Do you have any favorite holiday memories or traditions? One of my most memorable childhood Christmas traditions (that we still carry on with our children) was decorating sugar cookies with my family. On Christmas Eve, us children would spend hours designing masterpieces on cookie stars, trees, angels, reindeer, bells, and Santas. Then the next day Dad would judge the winners (among the ones that weren’t eaten by Santa of course!). His judging was based not only on the most beautiful, but also the ones that looked the tastiest, so sometimes the messy-looking ones would win out.
In addition to sugar cookies, some easy holiday favorites include microwaveable fudge (great for giving as gifts), reindeer cookies (pretzel antlers and M&M eyes & nose), and of course, gingerbread cookies and houses! Today I’ve gathered up some great deals for you on ingredients for these treats. Enjoy!!!
FUDGE
Everyone loves fudge. If you use a recipe for microwaveable fudge, your work time is less then fifteen minutes! Once cooled, cut it out with your knife or cookie cutter, wrap in some decorative cellophane, and you have a great gift for babysitters, teachers, neighbors, party guests, and anyone else who happens to stop by. There are variations, but some of the staples you will need are butter, chocolate, and either evaporates or sweetened condensed milk. Here are a few coupons guaranteed to decrease your cost per serving, especially if you’re able to double them at your local store:
Nestle Toll House chocolate 50 cents off two
Organic Valley butter $1 off 8 or 16 oz. butter
Carnation evaporated milk 50 cents off two
REINDEER COOKIES
one type of reindeer cookies, click here for the recipe
Reindeer cookies vary, but they all require M&Ms. Some (like the ones in the picture above) also require a chocolate coating. Here are some great deals on chocolate and M&Ms – but they are only available this week (through December 12)!
TARGET
Buy one get one free on 10 oz. Hershey’s candy cane kisses, 10.5 oz. Mars Minis Mix and other bagged candy.
$7.99 40 oz. bags of Hershey’s Holiday Kisses & 42 oz bags M&Ms.
WALGREENS
Wonka Exceptionals(8.5 or 9.5 oz.), 2/$6
(add even more savings by using the following coupon from your Walgreens December ad: $1.00 off of 2 Wonka Chocolate Candy (8.5 or 9.5 oz.)
GINGERBREAD COOKIES AND HOUSES
Gingerbread house (edibleart, flickr.com)
Gingerbread cookies are one of our very favorites. It is so much fun to make and decorate little gingerbread men and gingerbread women. Gingerbread is also nice to work with with young children, because there are no raw ingredients (like egg whites) that could be harmful to them if they decide to eat the dough. If you aren’t familiar with the Gingerbread Baby book, I highly recommend this cute twist on the Gingerbread Man story. After reading it, your children will be running to the kitchen to make gingerbread!!
Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett
If you’ve made a gingerbread house in the past, you know that although the dough itself doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, the decorations can. If you want to make a gingerbread house this year, consider using leftover candies from other recipes that you make (perhaps the reindeer cookies?).
Need help figuring out how to make a gingerbread house? Try Gingerbreadhouseheaven.com. In addition to great recipes, it has free templates, photos, steps to make, and decorating ideas.
If you’re like me and only need the recipe for the glue, check this one out. It is very tasty and simple and worked great for us this year.
Here are some of my tips for making your gingerbread experience solid, tasty and memorable – the kind of tradition you’d like to continue year after year:
TIPS FOR GINGERBREAD COOKIES AND HOUSES
1. Make the dough ahead. It’s just easier when you have small children, and gingerbread recipes require the dough to be refrigerated for at least two hours anyway.
2. For easier thawing, shape the dough into rolls and refrigerate in waxed paper.
3. Set the dough out to thaw for at least 15-30 minutes before rolling out.
4. Flour the surface before you or your children roll out the dough.
5. Place waxed paper down on any surface that will be near frosting. The frosting used to “glue” together gingerbread houses is more difficult to remove from surfaces than regular frosting.
6. If you have very young children you will want to glue the gingerbread house together before they work with it. The frosting “glue” will hold tight but it will need an hour to set before it will be strong enough to handle the pressure of little fingers adding decorations.
7. Take lots of pictures. The kids will want to remember this!
WALGREENS
Buy one get one free Russell Stover Sugar Free Candy (3 or 3.6 oz.)
