Starting a New Christmas Family Tradition

For years I have been making gingerbread cookies, they are my niece's favourites and she requests them every year. Well, she's in her early twenties now, and she still runs to check and make sure her gingerbread cookies are in the box of cookies I take to her parents' house for our family get-together before Christmas. She takes some out, eats one and saves a few for for later so she doesn't spoil her appetite. Baking Christmas cookies (tons of them) is one Christmas family tradition that I have with my siblings and their children.

I wanted a family tradition that I could share with my children and grandchildren, so, at the request of my youngest grandson, Cameron, who is four, I am going to be baking and constructing Gingerbread houses for my family to decorate. They had a lot of fun decorating their houses last year and he asked a few weeks ago if we can do it again this year. But this year is going to be a little different. The adults had fun helping the kids last year, so I'm going to be making houses for them to decorate too. I make all of the buildings different, so they can take them home and set up their own little Christmas Village. Last year I built a church, a toy store, a house, and a schoolhouse, which the kids had a blast decorating.


I am going to be sharing my recipe for Gingerbread Cut-Outs which I use to make the houses in the Geneablogger's Winter Cookbook. I will be adding tips and tricks for baking and constructing as well as several decorating tips I've learned through the years.

If you have any recipes you'd like to share, they must be submitted before 11:00 pm on Friday, December 2, 2009 to be included in the cookbook. The Geneablogger's Winter Cookbook will be available at Geneabloggers the week of Dec.7th in PDF format.