Wednesday 16 December 2009

No Cards, Just Cookies



I know that I am not alone in this as The Dotterel at Bringing Up Charlie blogged about it too.  I HATE CHRISTMAS CARDS.

Yep, I shouted.  It possibly stems from the fact I am a Christmas baby and I would rather have my measly few birthday cards up instead of Christmas cards. This issue with cards has grown year on year, especially as I have to write most of them.



It was fine when I worked, I would send out an e-mail saying Merry Christmas and that we wouldn't be sending out cards, but donating to the NSPCC instead.  MadDad still does this with his work colleagues now.



But it seems that sending cards at school is a big thing, both Mini and MaxIiMad have brought home masses of cards.  Now not only do I have anywhere to put them, but the boys cant read who they are from anyway and show no interest in sending any of their own.




So, we decided, well I decided and they had to go along with me, that we would make cookies for the teachers to hand out instead of cards. 

Ingredients

  • 345g plain  flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • half tsp baking powder
  • 225 g butter, softened
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream butter and sugar together and then add the rest, this will make a very loose dough.  You can either pop in the fridge for an hour and then roll and use cookie cutters or use soft by spooning on to the tray.


Bake at 180 degrees for approx 7 minutes or the cookies are golden.  They will seem quite soft, but as soon as they cool they are hard and crispy.



They went down a treat, now to convert the rest of the world that we do not need Christmas cards.



You could also decorate them too, I bought some coloured writing icing in tubes a while ago in Aldi and the boys and MadDad spent one evening this week decorating some too.



The boys had a lovely time, yes most of the icing went straight in to their mouths, but it is Christmas after all!















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9 comments:

Suki-Lou said...

Nice....they look really yummy...am so gonna bake sone of those for my big Xmas family party :). Thanks for the inspiration!

Floss said...

Fantastic card alternative and what fun the boys had! I used to take one card and a huge box of homemade (well, Ben-made) fudge into school each Christmas. I hate the waste of paper, as well as time, for people you see anyway. Posting to people you don't otherwise see is more logical, but this year I am creating a private Christmas blog and inviting friends and family to view that instead of a card/letter. I'll see how it works out before making it a tradition!

whoatemycrayons said...

I am so with you on the anti-cards at Christmas. Miss Crayons has been given 40+ from playgroup. Seriously, she's 4 years old to get a card with a from "such and such" means absolutely nothing to her. Now, icing decorated edibles are another matter....

The Coffee Lady said...

I just decided not to send them. I didn't even bother with cookies either. Ha.

BadPenny said...

well this is above and beyond the call of duty ! Your energy amazes me !

They had a Christmas post box at the kidz primary to exchange cards. Yes - some wrote cards for every class member regardless of whether they were friends or not !!!

I've scaled down my list considerably this year !

Don't you just love The Coffee Lady's cynicism ? I do !

Almost Mrs Average said...

I wish you were at my school. Would have loved to have had one of your cookies. My kids have been bringing home so many cards, we just haven't got any room and for them. This is the third year in succession I have become more dispirited with this tradition. Yesterday I gave our PTA a cheque as a donation to our school funds - call it guilt money if you like but as we've not sent a single card to anyone at school this year and have wittled down the general list, I'd much rather the school have the money we've saved. :-D Karen@therubbishdiet

Glowstars said...

I'm sure the cards are the worst part of Christmas. I've slimmed down my list as much as possible but it's the boy's classmates that are the worst. At least this year I managed to get the husband to sit down and do the cards with him.

Perfectly Happy Mum said...

What a great idea! I was amazed by the amount of cards Elliott got from Preschool! I wasn't going to write any apart for the teachers, but I felt bad as I obviously didn't want my son to be the only one not giving cards. Not that anyone would have noticed I am sure... anyway the cookie alternative is brilliant. Will try next year :)

Mary Poppins said...

Ohooo what a fantastic idea, one for next year methinks. Glad you like the umbrella tis rather cute, the colours of the planes are quite girly I suppose but doesn't bother me or my little boy ;) Amazon is where I got them :)

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