I think baking cookies is a tradition for most, if not all of the year-end holidays. This has been a difficult year to be sure, and traditions are important to keep up with to lift our spirits. And what better way to make your spirits bright than baking cookies with family or friends.
This is an activity that will surely take your mind off of your troubles, even if it’s only for a short time. If it’s not been a tradition for you in the past, maybe this is the year to start a new one.
Every year for many, many years, my girlfriends and I have gotten together on a Sunday afternoon close to Christmas to bake cookies. It was usually a friend that had a spacious kitchen. Not everyone could make every year, but at least some were able to carry on the tradition.
Some years we changed it up by having a cookie exchange. If you’re not familiar with a cookie exchange, let me explain it. We baked enough cookies so that everyone involved got a dozen of the varieties that each of us made. We would meet and finish baking cookies, bring our finished dozens, or just come and party with our friends, it is a wonderful tradition!
You may be thinking that it sounds like a good idea, but with the pandemic numbers rising, and the directive for staying at home and social distancing, this isn’t a feasible activity. What I would say to that is, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Once again, I’ll say that this has been a difficult year to be sure. Our society has had to pivot, or adapt to the changes this unexpected situation created. We had to get creative, and technology has played a huge part. Video calling has come to our rescue in our personal, and professional endeavors. There are a number of video calling platforms and apps to choose from, the most popular are probably skype and Zoom.
We as humans need interaction with other people that we care about to keep our spirits up. Video calls is the next best thing to actually being with our fellow humans in person. Getting on a video call, either personally or professionally, has allowed us to stay connected. We can use this technology to keep up traditions in a non-traditional way, and baking cookies is no exception.
I encourage you to use this technology to keep your traditions alive to allow some sense of normalcy this holiday season. Yes, it will be a bit different, yes you made need to learn something new, but it will keep up your spirits in a much-needed way.
Take a look at the steps below to create a plan to keep with the tradition of baking cookies this holiday season. I’m sure you will be happy you did!
- Find a date that works for everyone involved and schedule a video call. Different apps or platforms have a list of criteria for the call; the number of people on the call, the maximum time allowed on the call, associated costs, etc. Check with the provider you will use to learn their rules.
- Find out how many people will participate in this activity to determine the number of dozens of cookies to bake.
- Decide on the recipes you will make.
- Make a grocery list and pick up all the ingredients.
- The day of the bake-off, setup your working area with your computer in the same room, set out the tools and ingredients, get on the video call with your baking buddies and start baking cookies!
