Over 60 years of giving: Cookie Day returns Friday in Graham
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(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Visitors to the annual Cookie Day event in 2021 pick out cookies from trays placed in the garage of Mary Braddock. The Cookie Day event has been a tradition for over 60 years in Graham from the Braddock family. -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Santa Clause sugar cookies which were at the 2021 Cookie Day event in Graham. The event is held for free each year and provides visitors a free bag or plate of cookies.
An over 60-year tradition returns this week to Graham as Mary Braddock welcomes the community to her home to receive a sweet treat during Cookie Day. The event began as a family affair, and has since grown into an annual community event where the Braddock family comes together to provide cookies for the community.
Cookie Day will be held at 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9 at Braddock’s home on 1010 Westwood Drive. Last year, Braddock said the tradition started 63 years ago when she started baking cookies for her family and expanded to invite the community.
“I do it every year for the city people that I love. I am born and raised here. Love the town, love the people. You can’t beat the people of Graham, they are wonderful,” she said in a previous interview. “I used to do it for my children when they were little and their friends. Then they grew up and moved away and I wanted to keep doing it. So, I decided, ‘Well, I’ll just open it up to the town.’ Then my kids all started coming back and helping me because I can’t do it all by myself now, it’s just got too big. They all take off work when they can and they come home from out of town.”
Braddock said last year that the family begins baking cookies around Thanksgiving, freezes the sugar cookies and will ice them on the day of the event.
For the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 7 edition of The Graham Leader.
