A fun Christmas baking idea to file away

Earlier I mentioned the December 1962 issue of Woman's Day magazine, where I found a lovely poem.  Today I'm back with a smaller snippet from that magazine.  It's a helpful hint having to do with family baking at Christmas time.

I've mentioned before how my local daughter Carrie has a cookie-baking day with all four of her kids at some point during each Christmas season.  This is a tradition that I love so much, and I know that the kids do also.  The photo at top, though it's a few years old now, seemed to me the perfect illustration for this post with its simple idea.  (I loved this photo so much, in fact, that I had a Shutterfly ornament made from it and gifted the ornament to my daughter and hubby.)

One of my very favorite parts of Woman's Day magazine was always their Neighbors feature, where readers sent in ideas, hints, tips, etc. to share with others.  I've found many an inspiring idea there over the years.  This idea from December 1962 was so much fun I just wanted to share it.

A Woman's Day reader named Agnes Listinsky, the mother of seven children ages 2 through 13, wrote about their family baking traditions:

"Before Christmas last year, all the children helped make the cookies, 160 dozen, 18 varieties.  Though I mixed and rolled, the kids cut, trimmed, put them on and took them off the tins, licked and taste-tested.  Ours may not have been the most beautiful cookies, but none were given as gifts or passed to guests with more pride.

"The fruitcake is a special family project.  Even Daddy gets in on it ... We make the no-bake kind of cake.  Around the table we set out the proper equipment for each different task: rolling graham crackers, cutting dates and marshmallows, grinding nuts, etc.  Each child selects a job and the oldest selects a song.  On completion of the song, they all shift to the left and another song is begun, and so on.  This way, we have fun, and Mother gets her baking accomplished with a minimum of effort!"

Sounds like a really nifty idea for those who like to bake any kitchen gifts that require a number of different steps or tasks in the preparation.  I might have thought of singing Christmas songs while the kids work, but I would not have thought of rotating the tasks with each song.  File this one away for use with kids or grands in December!