Why are you assuming that these cookies were made for a Christmas party? After all, snowflakes and pine needles are ubiquitous all winter long (well, in some places, at least). Now there’s no love lost between me and snow, but even I can admit that snowflakes are beautiful. Were you aware that they are all uniformly six-sided? Clearly, I did not know that until just now because these are eight-sided flakes. I guess that’s how you can differentiate them from the real thing.
The first known snowflake photographer, Wilson Bentley (1865-1931), wrote this: “Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”
But back to the cookies. These were ordered for a holiday market at Jerusalem’s YMCA (known fondly to locals as the imca. They also pronounce the second l in Lincoln). I deemed them generic winter cookies but I suspect I may be in the minority.
Four years ago, a debate raged in the United States over Starbucks’ decision to remove the snowflakes from their holiday coffee cups. In previous years, people who did not celebrate Christmas objected to overt holiday symbols on their cups. The removal of the snowflake was just the natural next step. When did the snowflake become an overt holiday symbol? Search me. But here, as a public service, is an amusing guide to all things Christmas-contiguous – from snowflakes to gingerbread houses to doves and stars.
Now the pine needles, well that’s an entirely different kettle of fish.
(Fish – also Christian)
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