Again, my mother hates the Germans with a blinding passion. It may be vaguely related to her Jewish heritage (which she's always paid lip service to) and the barely-remembered hardships of WWII (she was born a month before Pearl Harbor) but mostly I think she needs someone to hate.

A family's christmas cookies are treasured by some, certainly not by everyone. Lots of people have no fucking clue how to bake. Among those who do bake, "secret family recipes" are generally things that are supposedly held close but actually shared far and wide as a point of pride. no one has ever asked anyone else for a bizcochito recipe, and our cookies were universally unpopular among those who tried them. They're f'n terrible.

I would say the "typical" christmas cookie in the united states is an undifferentiated sugar cookie with amateurish frosting. That's probably why we were never allowed to make or enjoy them.

As a reminder, my mother is mentally ill. Has been my entire life. Having inherited the family photos and documentation (entirely by accident) I can say with no uncertainty that my dead uncle was clearly bipolar, my grandfather was clearly bipolar, my grandfather had at least one bipolar brother and my great great grandmother was bipolar. Asking me about normie shit ain't necessarily gonna end well. ;-)