Holiday Baking Needs a Festive Apron

I’ve posted about my apron fetish before–I just can’t resist a cute apron!  In that post, I showed you my collection at that point, but my Holiday aprons were packed away in a box marked linens.  In with red and green kitchen towels and napkins and such is an equally sizable and always increasing selection of required Holiday kitchen apparel.  Now that I’ve decorated my house for Christmas, I get to decorate myself as well.  Oh how I loves to wear a festive apron when baking Christmas cookies!

Let’s start with aprons handmade by my Mom, and given to me as Christmas gifts.  To me, handmade gifts are the best.  When you make something for someone else, you spend time thinking of the person you’re making it for and all the love you have for them goes right into the gift.  These aprons are hugs from my Mom.  One is from a pattern she had that called for a variety of Christmas print “fat quarters.”  Fat quarters are remnants of fabric that are just over a quarter yard.  It has a great roomy pocket and a skinny one for a wooden spoon, and is tied with green grosgrain ribbon.  The one in the middle is made from a fabric printed especially to be an apron.  It has a teddy bear Christmas tree on it and is tied with fabric that looks like music.  The last is the first one she made for me from a single pretty red Christmas print.  It’s the least fancy of the three, and usually my favorite of the three.  My mood or what I’m cooking sometimes sways me to one of the others, plus a silly sense of fairness–“Oh I haven’t worn that one in a while, I probably should.”

My BFF Becky and I both have these three.  We co-host a cookie exchange party each year, and some years we get new matching aprons as gifts to each other.  The newest one is the one with words all over it.  We love the colors and style and that whoever designed the print might not have been paying attention.  The word Noel is there, its first three letters capitalized and the L in lower case, so it looks like this:  NOEl.  Like it should be pronounced no-ee.  A funny little flaw that is somehow endearing.  We also have hand-painted Christmas tree aprons with jaunty little striped bows and “sexy” Santa aprons complete with feather boa “fur.”

These are two aprons I bought for myself.  The one with red and white shoulders and pockets is made from an old-fashioned pattern, and I’m a total sucker for such bits of nostalgia–had to have it.  The black and white one isn’t what you might think of as festive, but it is definitely a holiday apron.

Here’s the story:

My Mom used to give a Holiday party between Christmas and New Years.  It was quite the event, with tons of food and drinks and people.  Michael, Zach and I were there for one of them and got roped into making all of the lefse and kringla and then making sure that platters were kept full as the Open House progressed.  Mom teased me about needing a black and white maid’s outfit.  The year she died, she was planning another of these extravaganzas and asked if we would come (to New Mexico) for it.  Yes! we said.  She said to be sure to bring my maid’s outfit.  I schemed with my sister to have maid’s uniforms ready and to not tell Mom.  We had white shirts, black pants and these black and white aprons.  What a fun surprise it would have been!  Mom’s last party didn’t happen and the apron went unused.  I’m hoping one of these years I’ll be organized enough to host my own Holiday Open House.  I’ll wear the black and white apron.

The last two belonged to Michael’s Mom.  We came upon them packing up her things after she died, so I don’t know their stories.  I do know that this sort of apron is known as a hostess apron–worn by the hostess after all the cooking is done, during the party.  Probably with pearls.  And heels.  And a pretty party dress.  These aprons are for someone (like my Mom-in-law) with a tiny, tiny waist.  I keep them around for the nostalgia, because they’re not going around MY waist!  My favorite is the green one with red, flocked poinsettias.

All of these aprons bring me a great deal of joy when I unpack them each year.  They make the Holidays all the more special, especially by remembering the great cooks and hostesses they represent for me.  ❤