Gingerbread Days

One of my favorite things about this time of year are the wonderful winter stories that emerge from our back closet and from the library shelves. Two family favorites are the Gingerbread Boy, by Paul Galdone, and Jan Brett's version, Gingerbread Friends.

Gingerbread Friends is particularly engaging because of the gingerbread cookie recipe that lines the borders of its pages and invites us to follow along and create our own batch of gingerbread men each year around this time. We started our December gingerbread-making tradition when my oldest was three, and at the time I came up with a little song that we continue to sing each time we make these cookies, sung to the tune of "Jingle Bell Rock:"

Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread man,
Gingerbread man, oh, gingerbread man,
We roll you, we pat you, we bake you today,
We hope you come and play!

Holiday cookie-making is such a fun and delicious way to celebrate the season and involve our children in new family traditions. Happy baking!