Some people find the pace of New York City overwhelming; others just can’t stand the crowds.  If you fall into one of those categories, you should stay away during the holidays.  The calendar is packed with events, and the streets are crammed with people.  If you like New York and like activity, however, consider making a December visit.  In addition to the corny standard tourist activities (like a visit to Rockefeller Center) it’s a good time to see the City.

For here is the Big Apple’s dirty little secret — for all of the town’s cosmopolitan diffidence, it turns out that Gothamites really like Christmas.  They like skating at places like Bryant Park, pictured above.  They like the lights and wreathes and other decorations.  They like hearing the Christmas carols played over every loudspeaker, and they like it when guys rush onto the subway, play a few hurried bars of Feliz Navidad on a guitar and an accordion, collect a few donations, then dash to the next car at the next stop.  They like eating tiny bags of piping hot, sweetened pecans, cashews, and almonds.  They like wearing long scarves and Santa hats.  Oddly, you’re much more likely to hear someone wish you a heartfelt “Merry Christmas” in flinty New York City than you are in friendly Columbus.

I’m not saying you should go to New York City to embrace the Christmas spirit — but I am saying that it is a fun place to celebrate the holidays, have some good meals, drink some well-poured seasonal cocktails, and enjoy walking around a metropolis where the surroundings and the people alike are lit up like Christmas trees.  Our little Christmas trip to New York City was one of the most enjoyable Christmases that I can remember.

This sweet and simple story about a Christmas card that was sent back and forth between friends for 60 years, and now is treasured by the survivor, speaks to what Christmas really is all about.  We can only imagine the pleasure and good humor that the two friends felt when the holiday season approached and they looked forward to their annual card exchange.  The unremarkable and corny Christmas card produced enormous happiness and lasting memories for those two friends.

I hope every one of our Webner House readers is enjoying similarly wonderful Christmas experiences.

And tonight, Christmas Eve, the children will nestle all snug in their beds, while visions of sugarplums dance in their heads.

Yesterday, we satisfied our legal obligations.

The area around Rockefeller Center was jammed.  The skaters were there, and so was the towering Christmas tree, and golden Prometheus was floating above the ice rink, bringing fire to the chilled masses.  An officious, leather-lunged police officer was trying desperately to keep people from standing on benches to take photos.  Good luck with that, officer!

After slowly moving through the throng, dodging mothers who were aggressively using their children’s strollers to clear a path through the madness and commenting on how the tree was not as large as we thought it would be, we exited on the Fifth Avenue side, past a gantlet of trumpeting angels.  A Salvation Army group was pumping out Christmas music, and the Christmas spirit was heavy in the air.

Every year there is one new cookie that seems to be the breakout cookie of the year, and this year it was the white chocolate ginger stars.  It not only was a fun and challenging cookie to make — especially the dipping into hot white chocolate mixture part — but it got really positive feedback from my cookie eaters.  I’d recommend it to anyone, with this note of caution.  The recipe for this cookie that I posted this year makes a lot of cookies — probably six dozen or more, using my Star of David cutter.  If that is too many for you, cut the recipe in half.

If you’re still in the midst of your holiday baking, I wish you good luck, and hope that you enjoy the baking as much as I do.

Easy Sugar Cookies

Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon milk; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 3 cups sifted flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder.

Baking:  Cream butter and add sugar gradually.  Add eggs, milk, and vanilla and cream well.  Sift together flour and baking powder, then add to butter mixture.  Chill for 10 minutes.

Roll and cut dough into desired shapes.  Bake at 400 degrees until very light brown.

I like to ice the sugar cookies, and I make the icing by putting confectioner’s sugar into coffee cups, then pouring leftover evaporated milk into the cups until the icing is the right consistency.  Too runny, and I add more confectioner’s sugar; too thick, and I add a drop or two of evaporated milk.  I add food coloring to come up with some different, but always bold, icing colors — one for each coffee cup.  I particularly favor bright orange.

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011 (II)

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011 (III)

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011 (IV)

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011 (V)

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011 (VI)

Calling For Christmas Cookies Recipes — 2011 (VII)

At Columbus City Hall, the towering statue of Christopher Columbus — which depicts the intrepid explorer with a curiously flat top of the head — stands guard over Santa’s workshop.  The little workshop includes a mail slot, where kids can drop off their wish list letters to Santa.

Christmas With Dino is a good example of intelligent matching of song and artist.  Dean Martin’s well-lubricated, jovial singing style isn’t exactly well-suited to religious carols like O Holy Night or We Three Kings (unless he sang the version about the rubber cigar).  But it’s pitch-perfect for the lighter songs of the season, songs that celebrate snow, snuggling with your significant other, swinging parties, and general holiday merrymaking.

There are lots of good songs on this album.  My favorites are Let It Snow, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (or, Rudy the red-beaked reindeer, as Dino sings at one point), Christmas Blues, Jingle Bells, and I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.  The best song, I think, is a definitive version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside, with Martina Mcbride singing the role of the indecisive female.  You just know that, by the time the song has ended, his entreaties and well-made cocktails have convinced his lady friend to cast aside her worries about her maiden aunt and spend some more quality time with ol’ Dino.

A Christmas CD sounds attractive for lots of reasons.  You wouldn’t need to write any new songs.  Flip through the pages of the American Christmas music songbook, pick out the songs you want to record, hire some studio musicians, book a week of studio time, and you’re set.  It’s cheap, and straightforward, and your dedicated fans will probably buy just about anything you produce.

And yet . . . if you were a real artist, and not just a fad act looking to make a quick buck, doing a Christmas CD should fill you with trepidation.  It’s daunting to follow in Bing Crosby’s footsteps and sing the same songs he put his stamp on.  And unless you want to go to the fringes of Christmas music and fill your CD with novelty numbers like All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do.  How do you bring something new and fresh to songs that have been sung thousands of times by different artists and are as familiar to listeners as Happy Birthday?

I love to listen to Christmas music when December rolls around, and one of the things I like about it is hearing how different artists have tackled the standards.  You wouldn’t think anybody could produce a White Christmas that could contend with Bing Crosby’s definitive treatment, but the Drifters’ doo-wop version, Oscar Peterson’s jazzy take, and Linda Ronstadt’s duet with Rosemary Clooney are each as enjoyable and memorable, in their own way, as Crosby’s rendering.  In fact, you could argue that the very familiarity of Christmas songs has caused artists to experiment and push the boundaries of the music — often to good effect.  Christmas music is flexible enough to work with the Windham Hill approach, jazz stylings, choral backing, rock ‘n’ roll, and other genres.

We should applaud artists who release Christmas CDs.  Some of them will suck, for sure . . . but every now and then someone will rise to the challenge and hit upon an arrangement or approach that gives a new perspective to an old favorite, and add to the long roster of holiday classics that we can enjoy, again and again, in holidays to come.

Brown Sugar-Almond Bars

Ingredients:  1 cup butter; 6 tablespoons butter; 1 cup confectioner’s sugar; 2 cups flour; 1 cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons water; 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice; 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla.

Baking:  Grease 13 by 9 inch pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream 1 cup butter and confectioner’s sugar.  Add flour and mix well.  Pat mixture into pan.  Bake 15 minutes, until light golden color.  Remove and allow to cool. 

In a saucepan, melt the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter.  Add brown sugar, water, and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Stir in almonds and vanilla.  Spread almond mixture over crust.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes.  Cool until warm, then cut into bars.

Calling For Christmas Cookie Recipes — 2011

Calling For Christmas Cookie Recipes — 2011 (II)

Calling For Christmas Cookie Recipes — 2011 (III)

Calling For Christmas Cookie Recipes — 2011 (IV)

I picked a good day for the 2011 version of Baking Day.  It’s rainy, cold, and dreary in Columbus — an excellent day to be inside, playing Christmas music, working around a hot oven, and sampling the new creations.