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Monday, December 03, 2007

Milk, Cookies and Cheese - Susanna Carr


When I was very young, my sisters and I would read Santa Mouse by Michael Brown on Christmas Eve. The story is about a lonely mouse who wanted to show Santa his thanks for the presents he received each year. So he wrapped up a piece of cheese and left it by his stocking. Santa was so pleased by the thoughtful gesture that he asked the mouse to come work for him.

As you can imagine, my sisters and I decided to add a slice of cheese to Santa's tray of milk and cookies. This tray was important and everyone fought over who got to do what. The milk was poured into a Santa mug that had his hat as the handle, and the cookies were made from a recipe handed down by my great-grandmother.

The cookies, milk, and slice of cheese were lovingly placed on a metal tray. The tray was used exclusively for this occasion because it had a depiction of children leaving a bottle of Coca-Cola for Santa. We placed all of this next to the fireplace where our stockings were hung. On Christmas morning, we were always thrilled to see a big bite taken out of the remaining cookie!

Did you leave out a tray for Santa? What was on it?
Susanna

13 comments:

Wolfy said...

When I was little my sister and I used to leave out homemade cookies and milk for Santa. I carried that tradition over to my own children when I had them. Favourite cookies to leave Santa was Raisin Drop cookies.

Lois said...

You know, I don't ever remember doing that. . . probably best that way, I would have just eaten them myself. LOL (well, now I would) ;)

Lois

Jane said...

I used to leave chocolate chip cookies for Santa. For some reason I didn't leave a glass of milk. Haven't done that in a while.

Cathy M said...

We always left home made cookies, milk and carrots for the reindeer.

Estella said...

I never did that. We always had pets in the house and they would probably gotten the cookies instead of Santa.

Nathalie said...

Never left him anything... he is the one giving all the presents!

Lily said...

I knew early on that Santa was a myth - I had a big brother who ruined all the fun! so no cookies!

Totebag Guest said...

Cryna, I love it when I watch the little ones in the family get the milk and cookies ready for Santa.

Lois--saving cookies for Santa was always the difficult part. :)

Jane--no milk? One must have milk with chocolate chip cookies!!

Susanna Carr
www.susannacarr.com

Totebag Guest said...

Cathy, setting out carrots for the reindeers is a fun idea!

Estella--if your pets are anything like mine, the cookies would have never made it to the plate.

Nathalie--Santa gets hungry giving all the presents, didn't you know? ;) Although there was one year when my parents suggested we set out wine, cheese and crackers for all of Santa's hard work. We kids nixed that idea.

Lily--that's the trouble with older siblings. My oldest sister told me all about Santa when I didn't want to hear about it!

Susanna Carr
www.susannacarr.com

Michelle Styles said...

When I was growing up, it was always home made cookies and milk.

However, when I came to the UK, I was informed that is not cookies and milk but sherry and a mince pie. I bowed to my dh's wishes and we leave sherry and mince pies.

One does not like to think how the sliegh is driven over the Atlantic after all the sherry consumed in the UK!

And Christmas would not be Christmas without the ritual leaving of something for Father Christmas.

Eva S said...

Here in Finland we always left rice pudding for Santa..Sometimes it was gone and although it perhaps was the fox we wanted to believe Santa was hungry!

Maureen said...

When I was a kid Christmas Eve was a busy day so, although we wanted to leave cookies for Santa it wasn't something that we were able to get to.

Karen H said...

When my kids were small, we always had to leave out homemade Christmas Cookies (at least one of each kind) and the usual milk. The santa in our house liked chocolate milk (hehehe). And of course, the milk better be gone and only crumbs left on the plate the next morning.