Shirley’s Christmas Gift

Growing up in an old farmhouse, my mom Shirley, would whip up several batches of my Granny Teubert’s sugar cookie recipe a week or two before Christmas.  She made a tradition of gathering me and my siblings around the kitchen table to decorate the cookies.  There were stars, Christmas trees, bells, stockings, candy canes and everyone’s favorite, Santa Clause.

She would make red, white and green frosting as well as melting sugar in a pan that we would brush on the cookie to act as a glue for all the colored sugar we would sprinkle on them.  She would cut raisins for Santa’s eyes and use coconut for a little extra fluff on his beard. By the time we were finished the kitchen looked like a Christmas cookie factory exploded!

Some of the cookies looked awesome, mostly the ones that mom decorated.  Cookies decorated by the youngest children looked a bit like Walt Disney sneezed on them, but they were all delicious, especially with a glass of cold milk.  That tradition continues today in my family as well as some of my siblings and after 60 years, still warms my heart.

Her Christmas spirit was my mom’s gift to us.  I’d like to have you help me in sharing a little Christmas spirit with someone you know that might be down on their luck this holiday season.  At Twinkle Holiday Lighting, we would love to bring the warmth and happiness felt decorating cookies with my mom to a family of deserving children!

Please partner with Twinkle Holiday Lighting by nominating a candidate for us to decorate the home of a deserving Southwest Michigan family through Shirley’s Christmas Gift.

You can help by filling out the form to provide information about your candidate or forward this to your friends and family for theirs. We will review the finalists in a drawing to select the winner of this year’s Shirley’s Christmas Gift!

senior citizens decorating Christmas cookies at kitchen table
chuck barnes smiling with his mom