Baking as a holiday tradition has been around a long time. Many people in different cultures make special breads, cookies, or candies that are only associated with the celebration of Christmas. Family recipes are often handed down as part of a family heritage. America’s earliest Christmas trees usually had cookies as part of their homemade decorations.
Gingerbread cookies were a favorite among early American children who weren’t used to getting many sweet treats. Gingerbread has been made in impressive designs and shapes for a very long time. Queen Elizabeth I of England, who reigned over 400 years ago (1558-1603), is said to have offered the first gingerbread men to important visitors made in a likeness of them. Decorated gingerbread houses were made by bakeries in Germany after the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel was published by the Grimm brothers about two hundred years ago.
At Christmas there are special treats
everywhere you look.
Have you ever wondered
why so many people cook?
Many families have a recipe,
a Christmas food to make,
Like a candy or a cookie,
or a bread or tasty cake.
Long ago sweet cookies
and candy were a treat,
That only on a special day
people got to eat.
People would hang cookies
up on their Christmas tree,
Making decorations,
filling children with great glee.
Gingerbread’s a cake;
it can be a cookie, too,
And making little figures,
Queen Elizabeth would do.
It became a custom
to make a ginger man.
To decorate and share them,
after baking in a pan.
Bread is called a staple,
people eat it every day.
At Christmas there are special breads,
each made in its own way.
Breads from different places,
there are quite a few.
Do you understand bread’s meaning
when a tasty bite you chew?
Jesus is the bread of life,
he feeds our body and our soul.
And eating what he has to give
should be our daily goal.
Jesus says we should not work
for bread that will not last.
He says to put our trust in him;
his care for us is vast.
Jesus gives to us the food
we need to live life well.
And eating what he wants to give,
true hunger it will quell.
True hunger is the need we have
to overcome our sin.
Without Christ our souls stay hungry,
we’re not satisfied within.
Remember that Christ Jesus
is bread from God above.
The sending of his Son to earth
demonstrates God’s love.
If we eat the bread of Christ,
hungry we won’t be.
Christ died to satisfy our souls,
from sin he sets us free.
So every time you take a bite
of a cookie or a bread,
Stop and think of Jesus,
who rose up from the dead.
God provides the food you need
so your body it can live,
But more important still
is the life Christ came to give.