The 11th Day of Christmas with Jill Savage of Hearts at Home
Welcome to the 7th annual 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!!!
12 Days.
12 friends guest posting sharing a Christmas idea, recipe or favorite with you.
12 great giveaways for you to enter along with one GRAND PRIZE for someone who comments to enter all 12 days!!
Today’s guest is my dear friend Jill Savage.
Jill Savage is an author, speaker, and Founder and CEO of Hearts at Home, an organization for moms. The upcoming Hearts at Home conference will feature keynote speakers Lysa TerKeurst and Dr. Gary Chapman as well as dozens of practical workshops. Jill’s books include the bestselling No More Perfect Moms, Real Mom…Real Jesus, Living With Less So Your Family Has More, and No More Perfect Kids. A mother of five and Nana of 3, Jill and her husband Mark make their home in Central Illinois.
Jill writes about faith, family, motherhood, and marriage. To receive encouragement from Jill, you can subscribe here to receive her emails and when you do you’ll receive a free printable of I Corinthians 13 for Parents from her No More Perfect Kids book.
And now here is my good friend, Jill, to tell us How To Successfully Bake Cut-Out Christmas Cookies with your Children.
I’ve been baking Christmas cookies with my kids for 29 years. Through many disappointments and trials and errors, I’ve finally learned how to do it well at every stage of mothering. Let me share my secrets with you!
Here’s the recipe I use:
Christmas Cut-Out Cookies
1/2 c. Crisco
1 stick butter
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
3-1/2 c. of flour (I usually add more until the dough isn’t sticky)
Chill 1 hour. Roll 1/4? thick with rolling pin. (I disinfect my kitchen island and roll the dough right on the counter top. Make sure and flour the surface you are rolling on and flour the rolling pin–just rub flour all over it–so the dough doesn’t stick)
Use cookie cutters for shapes. Bake 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes until shine is off (do not overcook–you don’t want them brown on the edges)
Icing
2 sticks butter (softened–I leave the sticks on the counter for about 30 min)
4-1/2 – 4-3/4 c. powdered sugar (I usually add more until it peaks when you mix it)
1/2 c. milk
1-1/2 tsp vanilla or peppermint (we use peppermint!)
Beat butter to fluffy and add 1/2 of the powdered sugar. Add milk and vanilla and rest of sugar. Divide into smaller bowls and add food coloring as desired (we usually do red, green, blue, yellow, and white)
Note: Cookies can be frozen either before icing or after icing, if you want to decorate or eat at a later time.
Here’s how to successfully make cut-out cookies with kids of any age:
Preschool Years:
1) Day 1: You make and chill dough while they are napping.
2) Day 2: You cut out and bake cookies while they are napping.
3) Day 2 or 3: You make icing and ice the cookies
4) Your preschooler can put sprinkles on while the icing is still wet.
5) Enjoy eating, giving away, and sharing the yummy cookies you made!
Grade School Years
1) You make and chill the dough
2) You roll out the dough and let them use the cookie cutters to cut out the shapes
3) You put them in the oven.
4) Once all the cookies are cool, the kids and you can ice them and decorate with sprinkles. (this can also be done on the next day if cookies are stored in an airtight container.)
5) Enjoy!
Note: Grade school years is a great time to teach your kids to make cookies from scratch. Since Christmas cookies have five parts to them–1) making the recipe 2) chilling the dough 3) rolling the dough and cutting the cookies 4) baking the cookies 5) decorating the cookies—I find this isn’t the best time to teach them to bake. The process is too long and they are impatient to get to the cutting out and decorating. Teach them to follow a recipe some other time with something like Chocolate Chip cookies or Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that you just mix up, bake, and eat!
Teen Years
1) You make and chill the dough (if you have a teen that wants to do that, let them!)
2) You show them how to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, then let them do it themselves!
3) You help with the baking.
4) Enjoy decorating the cookies with your family!
Even when the dough is already made and chilled, it’s usually about a 3 hour process to roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, bake, and decorate them. That’s why I’m a believer in already having the dough made and chilled no matter the age of the kids!
Once I bake and decorate cookies with my kids, I want to sit back with a book and a cup of tea!
And now……The Giveaway:
Jill is giving away this wonderful “Christmas Cookie Recovery Gift Basket” that includes all kinds of goodies like: signed copies of No More Perfect Moms and No More Perfect Kids, two Charlene Baumbich books, a No More Perfect Moms video curriculum DVD, a Fatherhood Rocks thermal cup, and a Hearts at Home mug.
After you bake those cookies you can sit back and enjoy a little “me” time!
What about you? What holiday baking traditions does your family have? Tell us about it in the comment section for a chance to win Jill’s giveaway.
When I was little my mom involved me in making all of the Christmas cookies and treats. I’d have jobs like breaking up nuts, measuring out chocolate chips, etc. My babies are still really young, but I do like to make a graham cracker Gingerbread house with my son. He loves the decorating part.
We bake Neiman Marcus cookies each year!
Every year we make divinity and our family from out of state makes gooey butter cookies and mails a box of them to us. We look forward to it every year!!
Pecan tassies are my favorite, tiny pecan tarts.
We have certain cookies we absolutely HAVVE to make each year. We can add others, but there are certain ones that need to be made that remind ud of family and are our “tradition”.
Uh, baking and I don’t mix….unless it’s very easy stuff! :)
My mom, sister and I try to get together to bake Christmas goodies when schedules allow. It is usually a little chaotic, but always a ton of fun!
Making sugar cookies, cutting them out with Christmas cookies cutters, and decorating them with all different cookie stuff.
My family doesn’t have a cooking tradition, it may be time to start one????. I traditionally have pecan pies(my husband says they will beat anyone else’s, lol) and pecan brittle. I don’t usually do it at other times, but his and my parents expect it. Thank you for sharing the recipe for those cookies, I’ve been looking for that icing! Have a blessed CHRISTmas,
Every year that I can remember, we have decorated cookies with my grandma. This year she had some pretty major health problems, so I don’t know if we will be able to. I hope to continue baking cookies and treats with my kids, and at least we are able to bring some to share with her. That she is still here to enjoy them is a gift by itself for me!
We never mastered the art of cutting out cookies. So we do the bark covered yummies – pretzels, Ritz crackers with p-nut butter and graham crackers with marshmallow cream! Fun to make and Fun to share.
Each year my mom, sister and myself get together to bake. We make large quantities of chocolate covered peanut butter balls. Everyone’s favorite!
Pound cakes, I make them for gifts although I recently discovered my mom’s butter cookie recipe, so have been making those as well.
I always have to make my grandmother’s 100 year old recipe for Applesauce cake with warm vanilla custard sauce. :)
We have not started a baking tradition, but since this year it is just my daughter and i, these cookies look doable! Merry Christmas!
Love the baking tradition at Christmas. I grew up baking with my mom and now my kids and I continue that tradition. We usually start a few weeks before Christmas and usually make about 12 different kinds.
Our Christmas tradition is to bake Christmas cookies and give to friends and family. It is a fun time for all…
Unfortunately my cookie baking consists of the premade rolls from the grocery store. Makes me sad. I really want to have the time to make them from scratch.
My mom made tons of cookies when I was growing up. This year I decided to start baking Christmas cookies too, but I wanted to try just one basic recipe that would be good. I saw a sugar cookie recipe in The Washington Post, + I decided to try that one. The cookies came out great! I have a toddler at home, so it ended up taking me one day to bake + one day to decorate. I wasn’t expecting it to take 2 days. The cookie timeline you wrote here also says to take 2 or 3 days during nap time with a toddler, so now I feel good about it!
Our family bakes cookies and then does a cookie exchange. We end up with a great variety. We end up sharing the various cookies throughout the Christmas season.
We make fudge, pies, cookies and cakes. Our favorites are pecan fudge, pecan pies, pineapple coconut cookes and whipping cream pound cake! Yum! My grandmother always had a smorgasboard of sweets. Every child and grandchild had their ‘favorite’ sweet represented. What a fete for one person to create! There were 13 in the family.
It is so much fun to bake alongside my mom. We moved this year and are not able to go home, but they will be coming here after Christmas. I can’t wait!
Blessings,
KK
Each year I make my hubby (43 years) a fruitcake. Peanut balls for me, sausage balls for my daughter, gingerbread for my granddaughter, Mac and cheese for my grandson, and pies and cakes for my son in law are all in the plans for the holidays. I host a sweet exchange/brunch every year, so we have a variety of cookies to enjoy. It is my favorite time of the year and we enjoy so many activities with the church and community.
We love spending time together baking at Christmas time every year. :)
When my boys were little we would bake cookies every afternoon for a week. I am looking forward to continuing this with my grands! Since they are 4 & 3 it will start with simple things – but the time spent together and the pictures that we take are priceless!
Every year we get together with my girlfriend and her daughters, my sisters and their children to do all our Christmas cookies & candy, last year we narrowed it down to some of our favorites, chocolate covered PB Ritz, Buckeye’s, sugar cookies, Chex mix, puppy chow, Russian tea cakes. And we make platters for everyone one know.