Eat Christmas Cookies, A Food Blog(ga) Event

This Just In! You now have a chance to win Sherry Yard's new cookbook by participating! Click here for details.

See the regularly updated cookies here.

One of the disadvantages of living in Southern California is that it never feels like Christmas, even at Christmas. When my mother came from Providence one December, she noted, “They have Christmas lights on the palm trees out here.” “Of course,” I replied, “where else would they put them?” “Well, that’s just silly if you ask me,” she added.

She has a point. Sparkling palm trees just don’t have the same effect as those big old-fashioned multicolored lights peeking through the snow on pine trees and holly bushes.

There must be something programmed in me though, because as soon as the sky turns grey and the air has a chill (as it does today), I inexorably start lighting Home for the Holidays candles and sorting though Christmas cookie recipes.

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the Charlie Brown Christmas special or eating cookies. Like Charlie Brown says, it’s not about who has the shiniest Christmas tree (or Lexus as it were), it’s about the true meaning of Christmas -- eating. Well, more like the warm feeling you get inside, as when you share and eat Christmas cookies.

So, find your Traditional Holiday Music Channel, light your Christmas candles, and start baking. Beat your egg whites into stiff peaks of snow. Dip your cookies in chocolate so shiny smooth you could ice skate on it. Then send them to me. Well, don’t actually send them to me, send them to your mom or your son or your neighbor. Then send me the link.

Click HERE to see the cookies, updated regularly.

Here’s how you can participate:

1. Post about a Christmas cookie from now through December 24th at midnight PST. Please try to send them by December 17^th because I will be posting your recipes as I receive them; the earlier you send them, the more likely someone else will see your recipe and try it before Christmas.

2. Within the post, please link to http://foodblogga.blogspot.com and to http://foodblogga.blogspot.com/2007/11/christmas-cookies-from-around-world.html
and place the Eat Christmas Cookies logo.

3. Email your entry to foodblogga [at] yahoo [dot] com, and put Christmas Cookies as the subject. In the e-mail please include:

• Your preferred name
• Your blog’s name and URL
• The URL of your entry
• The name of the cookie
• Where you live
• If you’d like a picture to accompany your entry, then please attach a photo of your cookies.

4. Don’t have a blog but would like to participate?

(That means you Cheryl and Auntie Diane)

No problem. Just email me your name, location, recipe, and brief description or story about the cookies. Please attach a picture to the email if you’d like it to accompany your recipe, and I will post it to the website.

5. Questions? Email me.