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Christmas Cookies
Christmas cookies or Christmas biscuits are traditionally sugar cookies or biscuits (though other flavours may be used based on family traditions and individual preferences) cut into various shapes related to Christmas. History Modern Christmas cookies can trace their history to recipes from Medieval Europe biscuits, when many modern ingredients such as cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, almonds and dried fruit were introduced into the west. By the 16th century Christmas biscuits had become popular across Europe, with ''Lebkuchen'' being favoured in Germany and '' pepparkakor'' in Sweden, while in Norway ''krumkake'' were popular. The earliest examples of Christmas cookies in the United States were brought by the Dutch in the early 17th century. Due to a wide range of cheap imported products from Germany between 1871 and 1906 following a change to importation laws, cookie cutters became available in American markets. These imported cookie cutters often depicted highly stylised ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biscuit
A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, '' biscotti'', and ''speculaas''. In most of North America, nearly all hard sweet biscuits are called " cookies", while the term " biscuit" is used for a soft, leavened quick bread similar to a less sweet version of a ''scone''. "Biscuit" may also refer to hard flour-based baked animal feed, as with dog biscuit. Variations in meaning * In most of the world outside North America, a biscuit is a small baked product that would be called either a " cookie" or a " cracker" in the United States and sometimes in Canada. Biscuits in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Tree
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern Germany where German Protestant Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. It acquired popularity beyond the Lutheran areas of Germany and the Baltic governorates during the second half of the 19th century, at first among the upper classes. The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, ndsweetmeats". Moravian Christians began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles, which were often replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification. Today, there is a wide variety of traditional and modern ornaments, such as garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bredele
''Bredele'' (also referred to as ''Bredala'', ''Bredle'' or ''Winachtsbredele'') are biscuits or small cakes traditionally baked in Alsace and Moselle, France, especially during the Christmas period. Many varieties can be found, including new ones, so that assortments can be created. Accessed February 25, 2013 They can include ''anisbredela'' (cake with egg white and ) ''butterbredle'', ''schwowebredle'' ( and ), ''spritzbredle'', small ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pfeffernüsse Cocoa
Pfeffernüsse are small spice cookies, popular as a holiday treat with Germans and ethnic Mennonites in North America. Similar cookies are made in Denmark, and The Netherlands, as well. They are called (plural, singular is ) in German, '''' (sing. ) in Dutch, '''' in Plautdietsch, pfeffernusse or peppernuts in English, and in Danish. History Johann Fleischmann, a confectioner from Offenbach am Main created the recipe in 1753. Goethe praised the pastries. Felix Mendelssohn went to Offenbach am Main especially to buy them. The state of Hesse has served it at state receptions. In 1820, the Brothers Grimm warned their sister Charlotte ( de) against excessive consumption: "Don't eat too much of the pepper nuts, they are said to cause a lot of heat!" At that time, nutmeg was considered an aphrodisiac, and cardamom as invigorating as caffeine. In Germany, ''Pfeffernüsse'' are associated with Christmas. The cookie has been part of yuletide celebrations since the 1850s. The name li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had a population of 1,898,533. Alsatian culture is characterized by a blend of Germanic and French influences. Until 1871, Alsace included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort, which formed its southernmost part. From 1982 to 2016, Alsace was the smallest administrative ''région'' in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French Parliament in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. On 1 January 2021, the departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged into the new European Collectivity of Alsace but remained part of the region Grand Est. Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect closely related ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert, Prince Consort
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Albert was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of twenty, he married his first cousin Victoria; they had nine children. Initially he felt constrained by his role as consort, which did not afford him power or responsibilities. He gradually developed a reputation for supporting public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery worldwide, and was entrusted with running the Queen's household, office, and estates. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was a resounding success. Victoria came to depend more and more on Albert's support and guidance. He aided the development of Britain's constitutional monarchy by persuading his w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign, any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was Kensington System, raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Holy Land, Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Muslim conquests, Islamic rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the recovery of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of Crusades were fought, providing a focal point of European history for centuries. In 1095, Pope Pope Urban II, Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, AlexiosI against the Seljuk Empire, Seljuk Turks and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in western Europe, there was an enthusiastic response. The first Crusaders had a variety of motivations, including religious salvation, satisfying feud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gingerbread
Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as a ginger snap. Etymology Originally, the term ''gingerbread'' (from Latin ''zingiber'' via Old French ''gingebras'') referred to preserved ginger. It then referred to a confection made with honey and spices. ''Gingerbread'' is often used to translate the French term ''pain d'épices'' (literally "spice bread") or the German terms ''Pfefferkuchen'' (lit. "pepper cake," because it used to contain pepper) or ''Lebkuchen'' (of unclear etymology; either Latin ''libum'', meaning "sacrifice" or "sacrificial bread," or German ''Laib'' for loaf or German for life, ''leben''). Pepper is also referenced in regional names like Norwegian ''pepperkaker'' or Czech ''perník'' (originally ''peprník''). The meaning of ''gingerbread'' has evolved over tim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holly
''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The type species is '' Ilex aquifolium'', the common European holly used in Christmas decorations and cards. Description The genus ''Ilex'' is divided into three subgenera: *''Ilex'' subg. ''Byronia'', with the type species ''Ilex polypyrena'' *''Ilex'' subg. ''Prinos'', with 12 species *''Ilex'' subg. ''Ilex'', with the rest of the species The genus is widespread throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of the world. It includes species of trees, shrubs, and climbers, with evergreen or deciduous foliage and inconspicuous flowers. Its range was more extended in the Tertiary period and many species are adapted to laurel forest habitats. It occurs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspecies. A 2022 revision of the genus elevated five of the subspecies to species (see Taxonomy below). They have a circumpolar distribution and are native to the Arctic, sub-Arctic, tundra, boreal forest, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. Reindeer occur in both migratory and sedentary populations, and their herd sizes vary greatly in different regions. The tundra subspecies are adapted for extreme cold, and some are adapted for long-distance migration. Reindeer vary greatly in size and color from the smallest species, the Svalbard reindeer (''R. t. platyrhynchus''), to the largest subspecies, Osborn's caribou (''R. t. osborni''). Although reindeer are quite numerous, some species and subspecies are in d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candy Canes
A candy cane is a cane-shaped stick candy often associated with Christmastide, as well as Saint Nicholas Day. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint, but they also come in a variety of other flavors and colors. History A record of the 1837 exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, where confections were judged competitively, mentions "stick candy". A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with colored stripes, was published in ''The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-Cook, and Baker'', in 1844. The earliest documentation of a "candy cane" is found in the short story "Tom Luther's Stockings", published in ''Ballou's Monthly Magazine'' in 1866. Although described as "mammoth", no mention of color or flavor was provided. ''The Nursery'' monthly magazine mentions "candy-canes" in association with Christmas in 1874, and ''Babyland'' magazine describes "tall, twisted candy canes" being hung on a Christmas tree in 1882. Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
