Stories Around the Christmas Table

(Plus, a cookie recipe.)

The table is a sacred space, offering more than food.

It is where a family bonds after a long day, sharing trials and troubles, hopes and laughter. It is where we bring others not of our blood into our family for the time. It is the beating heart of Christmas in the home. Those who sit around it hear magic woven over a meal, born of memory and passed through generations.

When we share the table with the ones God gifted to us, time and distance begin to blur, and we enter something greater than ourselves—something of the eternal.

When I was a child, I listened wide-eyed to the tales told around our Christmas table. One of my grandfathers played in a country bluegrass band during the Great Depression. My other grandfather mapped enemy troop movements from a plane over the Pacific during World War II. Two brothers ran into each other in newly liberated France after months of wondering if the other was alive. My great-grandmother defied all convention at the turn of the century, eschewing marriage until much later in life and working as both a boardinghouse keeper and full-time nurse.

Their stories shaped my view of the world and who I wanted to be. We share stories of those who came before us, often unaware of how their choices made us who we are. Those same people, only met through others’ memories, sat around the Christmas table sharing stories of the ones who came before them. Every story connects to every other story.

The meal we share often carries stories and history of its own. My grandmother’s dressing recipe came from her mother, and from her mother before that—at least five generations sat together over the same dish that I make for my family now. Whether using an old recipe or trying something new, the Christmas table facilitates conversation just as delicious food bonds people through shared pleasure. It is another of God’s good gifts to us.

The most beautiful part is that this all happens around the celebration of the greatest story ever told—a story that we are all living out right now.

Sometimes, though, the Christmas table is not a place of reminiscing and sanctuary. For those of you who are dreading the stories to be told around your table, whose family relationships are tense or broken, or whose family has passed away, I stand with you in spirit. My parents and many beloved relatives are gone now, and the ache is pronounced at Christmas. I am praying for you to feel an extra measure of comfort this year. (Feel free to email me privately if you would like specific prayer about this, and I will lift you up.)

No matter our background or wounds, God can make a new story from the memories in our hearts or the fragments in our hands. With His help, it can be fuller and more beautiful than we could have imagined, and one we delight in passing on to those who come after us.

I want to leave you with a small Christmas gift, something our family enjoys every year. This easy gingerbread cookie recipe is a staple at the Booth house. I found a similar recipe many years ago and tweaked it until I had it the way we prefer—soft, with ample spice. My boys decorated the batch below.

Merry Christmas, from my story to yours.

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking powder
• ³⁄₄ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ginger, plus another tiny pinch
• 1 ³⁄₄teaspoons cinnamon
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon ground cloves
• 6 tablespoons butter (salted)
• ³⁄₄ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• ¹⁄₂ cup molasses
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• In a small bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
• In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and egg on medium speed until well blended.
• Add molasses and vanilla and continue to mix.
• Mix in dry ingredients until blended.
• Let dough stand at room temperature for at 2 hours. (I have chilled it before if I won’t be able to get back to it after 2 hours, and it works fine, too. The only difference is that it seems to make the dough a bit drier.)
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll to about 1/4-inch thick.
• Cut out cookies and space 1 1/2-inches apart on a baking sheet.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes.
• Allow the cookies to stand until firm enough to move to a wire rack.

Once cooled, decorate with a powdered sugar glaze or royal icing.

Royal Icing:

• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• ½ tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla (or almond, depending on what type of cookies you’re making)
• Stir well, until you’re able to pour a spoonful out into the bowl and it smooths back into the mixture in ten seconds.

 Enjoy!

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