Cookie!

December 4 is supposedly National Cookie Day, at least according to our friends at National Day. 

You would hardly think we need a holiday for cookies in the United States. Really, every day is cookie day. Here are some stats from a report by the South Florida Reporter:

• Americans consume over 2 billion cookies a year … about 300 cookies for each person.
• The average American eats 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.
• 95.2 percent of U.S. households consume cookies.
• Half the cookies baked in American homes each year are chocolate chip.
• Santa Claus eats an estimated 336,150,386 cookies on Christmas Eve.

I caution that the sources listed on this story are not rock-solid, and in fact contradictory. For example, American men currently enjoy a life expectancy of 78.54 years, which would mean we're eating about 446 cookies a year, not 300 (35000 ÷ 78.54). Usually we eat more than one cookie at a sitting, but do we eat an average of 1.22 daily? I yield to no one in my love of cookies, but days go by without me touching any, and I have an extreme sweet tooth. I guess it's possible but it seems like a lot.

As for Santa, he needs the energy to visit all the houses. Also, like Cookie Monster, he is magical, so the normal rules don't apply.

But back to the holiday. According to National Day, National Cookie Day was invented in 1987 by Matt Nader of the Blue Chip Cookie Company, in San Francisco. The company is still operating, but has been owned by Donna Drury-Heine and Bob Heine since 2005. Its HQ moved from San Francisco to Milford, Ohio, and is now heavily invested in the mail-order cookie business. Supposedly Clint Eastwood said they had the best cookies he ever ate. You wouldn't want to contradict Clint, would you? 

I hate to bring up controversy, but the Days of the Year site claims that Nader did not invent the holiday, although it is coy about how the holiday began. Let's not dwell on that. I wouldn't want to be accused of taking part in a rumble.

However it got here, I'm not surprised that this holiday was placed early in December, Christmas being so heavily associated with cookies. According to an ugly but informative site called The Food Timeline, small cookie-esque bakes for special occasions go back to ancient times. The site quotes a McCall's magazine story that says the Christmas cookie craze was all over Europe by the 1500s. The page even has an American Christmas cookie recipe from a cookbook published in Albany in 1796! 

So what should we do to celebrate National Cookie Day? Days of the Year says "On Cookie Day people can get together to bake cookies together, which can turn out to be a surprisingly good time. Parents can have fun baking the first batch of cookies their children will ever bake with them, which is also guaranteed to be an unforgettable experience." The site also includes a recipe for peanut butter cookies. National Day also suggests baking cookies, but allows for just buying some at a local bakery. I guess there's no wrong way to celebrate National Cookie Day except to say, "No, sir! I will not celebrate this day of cookies! No, I think not!"

Christmas cookies have been a matter of some interest to this blog before, including a comprehensive rating of the the little treats. Know your cookies, is what we say at Vitamin Fred. And Happy National Cookie Day.