Seeing a cookie tin around the holiday is one of the most exciting presents of all.  Your first thoughts when you see it are what delicious cookies are inside?  Then when you open it all the memories of Christmas come rushing back.  Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, buttery spritz, thumbprints, snowballs, sugar cookies the list just goes on.  All the old time favorites you remember from year after year.   Step into my kitchen for the smell of cinnamon and fresh dough baking in the oven, I started baking a few days ago to fill my Christmas cookie tins that I will give to family and friends.  I will have all the old favorite cookies in the tin but this year but I am adding some different twists on some of these favorite cookies.  Oatmeal cranberry cookies dipped in white chocolate, peanut butter thumbprints with strawberry jelly, snowball cookies with a marionberry jam filling, buckeyes with honey pretzel peanut butter to name just a few.  I will be posting cookie and candy recipes for the next two weeks and maybe you can add some new cookies to your recipe box.  If you have any favorite family Christmas cookies send me the recipe, I would love to bake some.

Some fun facts about cookies:

• In the year 1871 cookie cutters became available for purchase being imported from Germany
• It is believed that the tradition of leaving milk and cookies out for Santa Claus began in the United States during the 1930’s
• The Dutch are considered to be the first to bring Christmas cookies to the United States in the 17th century
• German Lebkuchen, honey spice cookies are the ancestor of gingerbread
• Animal crackers are also rich in holiday tradition, Polish people would make large cookies in the shape of different animals