Fun for the Holidays!

Today’s edition is devoted to fun things to do over the holidays. We will continue to add to this post until January 2, 2025.

Want to submit your own fun activity? Use the Submit your event form and we’ll add to this holiday fun post (if appropriate, that is! LOL!)

Fun Activities

Christmas Crossword Puzzle
Christmas Word Search
Christmas Coloring Pages
Read about the Traditions of Christmas
Gingerbread Recipe
Find the Candy Canes

Christmas Crossword Puzzle

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To print, select the link below the image for a printable copy.

Christmas Crossword Puzzle pdf copy to print
Christmas Crossword Puzzle answers

Christmas Word Search

Christmas Word Search pdf printable copy

Christmas Coloring Pages

Click on the an image below for a printable pdf copy

Traditions of Christmas

Many of the traditions of Christmas that exist today were born centuries ago. The modern day traditions of exchanging gifts, bonfires, carnivals, songs of carollers which echo in the cities, huge feasts and many more have all originated from the time of the Mesopotamian. Most of these traditions began when the Mesopotamian started the New Year celebration. Some of the modern day customs and traditions of Christmas day celebration are:

Christmas Tree
Trees have been worshipped in many ancient cultures and quite often trees were brought at homes and decorated anticipating a good crop growth in the upcoming year. The Christmas tree of modern times was born in around 8th century while the German tribes was being converted by St. Boniface. The oak tree was worshipped by the tribe and St. Boniface cut a massive tree. In its place a fir tree grew and since then Christians started decorating the evergreen tree to celebrate Christmas.

Mistletoe
It is thought that mistletoe fell direct from heaven on earth and it grew in the form of a tree. It made people believe that it is the representation of union of earth and heaven. Mistletoe thus signifies reconciliation of God and the mankind. The mention of a kiss under mistletoe represents reception of God’s gift from heaven.

Santa Claus
Saint Nicholas a saint of 4th century was a bishop and favourite of children who used to distribute gifts. 6th December his day of feast day started being observed as children’s holiday and was called Saint Nikolaas in Holland. Since the English were not able to pronounce this name they started calling him Santa Claus and started celebrating it on Christmas. In Germany Santa Claus was called Kriss kringle and started celebrating the day on 25th December commemorating the birth of Jesus.

Holly
Holly, having sharp edges worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion, is one of the most significant symbols of Christmas day celebration. It is symbolises crown of thorns and the red berries symbolises blood.

Yule Log
The Chaldeans mean infant when they say “Yule”. The Germanic tribes celebrated Yule day or child’s day. The tradition of Yule log started in Italy and France sometimes 1200 years back. People used to cut huge massive log and place them in the hearth. And later the log thus cut is speckled with oil, salt and wine. It was believed that saying prayer with these logs would protect the household from evil spirits.

Candy Canes
It is believed that the Candy Canes were developed to represent Jesus. The “J” shape represented Jesus. The white colour therein sis the symbol of purity and the red stripes are the representation for blood.

Christmas Cards
The tradition of wishing Christmas by sending cards to each other began in Victorian England. Printers of London Goodall and Sons started to produce Christmas cards in bulk. A card wishing “Merry Christmas” was first fabricated in 1862. They later on designed various cards having various designs like snowmen, mangers, holly and robins.

Gingerbread Recipe

December 25, 2024 by Madi Ryan

Every year for Christmas, my mom and I make a gingerbread house and cookies to give to our neighbors. We usually make gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies, plus one other type of cookie. This year we made gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies and lemon bars.

We give these to our neighbors and businesses in town like the library, post office, Heirloom Shop, Skateland and the firefighters. I Always love giving out delicious cookies we made with love and flour.

Do you know why Gingerbread cookies are shaped like people? It’s primarily because of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who helped with popularizing the practice of making gingerbread figures in the likeness of her court members and visiting dignitaries, thereby essentially creating “gingerbread men” as a form of culinary entertainment at royal feasts. This association with the human form stuck and became a tradition with gingerbread cookies.

Nowadays, we do even more fancy stuff than decorate our cookies, we make houses! We could make Christmas trees, castles, pyramids, or basically whatever we want out of the gingerbread. Making things as complicated or simple as desired.

For me we have specific cutouts that we use for the gingerbread house. We have a tree template and a template for each side of our house, including the roof. I love decorating gingerbread houses! It’s always so fun decorating with different candies and icing, like M&M’s, licorice, jelly beans, and Nerds.

You can buy gingerbread molds entirely made of metal or plastic. Old gingerbread molds were actually made of wood and carved by hand. I don’t know exactly how long these would take to make, but probably days and days depending on the size and how difficult the design is. A smaller one with a really complex design would probably be really difficult to make.

You can actually still find and buy some of these molds today. Depending upon what mold you get, the price obviously varies. I did find a listing on Amazon for a wooden one for seven dollars. This one may not be the best quality but if you really wanted to try one out you could probably also find them on Etsy or eBay.

Gingerbread is also prominent in fairytales like Hansel and Gretel and the Gingerbread Man book. And those are just fairytales! You can also find them in cozy mysteries like Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Lesli Meier, and Laura Levine. This book has three different stories in it which is why it has three authors. The title story in the book Gingerbread Cookie Murder is a Hannah Swinson mystery and is one of my go to book series.

I won’t spoil the book for you, but I definitely think you should check it out! I hope you enjoy this week’s recipe, and I hope you check the book out. You can find it at our local library, on Overdrive or simply search for it online. Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies Ingredients

3 and 1/2 cups (440g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon ground ginger (yes, 1 full Tablespoon!)
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
10 Tablespoons (142g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
2/3 cup (160ml; about 200g) unsulphured or dark molasses
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Set it aside.
In another large bowl, using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar and molasses and beat on medium high speed until combined and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Next, beat in egg and vanilla on high speed for 2 full minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. The butter may separate but that’s ok.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick and slightly sticky. Divide the dough in half and place each onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Wrap each up tightly and pat down to create a disc shape. Chill discs for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this cookie dough. I always chill mine overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set them aside.
Remove 1 disc of chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator. Generously flour the work surface, as well as your hands and the rolling pin. Roll out disc until 1/4-inch thick. Tips for rolling—the dough may crack and be crumbly as you roll – what’s helpful is picking it up and rotating it as you go. Additionally, you can use your fingers to help meld the cracking edges back together. The first few rolls are always the hardest since the dough is so stiff, but re-rolling the scraps is much easier. Cut into shapes. Place shapes 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Re-roll dough scraps until all the dough is shaped. Repeat with the remaining discs of dough.
Bake cookies for about 9-10 minutes. If your cookie cutters are smaller than 4 inches, bake for about 8 minutes. If your cookie cutters are larger than 4 inches, bake for about 11 minutes. My oven has hot spots and yours may too, so be sure to rotate the pan once during baking time. Keep in mind that the longer the cookies bake, the harder and crunchier they’ll be. For soft gingerbread cookies, follow my suggested bake times.
Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once completely cool, decorate as desired.