At this time of year it is nice to bake lots of goodies. These Christmas Cookies make wonderful gifts for people. This recipe I am sharing with you started when my uncle wanted some oatmeal cookies. I altered the traditional recipe and made it my own special Christmas Cookies recipe. My husband loves coconut, so I thought I’d add some to the mix. I thought that more fruit could be added, too, since he also likes fruitcake. I’m thinking of altering this recipe even more to incorporate more fruit, nuts, and maybe some spices. This one is a hit though with family and friends.

    

The dough for these Christmas Cookies is kind of clumsy when forming it into teaspoon sizes for baking. There is so much stuff in them that they want to fall apart. It takes a little extra wrangling with two spoons to clump the mixture together. With a little practice, it does not take long to master placing them on the baking sheet.

Christmas Cookies

2 1/4 C. Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Salt

2 Sticks Butter

3/4 C. Sugar

3/4 C. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

2 Large Eggs

2 C. Chocolate Chips

1 C. Chopped Nuts ( I used pecans)

1/2 C. Raisins

1/2 C. Golden Raisins

1 C. Dried Cranberries

1 C. Oats

1 C. Coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Soften butter and add both kinds of sugars to it. Cream the butter with the sugar then add vanilla and eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, measure flour, baking soda, and salt and stir together. When the dry ingredients have been measured, add half of them to the dough and stir well. Add the other half of the dry ingredients then chill in the freezer for ten minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. Chop up the nuts and fruit after measuring them. Combine the chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins, cranberries, oats, and coconut in a bowl and set aside. After chilling, add the fruit mixture to the dough, stirring gently until it is well mixed. You may wish to chill the dough a little more at this point, but it is not necessary. Get two cookie sheets and use two teaspoons to drop the cookie dough onto the pans. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.