The 12 Treats of Christmas

If you read my blog regularly, you know that we don't have any family near us. Because of this I'm always a little sad when I hear about other people getting together with family to do Christmas baking.  In fact, this morning in church, our new minister to families with children was saying that in her family, they have a tradition of getting together with all of the women on her mom's side of the family on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and doing...something Christmas-y...together. This year they had 25(!) women there.  If I got together with all the women on my mom's side of the family, there would be 4 of us.  And one of us doesn't like to cook.  And we all live in different places. 

Anyway, it's a little sad that I have no one with whom to make Christmas treats*, and it's too much for our little family to do a bunch of holiday baking all by ourselves in one day.  Here's how that would go.  AKD would be sitting on the couch reading, Hubby would be working in the garage, and Bubby and MC would be sitting at the counter fighting over who gets to add the next ingredient and who gets to stir.  We would make it through one recipe at the most, and then they'd be off wrestling on the living room floor, and little ol' me would be in the kitchen all by my lonesome, running out to the living room every now and then when I hear a particularly ominous thump.  Or screaming.  Not fun.

So around here, we do things a little differently.  I asked everyone to name their one or two (or in my case six (but the truffles and buckeyes can all count as one, 'cause they're all just balls of stuff dipped in chocolate.  So that's only 3, right?)) favorite Christmas treats, and we'll make one or two each week, freezing them in packages of dozens or half-dozens until we want to eat them.

Source: thekitchenismyplayground.blogspot.com via Scarlet on Pinterest

Want to know what made the list?  Here you go:

• Santa's Snicker's Surprises
• Rolo Cookies**
• Oreo Truffles
• Peppermint Oreo Truffles**
• Turtle Cheesecake Truffles**
• Buckeyes**
• Little Cookies
• Marshmallow Star Cookies
• Snickerdoodles
• Chocolate dipped pretzel rods
• Christmas tree cake pops
• Sugar cookies--specifically trees

Sound good?  Want to make them yourself?  Not to worry--I'll be sharing the recipes throughout December :)  To get a jump on your preparations, you can check out my Christmas Treats pinboard for most of the recipes.

Your turn: What's on your must-make Christmas treat list?

*No one with whom to bake, except my mustache-y friends--thanks for being my baking family, girls :)
**These are recipes that are new to us.