The $56 Cookie

I went to the store last week and bought the fixings for making Christmas cookies. You know, sugar, chocolate chips, butter, coconut, nuts, and such. I threw a couple of other little things I needed into the cart, too. The total came to $56. When I got home, I realized that for $56, I could have bought a LOT of cookies. And they’d all come out perfect and I wouldn’t be left with an aching back.

So why do we women do this every year? Why do we feel it’s necessary to spend money and time baking something that we get scads of from other people? Right now, my house looks like cookie central. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll all get eaten one way or another. Now is the time to indulge so we can at least pretend we’ll keep our New Year’s Resolution of going on a diet.

I could no more not bake cookies at Christmas than I could not put up a small tree adorned with meaningful decorations or not thrill over every Christmas card that arrives or not listen to my favorite Christmas music, or not have twinkling lights inside and outside the house. Baking is part of the whole Christmas package. You leave out any one part and it diminishes the rest.

So, I’ll continue to spend a wad of money and a lot of time and an aching back on cookies I could much easier buy, because it is, after all, Christmas. And we do have to have something to serve our guests who are already trying to get rid of cookies like summer zucchini, don’t we?

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all my wonderful friends and family!