Herb of the Year for 2022: Viola (violet, heartsease)  named by the International Herb Association
Flower of the Month for December: Poinsettia
December is National Eggnog Month. Fruit Cake Month, too
December Feature: Gingerbread for Your Holiday Tree

Week 1. National Cookie Cutter Week
December 5: Yesterday was National Cookie Day
December 8: National Chocolate Brownie Day (It’s true: Chocolate really is an herb!)

Week 2. Christmas Bird Count begins this week
December 12: Gingerbread House Day
December 13: St. Lucia’s Festival of Lights
December 17: On this day in 1843, “A Christmas Carol” was published and a read-aloud holiday tradition began
December 18: Hanukkah starts this evening, ends the evening of December 26

Week 3. Christmas Week
December 21: Winter Solstice: Celebrating the Shortest Day of the Year
December 24: National Eggnog Day—just in time for Christmas Eve
December 25: At last, Christmas! Have a merry (and healthy!) holiday

Week 4. Kwanza and New Year’s Week
December 26: Kwanza
December 31: New Year’s Eve

I surveyed the shop, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas with wooden bowls of clove-studded pomanders and potpourri, a tiny Christmas tree decorated with gingerbread cookies and popcorn-and-cranberry chains, and fresh green branches of rosemary everywhere. —Mistletoe Man: A China Bayles Mystery

Christmas is still a few weeks away, which makes this a good time to think about baking some gingerbread decorations for your holiday tree—not as much pressure to get things done, and maybe a little more time to enjoy a project that the kids will love. You’ll have to lay down some ground rules about eating their creations, of course, but that’s all part of the fun. Make several batches of these cookie decorations, so the children can share them with their friends. Or collaborate with a neighbor mom to trade a few. Fun fact: The word “gingerbread” originally had nothing to do with bread or cake. It’s an anglicization of the Old French gingebras, which is derived from the Latin name of the spice, Zingebar.

Gingerbread Decorations

1 1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups sifted flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
3 teaspoons nutmeg

Combine butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Cream well until smooth. Sift together dry ingredients. Stir into butter mixture until smooth, adding more flour if necessary to form a firm, slightly sticky dough. Wrap in plastic and chill until cold. Roll out 3/8” thick and cut into holiday shapes. Use a chopstick to make a hole through each shape for hanging. Bake at 350 degrees until brown underneath and slightly pale on top. Makes enough for 7-8 large gingerbread figures. If you want to make more, it’s easier to make separate batches than to double the recipe. Decorate with frosting and colored candies.

.If you want to ice your cookies, here’s an easy way to do it with a squeeze bottle. Really works!

You can also use this recipe to make a gingerbread house. Just roll it out a little thicker. And you can freeze any extra dough.

Check out Susan’s Christmas-season mysteries (click on the cover to see the book–and snap up a recipe or two):

“Marley was dead, to begin with.” Did any story ever offer a more tantalizing first line? Read Dickens’ Christmas classic in an early edition, with illustrations. And find a recipe for the “Christmas bowl of Smoking Bishop” that Scrooge and Bob Cratchit enjoy on the very last page.

There’s no mystery about what we’ll be baking this December. Here are the top 10 holiday cookies from Taste of Home. But for China’s all-thyme cookie favorite, bake a batch of Ruby’s Hot Lips Cookie Crisps. They’ll disappear before you can say The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle (the title of one of Susan’s holiday mysteries).

How many eggnog recipes do you have in your file? Not nearly enough! Here are 20 more—bet there are some you’ve never thought of. And to go with your eggnog (or mulled wine or hot cider), some very special eggnog cookies with eggnog glaze. Oh, my!

Looking for a unique gift? Consider this wonderful collection of kitchen-table stories and recipes shared by the women of the Story Circle Network. One of Susan’s stories is included: a special recipe for chicken pie from the kitchen of Rose Wilder Lane, the subject of the historical/biographical novel, A Wilder Rose, about the writing of the Little House books.

Check out Susan’s Pinterest collection of holiday sweets from around the world. Special delights for a month of parties, celebrations, and joyous revelry.

Find out what Susan is up to these days by visiting her blog, Lifescapes. There’s always something interesting going on in the Texas Hill Country. She posts book reviews, bookish thoughts, and notes on the fast-changing world of books on her “other” blog, BookScapes.