Ginger Almond Cookie Recipe

Recipe 8 of the Christmas Cookies Around the World Holiday Project for Kids: Ginger Almond Cookie Recipe

One of the most popular Christmas traditions is baking cookies as a family. While popular cookies vary from country to country, even countries as far away as China still bake cookies around the holiday season! Ginger Almond Cookies are a popular Chinese cookie, and baking them with your kids is a great way to begin talking about Christmas traditions in China as part of the Christmas Cookies Around the World project. 

GET ALL 12 COOKIE RECIPES AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES WITH THE FULL CHRISTMAS COOKIES AROUND THE WORLD HOLIDAY PROJECT.

The Christmas Cookies Around the World series is a fun way to introduce children to:

• World geography
• Holiday traditions
• Popular cookies from various cultures and parts of the world

Your kids will love learning about different places around the world with the help of this cookie activity. In addition to this packet, there is a full series of additional articles with tips and baking videos available here.

Ginger Almond Cookies and Christmas in China

Our featured cookie for China is an adaptation of the traditional Chinese almond cookie.  This cookie first appeared in the Emperor’s Place in the Ming Dynasty during the 16th century. The original was referred to as the Chinese walnut cookie.

We’ve added ginger to the recipe to give a subtle twist on a classic cookie, but you can also omit the ginger or make both versions and decide which you like better.

Fun Facts About China’s Christmas Traditions

• Typical ways to celebrate include seeing a movie, going to a karaoke bar, or shopping.
• Merry Christmas in Chinese is (圣诞节快乐 – shèng dàn jié kuài lè).
• It’s tradition to eat an apple on Christmas Eve.
• One of the most common Chinese Christmas traditions among young people is to send cellophane-wrapped apples as gifts to their friends. The apples are also often sold with printed messages like ‘love’, ‘peace’ and ‘Merry Christmas’.
• Rather than turkey and stuffing, the menu would look similar to a Spring Festival fair with roast pork, jiaozi (Chinese dumplings), spring rolls, huoshao (baked roll with or without stuffing), and rice.
• One of the most popular Chinese Christmas traditions is to hang beautiful paper lanterns indoors, outdoors, and strung around the plastic Christmas tree, which is called “Tree of Light”. Families add paper chains and flowers in bright, festive colors to the Christmas tree.

Videos about Christmas in China

Christmas night may not be a traditional holiday in China, but they do still celebrate! Find out more in this video.

This video will teach your kids how the chinese people celebrate the holiday season.

This video will take your kids on a tour around the world to see how different cultures experience Christmas.

Websites to Help Teach Kids About Chinese Christmas Traditions

These fun facts are interesting facts your kids may not know about celebrating Christmas in China.

Find out how Christmas is celebrated in China with the help of this resource.

In China, not everyone celebrates Christmas! Find out how the people who do celebrate spend their Christmas holiday.

Books About Chinese Holidays

Little Sen’s Chinese Holidays by Yujia Zhao

Experience a year of Chinese holidays with your children using this helpful book.

Additional Resources for Teaching Children About China

Take your kids on a trip to China with the help of this resource.

Learn facts about China in a musical way with this fun song.

Your kids will love watching as these kids try different traditional Chinese foods!

Books…

Living in . . . China by Chloe Perkins

This book will teach your kids all about what it’s like to live in China.

Welcome to China by Caryn Jenner

Take your kids on a tour of China with the help of this book!

Ginger Almond Cookie Recipe

Get Your FREE Christmas Cookies Around the World Taste Test Recording Sheet

Use the taste test recording sheet to have kids record information about the cookie(s) they tasted and rate how well they liked the cookies. Individual pages can be compiled into a taste test booklet for all the cookies you try in the series, or you can choose to have kids record only their favorite cookie if you prefer.

Save paper by printing two or four to a page if preferred.

Get the entire 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Around the World project

For those interested in expanding the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Around the World project into a class or family project we’ve created a 50+ page activity guide to make it super easy for you.

Inside you’ll find:

• Quick Reference List of Cookies and Countries
• Generic Cookie Taste Test Recording Sheet
• Cookie Taste Test Recording Table
• Class Graphing Header and Voting Cards
• Christmas Cookies Around the World Passport (three versions)
• Taste Test Journal
• Cookie Recipe Cookbook
• Editable Cookie Recipe Page to add in additional family and multi-cultural options
• Gift Tags
• Notecards
• My Family’s Favorite Cookie Recipe (two versions)
• Editable Parent Letter (two versions)
• Ingredient List by Cookie

The project is designed for use in the classroom, at home, or in community programs. Suggestions and modifications for each setting are included in the resource.

Get your Christmas Cookies Around the World Project

This project is also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.