Sweet holiday tradition spans generations

Graham resident Mary Braddock held her annual “Cookie Day” celebration last Friday at her home on Westwood Drive, where she provided thousands of free cookies to about 375 Graham residents, some of whom she did not even know. The treats were of all different varieties, including gluten-free cookies and an abundance of sugar cookies. Braddock makes the sugar cookies herself, usually a day or two before the event, but she said most of the cookies are made on the day of the celebration. The event is free to the public. Braddock said the tradition began accidentally in December 1958, when she promised her niece and nephew, Karen Hogan and Malcolm Henderson, that they could invite friends over for cookies if they behaved while she was watching them. “The next year after that, when it got close to Christmas, their friends asked them when I was going to make cookies again,” Braddock said. “I said, ‘We can do that. You all come on and we will have cookies.’” Braddock soon had children of her own, and when they were old enough to have friends, they too invited them to “Cookie Day.” With each passing year, the celebration began to grow more and more as friends who had attended the previous year would invite others to come along with them to the current year’s Cookie Day. Every year, Braddock holds the event on either the first or second Friday of December. She said having it on a Friday is convenient for her family, who travel to Graham each year from all over the state to help her bake and ice cookies. “My children all come home and then my grandchildren, who are grown, also come to Graham to help me,” Braddock said. “Usually the grandchildren come the night before and spend the night and they get up before 5 a.m. to start icing the cookies.” In addition to family, Braddock said friends who have been involved in the tradition for many years also lend a helping hand. “My friends are here before 8 a.m. that day and they help with the icing,” she said. “I had quite a few friends help out this year. It takes a lot of icing to get a couple of thousand cookies iced.” Braddock said even though she, along with several family members and friends, put many hours of hard work into the event, Cookie Day is always a very joyous day for all involved. “It is a very special day for us,” she said. “We love doing it.”