During the 12 days until Christmas break, the King Street Chronicle will continue to present staff favorites from the holiday season.  This first edition will not include a partridge in a pear tree, but beloved Christmas songs, memories, recipes, movies, and activities.

Song: “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” performed by Band-Aid or Paul Young, Boy George, George Michael, Le Bon, Bono, and a large Chorus of renowned English singers such as Paul McCartney and David Bowie.

Recipe: Holiday Monster Cookies

Total time: One hour and 50 minutes (including cooling time)

Quantity: Two dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• Two cups of all-purpose flour
• Two teaspoons of baking powder
• Two teaspoons of baking soda
• One and one-half teaspoons of kosher salt
• Two sticks (or one cup) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• One cup of packed light brown sugar
• One cup of granulated sugar
• Two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• Two  large eggs and two egg yolks
• Two cups of mixed red and green M&M’s
• Two cups of rolled oats
• Two cups of chopped pretzel rods
• One and one-third cups of chopped peppermint puffs or candy canes
• One and one-half cups of white chocolate chips

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until evenly mixed.
• In a separate large bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and mix with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (two to three minutes). 
• Add vanilla extract, and each egg, and the yolks one by one and beat until well combined.
• Beat on low speed while gradually adding the flour. 
• With a big spoon fold in the M&Ms, oats, pretzels, peppermint, and white chocolate chips. 
• Scoop dough into small cookie balls, and space them evenly apart on two baking sheets.
• Flatten the dough balls with a spoon or the palm of your hand, to create disks of dough.
• Bake until the cookies are golden brown around the circumference, and light brown in the center, about 18 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of each cookie).
• Let the cookies cool and enjoy.

Movie: A Charlie Brown Christmas

“Christmastime is here.  Happiness and cheer.  And for Peanuts fans everywhere, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without this classic holiday delight.  Christmas lights may be twinkling red and green, but Charlie Brown has the Yuletide blues.  To get in the holiday spirit, he takes Lucy’s advice and directs the Christmas play.  And what’s a Christmas play without a Christmas tree?  But everyone makes fun of the short, spindly evergreen Charlie Brown brings back – until the real meaning of Christmas works its magic once again,” courtesy of rottentomatoes.com.

Activity:

Read a classic Christmas novel by the fire such as A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, while sipping a hot cup of peppermint tea.

Memory: Caroline Hartch ‘24

“My favorite Christmas memory is baking cookies and gingerbread houses.  When I was little, I would bake peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s kisses for Santa on Christmas Eve.  I still love to bake these cookies around Christmas time.  I also make gingerbread houses – my memories cooking with my family are some of my favorite.”

Featured Image by Emily Shull ’25