The holidays are upon us and while we are tempted with door-buster sales starting at 3 a.m., I turn my sights on special activities to countdown to Christmas. There are many special traditions we hold in our family, one of which is a Countdown to Christmas box I picked up at a Hobby Store when my kids were very young. It's a miniature cabinet with a little drawer for each day in December. Though I do put candy in the little drawers, I love to fill the box with notes about fun things to do.
As the kids have gotten older, our family life has become very busy. The days of hopping in the car on a weeknight with hot cocoa in travel mugs to look at Christmas lights are now nearly impossible. Between after school activities, homework and my high school freshman daughter being in the middle of her swim team season, I need to artfully plan activities for our countdown box as if I were coordinating the schedules of multiple Heads of State…..and keep the element of surprise! Not a small feat.
A favorite December activity for us is baking cookies together. It's a bit easier to work into the schedule and usually can find time on the weekend to try a few recipes. We love the classics, certainly the flavors of mint and cranberry are favorites but trying something new is something we do every year.
As soon as Thanksgiving passes I have an excitement about the season! This year I thought it would be fun to have a countdown to Christmas with cookie recipes; all of which are gluten-free. I'm sharing some favorites from Boulder Locavore, from other talented blogging colleagues and various sources around the web that have caught my fancy.
Another fun family activity we've loved in years past is building gingerbread houses. Fortunately they now come in kits as my only attempt at making one from scratch was an epic failure. A girlfriend and I were taking a Psychology of Creativity Class in college and for our final project we were going to build a Gingerbread House (we were allowed to do anything for the project; the guy who presented after us played his cello in a stairwell). Of course as will the planning of collegiates go, we did not look at the recipe until the night before it was due. Generally it is a four day process so we were stuck.
Over a bit of jug wine we desperately churned about a replacement project until settling on doing a finger painting of our feeling when realizing we’d not be able to make the Gingerbread House after all. As ridiculous as it sounds, we presented our plight in the most heartfelt delivery we could muster without laughing. It was received by our classmates in earnest reflection, studying our 'piece' as though it were a Rorschach print. Needless to say we got a good evaluation and were relieved our college did not have traditional grades.
I thought it would be a fun culmination of the Gluten-Free Christmas Cookie Countdown to facilitate a lucky Boulder Locavore reader building a Gingerbread House. Not feeling sending blueprints and a jug of wine (and perhaps a finger painting kit) to a reader to try their hand, I'm giving away a Gluten-Free Gingerbread House Kit produced by A & J Bakery in Rhode Island which has a dedicated nut-free and gluten-free facility. Their kits come with the six sides of the house and allergen free candy and figures to construct and decorate the house! Ho, ho, ho!
24 Days of Gluten-Free Christmas Cookie recipes
- Chewy GingerSnaps
- Christmas Joy Bombs
- Buried Treasure Mint Brownies
- Gender-Neutral Gingerbread People
- Forgotten Cookies
- Chocolate Truffle Peppermint Kiss Cookies
- Holiday Sugar Cookie Bars - low carb, gluten-free {All Day I Dream About Food}
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies {Roxana's Home Baking}
- Gluten-Free Orange Almond Snowballs {Recipe Girl}
- Gluten-Free Linzer Cookies {the Culinary Life}
- Cranberry Ginger Butter Cookies - low carb, gluten-free {All Day I Dream About Food}
- Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Almond Bars {The Country Cleaver}
- Christmas Meringue Cookies {I Am Baker}
- Flourless Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies {Recipe Girl}
- Christmas Cake Mix Cookies recipe
- Gluten-Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cranberry Pecan Cookies {Family Fresh Cooking}
- Italian Almond Cookies {David Lebovitz}
- Chocolate Cherry Biscotti {BuzzFeed Food}
- Springerle {BuzzFeed Food}
- Chocolate Snowballs {The Mommy Bowl }
- Irish Oatmeal Sandwich Cookie with Coffee filling {About.com}
- Gluten-Free Spritz Cookies {Amy Green-Good Morning American}
- Glazed Chai Shortbread {Land-O-Lakes}
- Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies {The Kitchn}
Note: This is not a sponsored post but my gift to kick off the holiday season!
Photography note: The Gingerbread House photo is from iStock and is not the Gluten-Free Gingerbread House Kit being given away in this post.
Maureen O'Neal says
I’d LOVE a gluten free gingerbread house!
Gina Guthrie says
Gingerbread will always be my favorite Christmas cookie.
Angela says
Ah, this is a wonderful round up! I am a fan of classic sugar cookies and gingerbread.
David says
My sister sends me a huge box of cookies every Christmas. They are all very good and many of them are just loaded with different ingredients. One of them has cranberries in it. It isn’t necessarily my favorite holiday cookie, but is certainly one of the more festive in the assortment.
D SCHMIDT says
I really like Snickerdoodle cookies.
Kristen says
I love Jam Thumbprint cookies.
Kim Curtis says
Always the simple sugar cookie. Thanks for putting this all together in one place!
Toni Dash says
You are welcome Kim! It was fun to scour the internet and other blogger’s blogs for a fun assortment of cookies, all gluten-free to celebrate the season. No reason we should be left out, right?!
Denise Fedor says
We make dozens of different Christmas cookies each year. All Gluten Free now. We share without telling they are GF!
Toni Dash says
My feeling Denise is food that is good doesn’t reveal it’s gluten-free to the palette, why tell?! We are fortunate the GF food industry has gotten on board with so many options now of good tasting flours and other products so we aren’t outliers with our options.
Cindy Padgett says
I havent had the energy to build a GF gingerbread house that requires making the house! My daughter has been GF for most of her 21 years, so she never got to try it! I have been GF for 12 years as well. I have gotten really good at GF baking, but I would love to try this kit. I make at least 30 dozen GF cookies every Christmas, most to give away. I try to find someone who is recently diagnosed to make a special box of cookies. I know how hard it can be, but I want them to know GF cookies are every bit as good as the gluten ones :).
Toni Dash says
Well certainly Cindy I’m not the one to advise on building gingerbread houses as you got from my college story! Much easier if all the bits are there and it’s the construction and decoration (my favorite part). What a gem you are to bake so much and share with others who are GF. I have a post coming out on Monday about how one can feel so excluded by being GF especially during the holidays. It can be very isolating as those who don’t have to think about their food don’t really understand what it’s like. A gift of cookies to a newly diagnosed person would be huge; a true spirit lifter. You are a peach!
Colette says
My favorite Christmas Cookies are still sugar cookies cut out with Holiday shapes and decorated. I just love making them with my sweet little girl!
Toni Dash says
Me too Colette! My sweet girl is growing up way too fast but we love spending this kind of time together too.