Holiday Cookie Swap: Recipes from Historic Newspapers

Do you have a favorite holiday cookie? Are you a sugar cookie person? Or maybe you prefer a chocolate peppermint cookie, or a gingerbread cookie dunked in a hot beverage? 

If you want to try a new recipe this year or expand your repertoire, consider these from past years in our historic digitized newspaper collection.*

Now, on to the recipes.

Here are a few from someone who is no stranger to cookie baking, Mrs. Tangeman, who begins baking 29 varieties of cookies for the Christmas holiday in early November. (A helpful tip from Tangeman: “Wherever nuts are called for, always grind them a day in advance to help get out the oiliness.”)

A recipe for spritz cookies is sure to “please youngsters.” (In my opinion, there is nothing better than coffee paired with a spritz cookie.)

These alfajores cookies, hamantaschen, and ginger nut cookies sound delicious. You could also try a tea cake, a butter cookie, or some springerle, hefenkranz, or kugelhopf.

How about kolacky (also spelled kolache or kolaczki) or my personal favorite, the malleable thumbprint? Here’s an economical opportunity: make two types of cookies from one recipe—more cookies for your buck. 

If you lean more creative-minded than culinary-minded, take inspiration from Mrs. LaGorce, whose handcrafted decorative sugar cookie figurines earned her a display at the U.S. Botanic Garden and the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. And if all else fails, try this recipe for “can’t fail caramels.”

Now, what do you do with all the cookies?

1. You could organize a cookie swap.
   
2. Pair your cookie du jour with some hot chocolate. Here are some tried-and-true tips for making your own.
3. How about packing some of them up to send to loved ones far away? In that case, consider these helpful tips published in the Mississippi Enterprise for those sending cookies to American service members abroad during World War II.
4. If you celebrate Christmas, you can use them to trim your tree. Or, why not make a holiday sleigh to hold them all?

*The Chronicling America historic newspapers online collection is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program and jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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