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My mom used to make a Scotcheroos. They have a peanut butter and rice krispie base with a chocolate-butterscotch topping. Yummy!

Tamales are our holiday treat in my family. We all get together a few days before Christmas to make them. It's so much fun having everyone in the same room, catching up and making fun of each other's poorly-rolled tamale or too-thick masa and just generally having a killer time. I mean, yes, we make tamales throughout the rest of the year, but the family tamale-making fest (and, of course, the subsequent pigging out!) is very much anticipated each year at Christmas. :)

Mom baked bread and pies and cakes all year long, but at Christmas she made a dozen different kinds of cookies. My favorite had a chocolate mint on the inside and a whole pecan on top. I think she called it chocolate mint surprise? It was the same dough as chocolate chip cookies. She always had trouble finding the thin chocolate mint wafer and it was no longer available when I was in my teens. She experimented with other mints, but they didn't measure up. I still miss that cookie. My other favorite are her orange sour cream scones. Hot out of the oven, with butter. Melt in your mouth delicious. I now make them.

i grew up jewish in a jewish community so holiday treats generally meant latkes and chocolate coins. i'll never forget my first taste of marzipan, at the home of some of my parent's friends. yowza!!!

My great aunt's friendship cake. It was awesome. The fruit would marinate for weeks, and she made the nicest white cake for it. The stuff had a shelf life of forever, but it was generally gone pretty quickly. My favorite thing in the entire world was cutting thin slices of it and slatering it with cream cheese.

She gave me the recipe a couple of years before she died, but honestly, it doesn't taste nearly as good when I make it. It's very possible that this could be because it doesn't arrive at my house magically via UPS, surrounded by Florida grapefruits and her family "catch-up" newsletter.

One of my favorite recipes that my Mom made was something called Shrimp Mold served with Ritz crackers. Yes, we're talking the 70's. I don't have the recipe, but I know it contained shrimp, gelatin, tomato soup, mayonnaise, and horseradish. She made it in a tupperware jello mold and turned it out onto a platter, surrounded by crackers. It sounds gross but it was really good.

Another favorite was a salami and cream cheese hors d'oeuvre. Take slices of genoa salami and spread with softened cream cheese. Stack the slices and refrigerate. When cold, cut these into little wedges and stick with a cocktail toothpick. I loved those!

Every year my mom would start baking a month early, and on Christmas eve, the whole extended family would show up for their gifts. hugs platters of cookies and "breads". I never much cared for the cookies except for one, I'm not sure what it was called officially but mom called them ribbon cookies, they were quick fried and not very sweet, but they were absolute heaven, thin crispy and just a little sweet, a great change from all the sugar saturation that time of year. I asked my brothers for my mom's old cookbook, but they had thrown it out: ( guess i'll never find that cookie again except by chance.

Pierogies -- home made (with all of us pitching in) slathered with browned butter and lots of black pepper. Totally decadent and totally yummy!! It is what my family always has on Christmas eve -- I can't wait!!

Kifles, the crescent-shaped Hungarian cookie with either ground walnuts, apricot, or prune fillings. The bakers in my family, and there are many, all use my great-grandmother's recipe, an involved one requiring yeast and a boatload of Crisco. Growing up, my mother would join forces with the next-door neighbor lady (not Hungarian) to make multiple Kifle batches they would split for holiday giving. Of the two, my mother was the one with the "touch" for the dough, so her job was to roll it on the sugared/floured board until it was just the right thickness. Batch after batch after batch. How they made so many cookies is still astounding to me, nearly 50 years later. Anyway, the cookies are fantastic (but only if my Mom does the rolling).

Kcline-good call on the Lifesaver Story Books-my Grandpa used to put our gift (i.e. money-as a single elderly man, he never knew what to get us kids) in a storybook for each of us. Sadly, it seems the storybooks have declined in the past twenty years (as in fewer rolls of candy, odder flavours, no more wint-o-green and pep-o-mint in there). But thanks for the warm fuzzy memories!

every year at school, they handed out those white, tree-shaped, little debbie brand snack cakes (yellow cake with white filling). they were so disgustingly sweet, but i still find myself craving them at this time of year.

as for the homemade.....the italian cookie plate from our next door neighbors. my favorite was the soft, peanutty cookie with a dollop of frosting and a peanut m & m on top.