Christmas Traditions at Our House

Most of us are lucky enough to have participated in or become involved in creating a family tradition. Tradition is an action or event that is repeated time after time during a certain period or over the course of the year to mark the passing of time, a celebration or in some instances even a death. Tradition is what binds us together as a family, helps to create memories and assists in forming who and what we are to ourselves and even to the generations of family still to come. No matter where you live in the world, what race you may be or what religion you are almost everyone is involved with some form of tradition.

Our family has several traditions that we hold dear to, and none more so treasured than during the Christmas season. Some of our family traditions go back to my Mother's childhood. I have chosen to keep the ones that I find important and appealing and I have quietly let go of the ones that either made me uncomfortable or seemed just a tad to strange to pass on to my children.

Some of our most cherished traditions have been recently created due to a blending of families through marriage or necessity. The most spectacular thing about tradition is that you can create one when you feel it is appropriate. The only rule is that it must be done often enough to become important to you and the people that you routinely spend time with. Tradition gives us a sense of continuity and a feeling that all is right in the world. In our world of uncertainty, tradition gives us roots and a confidence that at least on occasion we know what to expect and can look forward to it because it represents familiarity.

When I was a little girl growing up in Ohio, one of our traditions was baking Christmas cookies. My Mom was a cook by profession and she made a wide variety of cookies. I remember many special times with her, watching as she measured and mixed dough and I took quite a lot of childish pride in using my artistic talents to help decorate many of those special cookies for the holidays. We made several kinds of cookies, cut out sugar cookies, a kind of cookie that my Mother used to call Foreign cookies, though I was never quite sure where they originated from to deserve the exotic name. These cookies are still a favorite in our house and are now being devoured by my six young grandchildren during the Christmas season.

In our house while I was growing up, we always left a plate with three or four cookies for Santa to eat along with a glass of milk. Back then we didn't worry about Santa's cholesterol or whether or not the old man might be lactose intolerant. We just left the cookies because we worried that with all of the presents he had to deliver he just might get hungry. He must have enjoyed the cookies because I don't remember one Christmas morning that the cookies were still on the plate. I still have a couple of the letters that my own children wrote to Santa, thanking him in advance for hoped for presents and wishing him a safe and speedy journey around the world.

My Mother also passed on the tradition of making what we just call "Nut-roll." Nut-roll was made from a yeast based dough, ground walnuts, combined with ground raisins and then formed into a long roll, after the dough was left to rise a second time it was baked in the oven filling the house with the heavenly smell of Christmas. Every year our traditional "Nut-roll" was made early on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning didn't or couldn't start until the "Nut-roll" was cut and passed around, especially to Mom who needed the hot cup of coffee that goes along with it. After Mom had her "Nut-roll" we could begin opening our presents. I enjoy opening my Mother's cook-book, looking at her familiar hand-writing and carrying on her special recipe for her now family famous "Nut-roll". The pages are stained with years of drips, sticky finger prints and the pages are creased and worn, but that book is special and will be passed on to one of my own children when I am gone.

During my marriage to my x-husband, who is of Mexican descent we added the tradition of making tamales. I learned first hand from my mother-in-law and sisters-in law who spoke no English how to make one fantastic tamale. We make tamales using chicken, potatoes, olives, raisins, tomatoes and a special sauce over masa, wrapped in corn husks and steamed until done. The tamales have outlasted the marriage but it is still a treasured and delicious part of the way we celebrate Christmas.

Our Christmas tree and decorations are another tradition that we keep alive in our family. I have two decorations on our tree that came from my childhood. The intricate bells are faded and cracked but no Christmas would be complete without the hanging of those special ornaments on our tree. I have collected over the years ornaments for each one of my four children, some were purchased, but the most special ones are the hand-made ornaments that are made from spray painted macaroni, complete with small thumb-prints formed into reindeer and Christmas trees. I have kept one special ornament from each of my children and have passed the rest back to them to use on their own family trees. I have also begun a collection for each of my grandchildren going back in some cases to the time when they were still comfortably inside their Mother. Each year there are exclamations and shared memories as each ornament is placed upon a branch in our tree.

Our family has grown over the years and now we have our family get together on Christmas Eve. We have a pot-luck dinner and participate in one of our most
recent family traditions. Our family is quite large now and there is quite a bit of cost involved in exchanging presents so we have developed our own special version of a gift exchange. During the year each of the adults look for a special gift to exchange on Christmas Eve. We find most of them at 99 cent stores or other discount centers. One of our rules is that the stranger and crazier the object , the better. We will each spend no more than a dollar or two at the most for the special gift. We each purchase and wrap our own gift, carefully guarding the objects identification. When we gather on Christmas Eve the wrapped presents are placed into a large, clean garbage bag. We then create a pot as a reward to whoever is voted to have the funniest or most outlandish gift. The pot is never more than a few dollars and occasionally some other small contribution, one year someone threw in a gift-card and a bottle of wine. The bag is passed around and each person pulls out a gift to be opened in front of every one during their turn. After much laughing a vote is taken and the winner of the most creative gift is chosen. The winner is the gift purchaser, not the receiver! The only other rule is that during the year the gift opened is to be displayed in some prominent point in the recipient's house, until the following Christmas. This tradition is one of our favorites.

Tradition is important and keeping with tradition I would like to share my Mother's recipe for her "Foreign Cookies" with you and I would also like to start a new tradition by wishing each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday.

Grandma Morgan's Foreign Cookie Recipe

1 package of cream cheese
1 cup of flour
1 stick of unsalted butter
Your choice of fruit preserves or jam, (strawberry and apricot are among our favorites). We also love maraschino cherries ground with walnuts and a bit of milk as a filling.

Mix softened cream cheese, butter and flour creating a dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and cut into small squares, re rolling as necessary. Use a small amount of filling on each square and fold over, pressing the edges together lightly. Bake at 350 degrees until the bottom edge of the cookie is a golden-brown. The dough will rise a bit and the filling will thin so use sparingly. Remove from cookie sheet and place on wax paper covered with confectioner's or powdered sugar. Dust the tops of the still warm cookies and enjoy.

This recipe doesn't make many cookies, so I usually triple it depending on the number of cookies desired.