During the 12 days until Christmas break, the King Street Chronicle again presents staff favorites from the holiday season. This sixth edition will not include six geese a-laying, but beloved Christmas songs, memories, recipes, movies, and crafts.
Song: “Santa Tell Me” performed by Ms. Ariana Grande
Recipe: M&M Christmas Cookies
Total Time: 29 minutes
Quantity: 15 to 20 cookies
Ingredients:
- One and one-half cups plus one tablespoon all purpose flour
- One teaspoon baking powder
- One-half teaspoon baking soda
- One-fourth teaspoon salt
- One-half cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool
- One-half cup granulated sugar
- One-third cup brown sugar, lightly packed (make sure it is fresh and soft)
- One large egg
- Two teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- One and one-half cups M&M’s or a mixture of M&M’s and chocolate chips (divided)
- One-fourth cup holiday sprinkles
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then, set aside.
- In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and both sugars for one to two minutes, until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract, mixing until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. On low speed, add in flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Gently stir in M&M’s and chocolate chips. Add about one generous cup into the batter, and the rest get pressed on top of the cookies before baking.
- Place the sprinkles in a shallow bowl.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough (between one and one-half and two and two-half tablespoon portions). Gently press a few M&M’s onto the top of each dough ball then press the top of each ball into the bowl of sprinkles. Bake the cookies right away (they’ll be on the thinner side) or chill the dough balls in the fridge for about 15 minutes to ensure they bake up with a nice thickness.
- Place dough onto prepared baking sheets leaving an inch or two for spreading, to make sure the dough balls mound higher rather than wider, so that the cookies are not too thin.
- Bake for eight to eleven minutes, until the edges of the cookies are set but the center is still slightly underdone. This will create a soft cookie.
- Place the baking sheets on wire racks and allow the cookies to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.
Movie: Elf
“Buddy [Mr. Will Ferrell] was accidentally transported to the North Pole as a toddler and raised to adulthood among Santa’s elves. Unable to shake the feeling that he doesn’t fit in, the adult Buddy travels to New York, in full elf uniform, in search of his real father. As it happens, this is Walter Hobbs (James Caan), a cynical businessman. After a DNA test proves this, Walter reluctantly attempts to start a relationship with the childlike Buddy with increasingly chaotic results,” courtesy of rottentomatoes.com
Craft: Snowman Holiday Cards
Materials:
- Paintbrushes
- White paint
- Silver glitter
- Blue or orange construction paper
- Glass jar
- Black marker
- Scissors
- Glue
Instructions:
- Paint the base of the glass jar with white paint. This will be the snowman’s face.
- Press the jar firmly against the blue paper.
- When the paint dries, cut a small triangle with orange construction paper and glue them to the snowman. This will be the carrot nose.
- Using the black marker, draw eyes, arms, and a nice smile on the snowman.
- Finish the snowman holiday card with some glitter and a note of season’s greetings.
Memory: Sister Gwen Malisani
“One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making homemade ravioli. When I was in high school, I began learning the art of homemade ravioli from my Nonna. There are many steps to making this stuffed pasta, but she never rushed the process. At the height of the busyness of the holiday season, we would spend a week’s worth of evenings roasting chicken and pork, mixing the filling, prepping pasta dough, and finally, rolling out and filling the dough. While everyone looks forward to the baked ravioli on Christmas Day, my favorite part is the ravioli soup. After we finish the ravioli, we make soup out of the scraps and the “misfit” ravioli and serve it with bread. It was a special treat since we only ate ravioli a few times each year (Christmas and Thanksgiving). My Nonna has since passed away but my dad and I continue the tradition. We have tweaked the recipe and are always researching better ways to fill the ravioli (a very time-consuming process). While recipes and times change, the memories with my Nonna endure.”
Featured Image by Eloise Liggitt ’26