Time Travel Kitchen

Santa Has Entered The Chat

Nov 27, 2021

**Caption This. My first visit to see Santa, Macy’s Herald Square, NYC, 1955**

Herald Square, NYC, 1924

In 1924, the first Macy’s Santa glided into Herald Square on his sleigh, kicking off the holiday season and a tradition that’s lasted almost a century.

**Santa arrives at Herald Square 1924 photo: USA TODAY via USO of Missouri**

My first trip to see Santa came three decades later, my grandmother bringing me ‘into The City’ from Brooklyn to see the great man.

I’m told the Herald Square Santa was like the Pope of all the Santas. Since I was only a year-and-a-half old, I remember none of it. I do like having the picture as a memento of this brush with fame though, and also as a document of my early show of skepticism.

Out on the streets, he was everywhere. My confusion grew when we moved to Long Island and I encountered two Santas, beards pulled down, having a smoke together outside the Mall we were entering. Once inside, there was a Santa in every store.

**Things Were Different. 1935 Print Ad Bettman via Getty Images**

Cookies for Santa

Nevertheless, I played along just in case there was a real and true Santa. This included leaving the requisite snack for him on Christmas Eve, a ritual overseen by my father and grandfather.

They’d get a plate of cookies from my mother and set them on the kitchen table alongside two shots of Canadian Club.

My grandfather explained to me and my brothers that Santa would be needing the whiskey to warm him during his long journey around the world.

This made sense, but we did wonder why the Easter Bunny got the same treatment. It was springtime after all, but they’d set up a plate of shredded lettuce with another two-shot Canadian Club chaser.

The Easter Bunny must’ve had a snootful by the time he left our house with only this meager salad as his snack.

A Cookie by any other name

The cookies I made this week have many names: Mexican Wedding Cookies or Polvorones; Russian Tea Cakes; Snowball Cookies; and Swedish Heirloom Cookies are just some of the names for these meltingly tender cookies of toasted pecans, butter, flour, a touch of vanilla , salt and confectioners’ sugar. It’s a holiday staple on any cookie tray and so simple to make.

I’ve attached the recipe and a terrific article about the history of the cookie in this link from a 2009 article from the Los Angeles Times.

Here is the link:

The One Christmas Cookie That’s Made The World Over