There is a long standing tradition in my parents’ home that we have also adopted. It is hanging homemade gingerbread boys from our chandeliers. At the beginning of December, my kids and I bake the cookies and hang them up. Once they are up , the Christmas season has officially started.
Throughout the month, they randomly fall onto the dining table below. The fun is trying to be the first to discover the fallen treat. Whoever finds it first, gets to eat it. My kids tune their ears to that special “plunk” sound and come running from all corners of the house to grab one. It’s a completely hands-off rule, though. If anyone is caught “helping” a cookie down, they forfeit their right to eat it. One year, while we were visiting my folks for Christmas, my brother brought out an air soft gun and attacked the cookies. My boys have been warned that will NOT happen at our house, but they still talk about it with wishful looks on their faces. Good ole Uncle John!
1. Info for Gingerbread Boys: Edible Christmas Decorations
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: unavailable
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Gingerbread Boys: Edible Christmas Decorations
- 2½ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 egg
3. Directions:
- Blend shortening, sugar, molasses and egg with mixer.
- Combine dry ingredients and add.
- Mix well.
- Chill in fridge at least and hour.
- Roll out ½ inch thick and cut out with cookie cutters.
- Bake 400 degrees for 8 minutes.
- **If you plan to hang these, bake them a bit longer so they are crisp, almost burned, but not quite.
- Immediately put a hole in the top with a pipe cleaner or dowel or some other round tool.
- When completly cool, hang with ¼ ” or wider ribbon or pipe cleaner.
- String will cut through the cookie too fast.
