Yesterday I told you about making Stained Glass Ornament Cookies. Today I thought you might be interested in seeing what I did with them. I added them to what I refer to as "The Edible Tree" in the dining room (bear in mind here, that it's the ornaments and not the tree that are edible). The tree rests on the sideboard in the room where we have our big holiday dinners, usually before a blazing fire in the Franklin Stove. Some years it is so Norman Rockwell that I could die. This tree grew more out of desperation than inspiration. Our 119-year-old house has a basement that is only accessible from the outside (and down a steep flight of steps). Last year when the weather turned bad on tree decorating day I decided to leave the ornaments stored in the basement and head to the pantry to see what I could come up with. I grabbed Christmas peeps, bell-shaped gumdrops, and candy canes. Then I got to work baking cookies, poking holes in them before baking so I could string them with gold cord in order to add them to the tree. I ended up with a unique tree that everyone loved. This year, instead of the chocolate chip cookies, I made the gingerbread cookies shaped like ornaments. To hang the candies I ran them through with ornament hooks and hung them on the tree. The little ones in your family will be dazzled by a tree like this, but do take the edible ornaments down yourself and remove the hooks before giving them to small children. You don't want over zealousness to lead to injury! Clearly everything on the tree is not edible. The lights, red glass ball ornaments, and garland is not, but the majority is, and with each passing year I come up with more ideas. The beauty of this tree is that when the season is over there is very little to put away.
I encourage you to come up with your own special baking or decorating ideas this year and make them a treasured memory for you and your family. This is how traditions begin.
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I love your stained glass cookies below and your edible tree idea. Even though it was born out necessity, it's a great idea. I used to decorate our tree with edible goodies when our girls were little.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea! Ahhh, for a wintery Christmas! Here in tropical Queensland, Australia, the rain is teeming down as the wet season has started with a bang. Leaving anything out for more than ten minutes results in soft moist cookies instead of crispy crunchy. Maybe one day I could wrap them well and hang. Won't look as good as yours, though!
ReplyDeleteJust looking at all those goodies on your edible Christmas Tree, I'm glowing from ear to ear. What a wonderful idea, Pattie. You sure do have the magic touch.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing...
Oh how the grandies would love a tree like this. I do a gingerbread/candy tree, but mine is not eatable. I put all kinds of candy underneath it. The grand kids know to ask, "Is this candy new or old?" I save alot of it from year to year. However, I don't think anyone would die from old hardtack. lol!
ReplyDeleteHow creative of you to make all those edible ornaments. Dare I ask how many are left come Christmas Day? If my family had all your yummy goodies to stare at whenever we walked by, we'd each gain 10 pounds before the holiday and the tree would be stripped bare.
ReplyDeleteI guess if that happens, you can call it compliments to the chef!
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OMG! I need to get a small tree for the kitchen to place eatable cooky ornaments, wow, you're so talented! My grandgirls love to make and decorate cookies, so this they would totally love!! Thanks for sharing and Happy Holidays. FABBY
ReplyDeleteHow lovely. The cats, not to mention the dog, would love these! Can't wait to see your holiday decorations.
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