Christmas cookies, a delicious tradition

Christmas is a season of traditions, a time of family and reflection. A time of peace and love – supposedly. One tradition that spans cultures and generations are Christmas cookies. Cookie exchanges have been a part of the Christmas season since the Middle Ages, and made their way to American shores in the 17th century. Along the way, the tradition has been tweaked and changed, but some things remain constant.
In fact, some of the most popular Christmas cookies are the simple ones.

Butter cookies – the kind that melt in your mouth when made right – have a special place in Sarah Mazur’s heart.

Mazur, who like many Ruidoso residents came here from Texas, remembers the cookies her mother would make for the holiday season. “My Mama made what she called tea cakes, just plain butter cookies that would melt away in your mouth,” Mazur said. “We’d eat them out of the box as fast as they were fixed. They don’t last.”

For Pat Walshe, her favorite is the gingerbread.

“Pretty basic really, but I always enjoyed having the family around to help decorate them,” Walshe said. Walshe – a retired piano teacher who still takes in the occasional student in Ruidoso – had a thriving teaching business in El Paso, where she had a very special cookie tradition.

“When I was teaching 50 students a week, I always had a Christmas open house,” Walshe said. “The students could come, play one of their Christmas songs and it was a very informal setting. “To get ready for that, I would start making Christmas cookies, one or two different kinds a week,” she added. “I just enjoyed that every year so much.”

Making cookies for a solid month – she would freeze them to keep them fresh until the gathering – might have been torture for her family, who wouldn’t be able to eat them. But Walshe said she couldn’t be that cruel. “Oh, they got to taste them,” Walshe said. “Plus, me! I wanted to eat them, too!”

For Mazur, having a cookie exchange became a tradition as well. “It helps immensely as far as time,” Mazur said. “But it’s also a fun, festive way to share with others. When you come home, you’ll have a variety of nationalities and traditions.”

—Todd Fuqua