Santa Cookie-The One That Started it All
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Today, I am going to tell you about something I did that made me panic 2 minutes after I did it. I thought I would share it with you since yesterday was Black Friday, and some of you woke up at 2 am to go fight the cold and crowds to buy gifts for people you love. I felt the time was right to talk about shopping. Not just shopping, I am talking about overpaying for something because you get caught up in the moment. This Santa cookie story should make you laugh.
My Santa Cookie Story:
(Yes, this is true.)
This is “The” Santa cookie that started me on this wonderful cookie journey. I saw Dani Fiori on the Martha Stewart Show make them, and it was love at first sight. When the preview with Dani showed her decorating with those cute little icing bottles, my heart skipped a beat. I grabbed an old VHS tape, threw it in the VCR, and started recording it. I mean, this guy was so cute, I had to know how to make him.
As I stood there watching Dani teach Martha how to decorate the adorable Santa cookie, I was mesmerized! I could not take my eyes off them. Once the segment was over, I rewound the tape and watched it again. Then, I grabbed my computer and started looking for Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cutters at Macy’s. NOOOO!!! They were sold out!! What was I going to do? I convinced myself that this was the only cookie in the world I could make!
I Became a Crazy Want-To-Be Cookie Decorator:
You know what? I did what any crazed “want-to-be” cookie decorator would do. I searched on eBay! There it was! The set!! THE SET that I had to have, or I would never be able to decorate any cookie, because this one was the only one I had seen decorated with those cute little bottles!! I had to have it!! This was the only cutter I HAD TO HAVE! I grabbed my credit card and placed a bid. eBay laughed as I was notified I had been outbid!
I upped my bid! Then, I upped it again and again until (gulp) I had placed a bid of $60.00!! I did it! Yes, surely that other bidder would not go that high! I wanted them so much more than she did, so I clicked the button and waited! Win, Lisa, win! I had to win! I was in a bidding war, and that Santa cutter was mine, I tell you! ALL MINE! I got the Santa Cookie Cutter I needed!
I won!
What just happened? Did I really spend $60 for a Santa cutter? Oh, my word! I felt my heart sink. But did I stop there? Nope! I began to search for the cute little bottles she was using, and I found them at Karen’s Cookies. Karen’s Cookies is no longer in business, but you can get them at The Cookie Countess. I don’t use them anymore because I love piping bags now, but those little bottles helped get me started. I ordered several bottles and tips. Now I’m ready to decorate.
Then came the reality check. What had I done? Did I really spend $60.00 on a Santa cookie cutter? If I had bought them at Macy’s, they would have cost around $20.00. Yes. I did spend $60 on the set.
OH NOOOO!! What was I going to tell Alan? He was going to think I had lost my mind! I KNEW I had lost it! What in the world was I thinking? $60.00? Holy COW! When Alan came home, I immediately confessed. He smiled, hugged me, and said if it made me happy, it was fine. He encouraged me to do something that I might enjoy. I felt so much better, but was still upset that I went that crazy over a Santa Cookie cutter.
This is Why I Love This Santa Cookie Cutter:
So now you see why this Santa cookie is so special to me. It’s the most expensive cutter I own, and it introduced me to the wonderful world of cookies. Which has brought me to you and many, many cookie friends. If not for this little expensive cutter, what would I be doing today? I would not have the joy of baking and sharing things I have learned with you. We would not be cookie friends. I can’t imagine that!
Do you feel better now about how much money you spent yesterday? At least you woke up early and were looking for deals! I have no excuse! I just had a moment when I went NUTS!!! Lesson learned! Or was it? I make this little guy every year as a reminder to go nuts sometimes. You never know where your crazy moment will take you! It brought me to you, and that makes me very happy!
Oh yeah, did I mention I’ve to Dani Foiri many times? She is so sweet! That is another gift from Santa!
You can find Dani’s video tutorial on YouTube here, and here is the template. If you can’t find the cutter for less than $60, here is the pattern so you can hand cut it. You might need to hide your credit card before you watch it. Santa has magical powers! Even if you follow her tutorial, you can still add touches to decorate and make him your very own Santa Cookie. I airbrushed mine this year, and I like it! How will I decorate him next year? Stick around to find out.
Bear hugs,
Gah! I ADORE you! I’m so glad you found this path of cookie decorating! This guy is stinking cute…. just like you!
You make me so happy Georganne! You are the one that is adorable!!!
I would have done the same thing! I love your santa cookie and I love you!
I love you more Kim!!
I’ve been there! It wasn’t a Santa but a large flower cutter. I love your Santa’s and the way the beard is done. so adorable!
I think we all have gone overboard on a cookie cutter! LOL I have to see this flower cutter you speak of;)
So freakin adorable! I love the faded black outline you added!
Thanks Janine!
They look amazing! I feel like we have all fallen into that trap but at least you’ve been using it. Better than most can say. And what a treat for us to see the cuteness.
I felt like I could justify the $60 if I made it an annual tradition! LOL I haven’t missed a year yet!
I owe Dani Fiori a big 60 million dollar hug because if it weren’t for her, you and I never would have met. Your Santas are so cute and I love that you made the design your own with your own special touches.
I love you Deborah!! You are so precious and I am glad Good Ole Saint Nick made us friends!
Love the Santa. Cute story…think we all have spent too much on something just because we’ve had to have it!!! In this case though I’m so glad you bought the Santa…because now we have you to learn from…Thanks!!! And you found your niche in life….cookies!!!!! Watched the video. Like yours better…love the airbrushing. Will have to try it with my new airbrush. Sent you an email last week…did you get it???? –Katy
Thanks Katy! Can you resend the email? I didn’t get it 🙁
Just re-sent!! Thanks–Katy
OMG I have to get those little bottles! Those Santas are the cutest everrrrrr. Need a Santa cookie cutter too… Now I want to bake, and I usually don’t so much. lol
I warned you that this little Santa cookie has magical powers! He is so addictive! I am sorry I got you hooked!!! LOL
hahah He sure does! I even watched the original video and googled those little guys myself – not so easy to find anymore and not willing to pay $60, sorry LOL. I went into Michael’s to see if they had any because they have a MS section…no dice, yet. I’ll find something suitable yet!
I think the only store that carried this cutter was Macy’s. I recently found a set on eBay for $12. I will add the template to the post so you can hand cut if you want:)
Well $12 is much better. Thank you for offering to add the template, I just read in another blog where someone made a custom cutter with roofing flashing to make fimo clay ornaments for their tree, and used different sized round cutters with it for the middle, giving them several different designs in the end. Now, to get my husband on board with this… 🙂
The template is added now! I also found a patter if you want to hand cut him!
I suspect you have a lot of followers that will be wishing they had this adorable guy. How big is he? I think I have a Santa cutter in a MS set of 4 cutters, but it’s not very big. I have to dig through the Christmas cutters and see if I can find him. Just in case anyone is interested, here is a template for this Santa:
http://www.marthastewart.com/269945/santa-claus-cookies
Thanks for sharing the template. This little cutter is about 5″ tall and he is about 3″ wide. I love this cutter!
I can totally understand your story and at least the cutter is still getting used, no wonder he means a lot to you. How many years ago did you buy it? I love the extra effect you get from the airbrushing, what an adorable Santa.
Hi Laura,
I got him almost 4 years ago. I actually started decorating cookies in January 2009 the day he arrived in the mail!
When you tweeted the picture of this adorable cookie I had no idea the story behind it. I love this post (and the cookies). Yes, you may have spent $60 on the cutter (gasp) but given all the wonderful cookies that have come from your kitchen to your blog since, I’d say it was a very wise purchase indeed.
You are so sweet Paula! I love this cookie journey I am on. I have met so many amazing people and life long friends!
Cute story! I am so glad you’re making the most of your (expensive) Santa cookie. I like the new airbrush details! It reminds me of the moment I fell in love with cookie decorating via Bake at 350. After discovering her site, I just HAD to try the wet-on-wet technique with Valentine’s cookies.
It is really good to see that most of us got hooked on making cookies because we fell for one specific cookie. I am not a very impulsive person but this Santa make me do crazy things! I guess he knew I should make some cookies:)
I love the Bake at 350 blog. Bridgett is so cute!!
Thanks for sharing your story. We all do go crazy sometimes when shopping for something we absolutely have to have. In reality you made a good buy. You use your Santa cutter each year, and maybe another cutter you spent $20 on sits in a box somewhere having only been used once, so really $60 is not bad at all when you consider what it is worth to you! The cookies are really adorable and I love the addition of the airbrushing.
Oh Beth! I could hug you! I do have a cutter I paid $20 for and have used it once!! I like the way you think!
I’m so glad you shared your fabulous story, Lisa!
And the airbrushing really makes those Santas come alive!
You are so sweet Gail! I am glad you read my crazy story and like me anyway!
Santa started it all for me too but mine was from Karen’s. I can’t wait to pull him out and use him again this year! 🙂
I would love to see a picture of your Santa! Will you email it to me? 😉
I love your little santa men. And you know how much I love when you airbrush them too!
glad to know I’m not the only soul that has fallen prey to Martha and her Christmas specials. For me it was the ‘ornament’ cookies…and yes, I HAD to make them. As crazy as it was at the time…so stinkin’ thrilled that I did. Miss you!
Thanks Lizy! I should start a link party and ask every to put up pictures of things they paid WAY to much for! LOL You can add your ornament cutters beside my Santa! Martha knows how to sell things! LOL I miss you too!!!!
he’s so cute, and obviously worth it if you make him every year!!
Thanks Carrie! I love starting the holiday baking with this Santa!
So what do you think I just did? Yep went over to eBay and got the Santa cookie cutter! I loved you story but loved the cookie even more. Can’t wait to bake some for my grandson. Thanks so much for sharing.
I hope you got a better deal than I did!! LOL Hope you enjoy making him!
Oh, my goodness! He is SO cute!!! Love how you did his beard, the touch with airbrushing and everything about him!! He is absolutely wonderful!! (Loved your story too! He is a treasure!)
Just wanted to say that I totally enjoyed hearing your story…this sounds like something that I would soooooo do! Who hasn’t gotten caught up in the moment and did something like this, only to have buyers remorse AFTER hitting the “buy” button! But that thought goes away quickly and look what that one cutter has brought you to…I really enjoy looking at all your creations! TFS!
Haha! You are so cute & so is this santa! I hope it is at least a copper cutter… 🙂
NO!!! It is so NOT copper!! LOL But it was a set so I got more than one!
Oh , dear little Santa!
Yes, Danni F and Martha Stewart have a lot to answer for!
I too fell under Danni’s cookie magic spell .Except for me it was the snow globe. Do you know how hard it was to find one here in Aust and let’s not mention the postage, or the trip to Cake n Bake in NY to go wild buying all the supplies I couldn’t get in Aust at the time. ( well, we were going to NY anyway)
Until quite recently, I didn’t know of too many other cookie artists, so I would love Danni’s posts. But oh joyous occasion, I have discovered so many others including your wonderful art. So really, in the big scheme of things, $60.00 is not too much to spend on sharing the love and joy a gift of a well decorated cookie can bring to your friends. And it makes for a wonderful story. Well done. Love the airbrushing.
Dear little Santa…… You really ARE quite Marvelous.
Thanks to your post, I decided to dig through the cutters to find this guy and he is bigger than I realized. I’ve decided that he will be the design for the Church Women’s Club annual party.
Oh yeah… the Santa with airbrushing is SOOO cool and so much better and has more dimension that the one without. You even blow your own stuff away I guess! What’s next, what’s next… 🙂
He’s DARLING!!!! (And I can certainly identify the mystic powers of ebay auctions!!) Is there a way to subscribe to your blog? I’ve checked all over the page and cannot find it….or am I missing it? Blessings, Donna B.
That’s the best story ever. My cookie decorating life changed after watching Dani Fiori make Valentine Owls on Martha!!! I found the Wilton bottles at Wal-mart and started that way…then I found Karen’s Cookies and the bottles with tips… I still can’t fill a bottle without a piping bag, but I don’t care. I even taught a class locally, last Christmas, on the basics of wet on wet decorating, using tweezers to accent with pearls and sugars…I bought every bottle Wal-mart had for the event! I hope to do a step two class using the Karen’s Cookies bottles with coupler to teach layered cookies. I watch every youtube I can find on cookie decorating. I’m not where you are yet, but I’m working hard on it! If you look at my 2010 Christmas Cookies vs my 2012 Christmas Cookies, you can (I think) really see the difference. I’m a work in progress. Thanks for sharing your story!!!
Oh Lisa, this Lisa just about did the exact same thing today. I was doing some innocent Christmas gift shopping online at World Market recently when I learned that they sell these nifty sets of plastic square cutters. They’re in graduated sizes, and are reversible – so they have both straight-edged and scalloped edge options. All of this sums up to 10 cutters for $2.99. $2.99 I tell you!!! And to top it off I had a 10% off coupon. Wheee!!! Hold your horses though because they were sold out online. And the closest World Market is 3 hours from my house. So I asked my parents, who’re on vacation in Florida to pick up a set for me. They went to the store, and, sure enough, that store was sold out too. Rats. So then I called every store in the surrounding 3 states and finally found one that had them in stock. But would they ship them you ask? No ma’am! This led to the logical next step of asking the store associate to hold it for me and then mapped out the three-hour route to the store. Unfortunately (or actually it was probably for the best), the mapping website also automatically calculates your travel costs for you. I think it was once I saw it was going to cost more than $60 round-trip that I threw in the towel. My oh my… Maybe Santa will stop by World Market on his sleigh ride and pick me up some. 🙂
Anyways, just wanted to let you know you’re not alone in your craziness! 🙂
I hate you didn’t get the cutters but, I am so glad you won’t feel bad for years to come! LOL I hope Santa comes through for you!
Now you have added to my desire to learn how to decorate cookies. This is my goal for this next year. Maybe by next holiday season I’ll be ready for this wonderful Santa.
Lisa (poster Lisa),
Check out http://www.goldaskitchen.com for cookie cutters. She had a few sets of the nested squares, although the plastic ones weren’t reversible. Amazingly, she is a Canadian site that ships worldwide (usually its the other way around!). I love love love her site for all my cookie needs..
Tanya
Oh dear….. I just read this little post and it made me laugh . i think we have all fallen for this trap at sometime. God Forgives us and so do our loving Husbands.!! I bought this wee Santa cutter set on eBay a couple of weeks ago for very little. And I see they still have more to sell. You see I saw that show too. It took cookie decorating to another level . Oh how I wanted to decorate . Oh how badly I decorated ! And oh how I wanted to meet Ms DaniB. Well fast forward to now and my wish will come true. Not only will I meet up with Dani in NYC, but she will be creating cookies for me and I get to have a workshop too. God knows the desires of our heart.
Lovely work
Hi Lisa,
This Santa is amazing and your story had me smiling all the way.
Oh, you sweet, sweet girl! What would you say if I told you the LEAST expensive Martha by Mail cookie cutter set I have is one I paid $310.00 for?
It’s a mad, mad world out there but the heart wants what the heart wants!
By the way… I say you deserve the cutters – You have certainly made the most of them!! I LOVE your work! Next on my list is an airbrush machine. More cha-ching! 🙂
xo
Are you kidding?? $310.00??? Holy cow were they GOLD? LOL OK, I have to know which set it was and which one was the most expensive. We crazed cookie cutter shoppers have to stick together! Bahahahahah
PS- Do you shop on ebay? I need to know your name so I can just leave the bidding area immediately.
Sadly, I’m not kidding – I already have a large collection of the Martha by Mail cutters; however, there were a few sets I missed buying before the catalog went kaput. The egg (Easter), heart (Valentines) and Baby Sets were the big three I missed. I paid $302 for the eggs, $300 for the hearts and after a long, long wait, I was finally able to get the baby set last month and was HAPPY to get it for $252.00! You can view it here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300976194155?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
There are Halloween sets that aren’t even copper (they’re tin!) that have sold for over $500! It’s insane!
Keep up the (great!) work – You already know I LOVE your blog!
xo
Janet
Actually, the real horror is that set I of the tin Halloween cookie cutters (which is *still* available at Macy’s before Halloween–just not in the original MBM cardboard box) sold in September for over $1,000. I think the final bid was over $1200. Subsequent sellers have tried to get high prices for the same set but it seems the buyers woke up to the insanity. ; )
Hi, Lisa. Did you know Dani Fiori is on Pinterest? You should tag her on your Santa cookie pin. : )
I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but using the original link that Lisa gave, I can’t find the recipe, photo, anything on the Martha website pertaining to this cookie. I can find mention of Dani. But when I click to play the video — nothing, nada, zilch. No biggie, for me, since I was interested but not going to bake/make. Just wanted to alert the powers that be!
Hi Laurel,
The links are working for me. Here is the tutorial: http://www.marthastewart.com/952093/sugar-cookies-martha-stewart-and-dani-fiori
Here is the template: http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2009Q4/ld105101_1209_santa1.pdf
Here is the image of the cuttter: http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2009Q4/msl_1209_0912_santacookie.pdf
Wow, thanks Lisa! You didn’t have to take the time, you are busy enough this time of year, but I appreciate it!! 🙂
You are very welcome Laurel! 😉
Hi Lisa! Loved the Santa so much I went on a quest to find him! I also had to bid on EBay as he was nowhere to be found. I was lucky to get him at $31.00 so I have ordered the bottles bought all the other supplies and am anxiously awaiting his arrival. Hope he is as easy to make as the video showed! Would love to impress my grandchildren. Thanks for the inspiration!
I know this is an older post but I had to speak up!! I bet I have read this as many times as you watched that video! Hysterical and comforting! I get a laugh and a virtual hug at the same time!! 😉 Now THAT is the best Christmas deal going!! Being new to the cookie world I found this so encouraging and so down to earth!! Thank you for making me feel more human and not so crazy!! I think we all have had those impulses! In my opinion it was totally worth it! ;). Thanks again for keeping us all real!
Awe! Sarah, you made my day! I just got a virtual hug from you!! THANK YOU!
Just in case anyone asks you, this cutter collection was back on the shelves at Macy’s in Chicago this year. This cutter continues to be one of my favorites, I’m so glad I read this post last year. This year, I used the cutter to create a Snowbird Santa.
http://mycookiefriend.blogspot.com/2013/12/tis-season.html
Hey Lisa, This is EXACTLY what happened to me! This is where I started too, I mean that beard with the pearls! I also could not get the cutters because they were sold out! It is too funny that our journey started the same way over the very same cookie!!
Heidi – Pretty Cookies LLC
Oh…my…gosh…..no wonder you fell in love with him…he is TOOOOOO cute. Now you have me looking for that cutter. I’m have plenty of cutters..but really do we ever have plenty…of course not there is always room for one more…until the next time :). I love the airbrush, makes SANTA really pop. 🙂
Saw these cute cookies and went on a quest to find the cutter. I found one on Etsy that comes in 4 different sizes (up to 5 inches). The cutter looks to be extremely close to the one shown. Below is a link if anyone is interested. I’m just starting to get into cake and cookie decorating, and it’s addicting. Thanks!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/212383503/santa-cookie-cutter
Thank you Julie! I love finding “hard to find” cookie cutters! Thanks for sharing this one with us!!
I taught ceramics for 18 years and then was hit with MS. It left a huge void in my life. A couple of years ago I started decorating cookies. Each holiday the decorating got a little fancier. I began to really love decorating. I am sub amateur but love doing it. I don’t expect to be as good as you but I really enjoy your “tips”. Thank you for sharing and caring.
LOL! you have just described how I got hooked into making cards …. and now cookies! My friends were watching the Christmas Cookie Challenge and I was hooked.