The Origins of Holiday Season Cookies

Each December, the sweet aroma of freshly baked cookies fills our homes, bringing back cherished memories of childhood, simple joys, and shared moments. But this comforting tradition has roots far older than we might imagine. The story of “Christmas cookies” — or holiday cookies — goes back to medieval times and even further.

The earliest forms of cookies — dry flat cakes made from flour, honey, or sugar — appeared with the arrival of sugarcane in Persia in the 7th century. Over the centuries, these treats made their way to Europe, where, during the Middle Ages, spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg were introduced. These imported ingredients transformed simple breads and flat cakes into fragrant, sweet delicacies perfectly suited for winter celebrations.

From the 16th century onward, especially in Germany, cookies became an essential part of the holiday season — notably in the form of Lebkuchen, the ancestor of gingerbread, as well as decorated Christmas cookies shared during the Advent period. Through European migration to the New World, these culinary traditions crossed the Atlantic and took root in North America, where they evolved to reflect local ingredients and tastes.

Even today, every cookie that comes out of the oven carries with it hundreds of years of history — a delicious testimony to the past transformed into a modern-day treat.

A Return to Québec and Family Traditions

In Québec, as in many other regions, the arrival of December signals not only decorations, Christmas trees, and twinkling lights, but also the beloved ritual of homemade cookies. For many families, this tradition is unwavering: grandmother’s recipes come out, sleeves are rolled up, children join in, and the kitchen fills with laughter, flour, sugar, and the warmth that only shared moments can bring.

It is also the perfect time to slow down. In a fast-paced world filled with constant demands, December opens a pause — a space to reconnect with what truly matters: the people we love, our memories, our traditions, and the simple pleasure of creating together. Baking cookies as a family is like giving the gift of time itself. It becomes a way to pass down know-how, exchange stories, and create new rituals. Cooking takes on an almost sacred quality — a moment of sharing, generosity, and rootedness.

Making your own cookies also offers the opportunity to choose quality ingredients — to opt for healthier, organic, and authentic products. That is where the artisanal expertise of Moulin Abenakis comes into play.

Five Organic Flours from Moulin Abenakis for Your Christmas Cookies

To make your holiday cookies at home — shortbread, gingerbread, Christmas biscuits, ginger cookies, or cut-out sugar cookies — here are five organic flours from Moulin Abenakis that are particularly well suited, all available online:

• Organic whole wheat flour — Moulin Abenakis

• Organic buckwheat flour — Moulin Abenakis

• Organic all-purpose wheat flour — Moulin Abenakis

• Organic rye flour — Moulin Abenakis

• Organic kamut flour — Moulin Abenakis

(Each of these flours provides a wholesome, rustic, and flavourful base for your cookies — ideal for combining authentic taste with environmental awareness.)

Using organic flour such as those from Moulin Abenakis means choosing a raw ingredient that is often richer in flavour, sometimes a little heartier, and reminiscent of the cookies of yesteryear, once prepared in family kitchens. It is a meaningful way to honour simplicity, quality, and respect for the land — and to restore a sense of purpose to our traditions.

The Joy of Baking Together

Imagine a kitchen bathed in soft light, the air scented with cinnamon and sugar, a rolling pin on the counter, cookie cutters shaped like stars, trees, or little gingerbread figures — and all around you, your loved ones, your children, your friends. The simple gestures: pouring the flour, mixing the dough, rolling it out, cutting the shapes — and finally sliding the trays into the oven.

The taste of a still-warm cookie, lightly golden on the outside, soft or crisp at the centre depending on the recipe. The indulgence of a cookie dipped into warm milk or steaming cocoa. The laughter of a child proud of their cookie shaped like a Christmas tree. Shared pleasure. The pride of something made by hand.

These cookies become markers of time, tangible memories: “Remember when we made them with Grandma?” — and each year, the tradition begins again. And in doing so, everything slows down. Instead of rushing after gifts, errands, and obligations, we take the time to simply be together, with the sole purpose of creating something beautiful and good. A ritual that soothes, that brings people together, that nourishes both the body… and the heart.

When Christmas Means Authenticity and Togetherness

At a time when everything moves fast, when products come from distant factories, and when taste and flavour are often sacrificed for productivity, making homemade cookies with organic flours becomes an act of resistance — a return to what truly matters. It is a tribute to the traditions of old, a gift we give ourselves and those we love.

For people in Québec, it is also a bridge between European roots — where Christmas cookies originated — and a local spirit shaped by simplicity, sharing, and a deep love for the land. It is a way of adapting an old tradition to today’s reality while preserving the magic of the holiday season.

The holidays, with their lights, cold air, and quiet anticipation, then take on their full meaning — not because we crown the tree with garlands, but because we sit together, knead cookie dough, listen to the silence of a winter afternoon, laugh, talk, and create.

And through every cookie, we offer a little warmth, sweetness, and memory — to ourselves, to our loved ones… to the season itself. So this year, why not roll up your sleeves, tie on an apron, take out one of these organic flours from Moulin Abenakis, and let the magic happen? We’re willing to bet your Christmas cookies will taste… just like the old days.