Oh, How I Love Cookies! Greetings! Hope your day was tinsel bright. Today Mrs. Claus had me try some new cookies... sugar cookies with those sprinkle thingies, gingerbread people with red hots for buttons, star shaped cookies with little silver balls, German cookies, Hungarian cookies, English biscuits, Scottish shortbread, Spanish cookies, cookies from Kenya, Egypt and Russia. No matter where I travel you set out your finest treats for me to taste! One of the special parts of flying around the world is that I get to sample so many different recipes, some are even special family recipes. Some of you put them on special plates, others just set it near the hearth. No matter how they are prepared, I know they are always prepared with love. It is a long way around the world and your cookies and treats always make me smile. Did you know that the earliest cookie style cakes are thought to date back the 7th century (the 600's) in Persia (now Iran). That was one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. Christmas cookies as we know them today, probably go back to Medieval European recipes. Lebkuchen (gingerbread) was probably the first cake/cookie to be traditionally connected with Christmas. Christmas cookies really began catching on during the 1500's in Europe. Norwegians made krumkake (thin lemon and cardamon scented wafers), German families baked up pans of Lebkuchen and butter Spritz cookies, Papparkakor (spicy ginger and black pepper delights) were favorites in Sweden. America saw the arrival of Christmas cookies with the Dutch in the 1600's, but things really changed in the 1930's with arrival of inexpensive Christmas shaped cookie cutters made of tin. Have I mentioned I LOVE cookies? So remember as you prepare this years Santa treat that I am REALLY looking forward to tasting all of your wonderful creations!! Be good, and say hello to someone that you don't really know.
Santa
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