With Christmas just around the corner, many find themselves getting excited and starting to feel that holiday spirit. It is a very hectic time of year where families are wrapping presents, decorating their house, and most importantly setting up their Christmas tree. However, a huge part of my Christmas culture has always been eating tasty Christmas desserts.
One of my favorite options is Christmas cookies. From a young age, I would help my grandmother bake round pinwheel cookies, and the best part would be the decorating phase. We would draw little reindeer or swirls on the cookies to get festive. As far as toppings go, most supermarkets carry special Christmas sprinkles to top off the cookies.
“My mom loves making me and my brothers cookies around Christmas,” said freshman Connor Harrington. “She decorates them by putting snowmen, reindeer, and Christmas bells on them. They are really delicious, and within the day we’ve eaten them all.”
Another favorite of mine are snowman cupcakes. These are very easy to make. First, you bake a white cake mix in a cupcake pan and add white frosting of your choice on top. I have seen people replace the frosting with coconut shavings, so that is another easy option. Lastly, you will need to insert the marshmallow on top and design the eyes. For beauty purposes, I would use round sprinkles for the eyes.
Now, for those of you who don’t like baking or cooking your own desserts and want a fast alternative option, there is no need to fear.
The easiest and quickest Christmas dessert by far is the Reese’s tree. All you need are Reese’s peanut butter cups. I would recommend buying some of the giants and some of the regular sized ones for the best tree shape. As for the top, Hershey Kisses are perfect.
Expanding into a more traditional Christmas dessert, we have fudge brownies. This one is pretty easy to make, with the only challenge being the design, which will vary from person to person.
I also like gingerbread cookies very much and find them better when made from scratch. Gingerbread cookies have two main ingredients: a lot of ground ginger and a bit of cinnamon. These only take about 10 minutes to bake. Once finished in the oven, you should add frosting and decorate them to your preference (I love a big smile on mine).
Speaking of desserts that only contain a few ingredients, sophomore Vishnu Vingadosh said, his mom has a caramel pie recipe that uses marshmallows along with milk, graham cracker crust, and frozen whipped topping.
In the vein of gingerbread, another popular family Christmas activity is building a gingerbread house. Building a gingerbread house may sound difficult to some, but I assure you it is a lot easier than it sounds and looks.
My final recommendation is peppermint bark. Peppermint bark is a holiday treat that many are not familiar with. Peppermint bark is made with chocolate and chopped candy canes. The most popular place to buy peppermint bark is Williams Sonoma. These are also possible to make from scratch.
I hope you expand your horizons this Christmas and partake in one of these fantastic Christmas desserts. Your taste buds will definitely thank you for it!
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