The Origins of Christmas Cookies One of the most well known and nostalgic holiday traditions is that of leaving out milk and cookies for Santa. This humble tradition is millennia old and has appeared in some form during Yuletide for as long as can be recorded. Many areas would leave out feasts for the dead, who would come to visit during Yuletide and consume the spirit of the food. Families would leave food out as offerings for a day sometimes a few and then consume it, as the spirits had had their fill at this point they would feast. Why Cookies? well this combines another common element of Yuletide traditions the creation of baked goods as offerings for deities and spirits. Such as the Sinterklaas Speculaas reminiscent of Fro or Wodan, or the Hot Cross buns made for Ostara. The combination of these two traditions resulted in the modern tradition of the leaving out of the offerings of both the special baked good and the food for the spirits (ancestors) in milk and cookies for a Jolly Old Elf.-TLK