Every year my two girlfriends and I get together for an annual holiday cookie-baking day. We’ve done this ever since our sons became friends in elementary school. We’ve done this so long now that our families also anticipate the special day when each of us comes home with trays and containers brimming with the holiday flavors for which they wait all year. Like our day together, many of our recipes are traditional favorites – the ones that, if cut from the cookie line-up, would create a major Christmas confection “faux pas.” It is almost always a mistake to mess with holiday tradition, as many people are connected to life’s happier memories through the tastes and smells of the season.

Grant’s Bakery and the Italian Bakery, both family-owned and operated, have an appreciation for what that tradition means to their customers. And, they begin their work early, preparing to fill their display cases with those traditional treats that have graced holiday tables for years.

According to Doug Grant, one of the three owners of Grant’s Bakery, assorted petite pastries and decorated holiday cakes, especially Yule Log cakes, make their list for top holiday requests. Pies are a consistent favorite as well. Grant’s offers 20 different meat and fruit pies ranging from the French traditional tortiere to chocolate cream and berry pies.

Additionally, the Bakery also supports the home baker with premade rolled and unrolled dough, pie crusts, prebaked if desired. “Almost everything we make, we sell ingredients for,” explained Grant. “Meringue powder, frostings, decorations. We even sell gingerbread house kits with our own prebaked, from scratch gingerbread.”

Lisa Chouinard, daughter of the owners of the Italian Bakery, also anticipates the traditional requests for petite pastries including cream puffs, eclairs, raspberry and cream turnovers, and Neapolitans. Italian holiday favorites are canolis, crispy, cookie shells filled with sweetened ricotta cheese and dipped in walnuts or chocolate chips, and tiramisu.

“Year round we offer Torrone, a honey nougat candy, that was a special treat in our family at Christmas time,” said Chouinard. “Our holiday selections also include fancy European cookies in almond and buttered flavors and lots of little frosted, Christmas tree-cutout, sugar cookies.”

As for the “Betty, Ann, and I” and baking operation, we bring our family-favorite recipes to the kitchen counter every year. Betty’s Mexican Wedding Cakes — buttery, bite-size shortbread cookies — make the platter every year. And it wouldn’t be Christmas for Ann’s family (or now ours) without Aunt Zil’s Date Pinwheels — chocolate-dipped maple creams, and peanut butter balls. Sour cream sugar cookies, chocolate caramel thumbprints, and jam-filled shortbread cookies are my family favorites.

During the year, we all scour magazines and cookbooks for new additions to the traditional holiday line-up. Nutter Butter Santa Clauses, gingersnaps, macaroons, checkerboard shortbreads, gingerbread men, chocolate-dipped pistachio cookies, oatmeal cranberry and white chocolate chip cookies, and to-die-for pecan bars have all made appearances in our baking Christmas pageant. Still, year after year, we come back to the tried-and-true recipes, staying loyal to tradition while experimenting with new ideas that may eventually share the holiday table spotlight.

Every year we three friends come together, all agreeing to bake less than the year before. After all, we begin baking at 8 a.m. and finish around 9:30 p.m. However, once we get into the baking groove, getting lost in the sugar and flour and sweet smells spilling from the oven, we begin an elaborate confectionary dance of flavors and colors that carry us away.

Inevitably, by the night’s end, we awaken from our visions of sugarplums to discover we have made multiple platters of 13 to 15 different cookies and candies and are scrambling for every possible tray, basket, bowl, plate and plastic bag to transport them to our eagerly awaiting families. And so, the holiday tradition continues and what a sweet way to celebrate.

For customer convenience and holiday flyers, Grant’s and the Italian Bakery invite you to visit their websites: www.grantsbakery.com and www.theitalianbakery.biz.

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