Some families practice traditions started by past generations. Others may start new traditions or combine the old with the new. Gail Mersch raised her son, Michael Vindas, with fun traditions, but most important to her were the ones that were centered on Jesus Christ, whose birth was the reason for the celebration.

“We tried to do things that would point to Jesus,” she says. “We always read the Christmas Story from Luke 2 (Holy Bible) before opening gifts, which was usually done on Christmas morning.”

A smile comes to her face as she remembers the year her uncle, the family patriarch and who most often read the special story, got so wrapped up in his reading that he continued for several minutes. Finally, Michael interrupted the aged man with “Are we going to Revelation,” which is the last book in the Bible.

Every year, a nativity scene depicting the setting where Jesus was born is prominently displayed and because it is made of unbreakable resin, is child-friendly. Children can see and touch Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a shepherd and animals, including the donkey that carried Mary to the location where she gave birth to the Christ Child. Although the three wise men that came with the set are displayed, Gail makes sure they are not part of the scene, because they arrived much later and were not present when the baby was born.

Michael Vindas, Gail Mersch’s son, and Rusty pose with one of the Christmas villages he and his mom built several years ago. Submitted photo

Her late mother-in-law’s display of a Christmas village fascinated Mrs. Merch’s son. The grandmother would sit with him while they pretended they were actually in the village. As the young boy became more and more interested in the miniature shops and houses, he and his mother began setting up their own village.

“One year, he just asked for village pieces for Christmas,” says his mom. “That was all he wanted.”

Michael had some definite ideas for the lay-out of the miniature community.

“He always wanted the church on a hill and he always left the school dark, ‘because it was Christmas vacation,'” she continues. “I would do the wiring and over the years he started doing more and I did less.”

The construction of their largest winter scene took eleven hours. The year they decided to host an open house brought a large number of friends and neighbors to see the village. The last year the project was done, Mrs. Mersch got the idea she wanted their full-size Christmas tree to be in the center with the village wrapping around it.

Two of Gail Mersch’s many Christmas traditions are packing shoe boxes for Samaritan’s Purse and baking cookies. Here she holds a plate of Santa Claus Cookies and Nut Cups. Photo by Beverly Kehe-Rowland

“The interesting part was, the tree had already been set up and completely decorated. Therefore, Michael had to lift it onto the table.”

It is important to her to share the Gospel at the end of each of her annual Christmas letters, “because I don’t know where my family stands spiritually. I ask them to not only consider the baby in the manger, but the Jesus on the cross who came to die for them.”

She has been looking forward to some creative Christmas projects that are currently in the works. Aside from holiday hobbies, she has made some scrapbooks and now enjoys making greeting cards. She believes her passion for baking may have started after she began asking former co-workers’ for the recipes of the dishes they brought to share at work.

“My husband had a sweet tooth. When I made a new recipe, I always made sure I had a dessert in case the dish wasn’t good.”

During the month of December, she would make very large Christmas cookie trays for him to take to work.

She has enjoyed filling shoeboxes for Samaritan’s Purse for many years. When her son was younger, they would select a boy around his age, so Michael could help choose the gifts to go inside the box. Her choice this year was a boy between the ages of 10 and 14 years old.

She has gotten very involved with helping plan dinners at Koinonia Christian Fellowship, where she always takes her delicious treats. The new member attends both the Ladies Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening Bible studies.

She was born in Ohio and later moved to Jamestown. She relocated to Arizona, but came back to this area several years later. For many years, she worked in property and casualty insurance until she returned to Jamestown, where she was employed by Ethan Allen. Michael is now married and resides in Arizona. His mother shares her home with a Cairn Terrier-Schnauzer rescue dog named Oreo.

Mrs. Mersch shares a few of her many Christmas cookie recipes. The Nut Cups recipe was given to her by her late mother-in-law. Her former pastor’s wife made Three Layer Cookies for many years and willingly passed on her recipe. Gail says they are delicious, but require a lot of work to make. She included Taste of Home Magazine’s Santa Claus Cookies recipe because they are cute on a cookie tray.

Nut Cups

Filling:

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp butter, softened

2 eggs

1½ c dark brown sugar

2 c chopped pecans

Cookie:

2-8 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened

1½ lb butter (6 sticks), softened

6 c flour

2 pinches salt

Mix filling and cookie dough in separate bowls. Take about a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. Place in a mini-muffin pan and use a wooden tart tamper to press dough down into the mini-muffin pan creating a “cup”. Add a small amount (about 1/2 tsp. of filling) into each “cup”. Do not overfill the cups, because this will cause the cookie to overflow and stick to the muffin pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. When completely cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Ice Cream Kolachi’s

1 lb butter, room temperature

1 pt vanilla ice cream, softened

4 c flour

Canned fruit fillings of your choice

Cream butter and ice cream together. Blend in flour. Pinch off about a teaspoon of dough, roll into a ball and then flatten with your thumb. Put on an ungreased cookie sheet. Spoon a small amount of filling into the center of each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Three Layer Cookies

½ c butter

¼ c sugar

1/3 c cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

1-3 ½ oz can coconut or ½ of a 7oz bag

2 c vanilla wafer crumbs

1 egg

3 T milk

2 T dry vanilla pudding mix (to cook or instant variety)

½ c butter

2 c powdered sugar

6 oz chocolate chips

1 T butter

In a double boiler or heavy pan, place the first 4 ingredients; cook until blended. Add slightly beaten egg; cook 5 minutes longer. Add coconut and crushed vanilla wafers to the mixture. Press into a 9-inch square pan. Let stand for 15 minutes. Mix milk with vanilla pudding mix. Cream ½ c butter until light. Add milk-pudding mixture; beat until smooth. Spread over the first layer. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until firm. Melt chocolate chips with 1 T butter in top of a double boiler or heavy pan. Cool. Spread on the second layer. Score immediately into 36 pieces; top each with pecan or walnut. Store in the refrigerator.

Snicker Surprise Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c unsalted butter, softened

1 c creamy peanut butter

1 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

49 Snickers miniature candy bars

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In medium-size bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, mix together butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and combine thoroughly. Then mix in flour mixture. Cover and chill dough 2-3 hours. To form the cookie, scoop a tablespoon of chilled dough and flatten. Place a miniature Snickers in the center and form dough into a ball around the Snickers. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-20 minutes. Cool cookies on a rack.

Optional: decorate cookies with powdered sugar, drizzle melted chocolate or both

For Chocolate Drizzle:

1 T milk

1 c powdered sugar

2 T cocoa

Mix together. If too thick, add additional milk, a little at a time, until you have the desired consistency.

Santa Claus Cookies

2 pkgs (6 oz each) white baking chocolate, chopped or white chocolate melting wafers

1lb package Nutter Butter Sandwich Cookies

Red colored sugar

32 vanilla or white chips

64 miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

32 red-hot candies or a tube of red gel for decorating cookies

In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt white chocolate, stirring occasionally. (If using melting wafers – follow melting instructions on the package.) Dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate. Lay on waxed paper. For Santa’s hat, sprinkle red sugar on top part of the chocolate. Press one vanilla chip off-center on the hat for pom-pom; let stand until set. (NOTE: red sugar and vanilla chip must be added quickly BEFORE the white chocolate sets.) Once the top half of the Santas have set, dip the other end of each cookie into melted chocolate for beard, leaving the center of the cookie uncovered. Place on waxed paper. With a dab of melted chocolate, attach semisweet chocolate chips for eyes and a red-hot for nose. If you choose to use red gel instead of red-hots, after attaching eyes, place a small dot of red on the cookie for Santa’s nose. Leave on waxed paper until everything is set.