
- Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies
And here’s what we plan to make for Cookie Day 2024:
- Holly Jolly Santa Cookies
- Lemon Snowball Cookies
- Oreo Truffles
- Christmas Monster Cookies
- Pinwheel Cookies
- Classic Peanut Butter Blossoms
If you’re looking for a fun tradition to start with your family this year, I think this one is always a winner! I’d love to hear what’s on your baking list this year, too!