Adventures in Mommydom

Hands on learning for active learners

  • Home page
    • Start Here
    • About Us
    • Get all of the posts now!
    • Disclosure and other blogging information
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Curriculum
    • Why I homeschool (comments from a former teacher)
    • Homeschooling and the Holidays
  • History and geography
    • Ancient History Lessons
    • Modern History lessons
    • American History Lessons
    • LEGO history
  • Science
  • Bible Curriculum
  • STORE

Christmas in Russia

November 11, 2020 By Ticia 2 Comments

When I think Russia at Christmas, I think snow, lots and lots of snow. I’m assuming that’s true, but I haven’t been there to verify it. Texas does not have a snowy Christmas, so I am unfamiliar with the idea. This meant for us a Christmas in Russia lesson was a nice addition to our Christmas Around the World unit, and a great addition to our geography lessons.

Christmas in Russia lesson

(there are affiliate links in here)

Our Christmas in Russia books

This whole lesson was inspired when I picked up our Russia books and found three Christmas books:

Christmas in Russia books

  • Babushka: A Christmas Tale– this book reminded me La Bafana from Italy, and to my mind used the exact same craft I did for that, which is why there is no fun craft, because it would be another broom for the Christmas tree
  • Babushka, an old Russian Folktale– Basically the same story with slightly different version and very different illustrations
  • Baboushka– And yet another version of the story

Oh wait, I found a variation on the story as a YouTube video, so if your library doesn’t have the story, you can hear the story yourself:

 

There are a couple more on there, but this had illustrations similar to what I’d seen elsewhere.

Russian Tea Cakes

I used the recipe from here: Russian Tea Cakes, which swears up and down it is a traditional Russian Christmas cookie.

I add this detail because years ago when we first started cooking around the world and I made a Russian meal from somewhere I’d found online I was told my Russian meal was not a proper Russian meal.

This is a nice and easy recipe, I apparently didn’t take pictures the original time, so here are my secondary pictures after making the cookies a second time (and then using them for a snack when we watched Emma, because cookies).

Russian Christmas cookies

 

Yield: 2 dozen

Russian tea cakes

Russian Christmas cookies
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 27 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • cup chopped walnuts, toasted Optional)
  • 3 tablespoons powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Beat butter and vanilla in bowl until smooth.
  3. Add powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy, about 1 minute
  4. Slowly add the flour and salt. If you're adding nuts this would be the time to add nuts.
  5. Bake 10-12 minutes until cookies are light brown.
  6. Dust cooled cookies with powdered sugar
Now, here is how it actually went, you know for if you’re not printing off the recipe card.

 

At first things go smoothly, because after all it’s just beating butter, vanilla and powdered sugar, what could go wrong with that?

Well… we finally had worked our way through the five pounds of powdered sugar, and I was pretty sure I didn’t have any powdered sugar anywhere to find. After searching all over the various cabinets, I found a box of powdered sugar, and add it in.

Then I added in the flour, but skipped the chopped walnuts because I’m the only person in my family who actually likes them, and I really don’t need to be eating two dozen cookies.

Then I didn’t bother reading the instructions, because you always add the sugar you dust on right before cooking.

Only, no matter how often I dusted powdered sugar over the top of the cookies, it just absorbed into the cookies. Finally, I read the instructions and discovered:

“Dust cooled cookies with powdered sugar.”

Okay, new plan, I baked the cookies and finally got that nice powdered sugar covered cookie I’d been trying for.

This round of cookies I made for the pictures, and so we could add another snack for our Emma movie night (where we watched Clueless).

And, that’s it. That’s our Christmas in Russia.

Random things that I felt like highlighting

because my brain is fried

middle school christmas math science and writing lessons
Teaching geography without a curriculum
Bible translations which is right for you
Invisible ink project science chemistry history american revolution preschool kinder book and activity
challenges of high school science
  • Middle School Christmas Fun
  • Teaching Geography without a Curriculum
  • How to pick the right Bible translation for you
  • Invisible Ink project
  • High School science is hard

Filed Under: geography, Homeschool Holidays Tagged With: Christmas, Europe

Comments

  1. Natalie PlanetSmarty says

    November 15, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    Interesting! I have never seen these cookies in Russia ๐Ÿ™‚ Granted, my Jewish grandma was usually in charge of New Year’s Eve desserts (New Year’s Eve in the Soviet Union was celebrated pretty much like Christmas here, minus, of course, church services.) During my time growing up, it was always Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) who were bringing gifts. But you are right about lots of snow – at least in the parts that would include my native Minsk and Moscow.

    Reply
  2. maryanne says

    November 19, 2020 at 10:47 am

    I think Russia is a big country, and you get different foods in different parts of the country. Just like how here in California we eat a super different diet from what you would find in, say, Georgia.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

Help!!!! I need to know:

Categories

 book and a movie combo

Copyright © 2021 ยท