Christmas Traditions 4 - The Sweets

I love how my mom's kitchen transforms into Candyland and Cookieville every year at Christmas. When we were growing up, my sister enjoyed helping with the baking, while I was more of the quality control tester and deliverer. We'd deliver the goodies--intricate tea breads and decorative containers filled with Spritz cookies, gingerbread cookies, English toffee, white chocolate covered pretzels, penuche nuts, and/or peanut brittle--to friends' houses just in time for Christmas Day gatherings.

I'm glad I grew up with that background because my workplace's gift policy prohibits the exchange of non-edible gifts. So over the years, I've made pretzel pops, Oreo truffles, thin-mint-like cookies, and Guenther House brownies. The most-requested are the pretzel pops, so that's what my co-workers received this year.

Personally, my mom's decorated gingerbread cookies are my favorite. I look forward to enjoying them when I go home for Christmas and to continuing the tradition of delivering more yummy sweets to friends and neighbors.

So what's your favorite holiday baked good? I'm always up for trying something new.