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A Doubly Sweet Treat for the HolidaysBring a Smile to a Child Spending Christmas in the HospitalBy Erika Wright
A program through The Swiss Colony and the National Alliance of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) has led to sweeter holidays for more than 200,000 families with sick children since 1986. This year is the 20th anniversary of the program, and they are hoping to beat their average of 10,000 Gingerbread houses a year. When the gift recipient opens their box of petits fours, there’s a card inside telling them that a gingerbread house was sent to a sick child in the hospital in their name, at your request. The hospital that receives the gingerbread house will also send a thank you letter to the person who received the petits fours in recognition of their gift. The gingerbread houses are a nice way to brighten the holidays for children in need who are not able to spend the holidays at home with their families.
The Swiss Colony sent me the box of petits fours which my family happily devoured. The box contained 12 each of royal vanilla, carrot spice, strawberry shortcake, lemon mist, red velvet and chocolate fudge. The petits fours were very good, moist little cakelets covered in Swiss crème or chocolate and hand decorated … just as a good petits four should be. They led to a few heated debates within the family as to which flavor was the best! Although the kids were a little disappointed that the gingerbread house was pre-made, I explained that this was probably the best solution for kids in the hospital, as assembling gingerbread houses is very messy. After a little softening up in the refrigerator, the house was perfectly edible. The only complaint by my young tasters was that the 2 bags of gumdrops which came with the gingerbread house tasted a bit like toothpaste, except for the red ones which were a yummy cinnamon flavor. The Swiss Colony sells all of these items individually as well as a huge assortment of other tasty treats. If your kids want to assemble a gingerbread house themselves, The Swiss Colony also sells a kit with the pieces already baked and ready to go. Or if you’d like one already assembled, they sell them that way as well with an assortment of chocolates and candies. The Swiss Colony was opened in 1926 by Ray Kubly as a mail order cheese company. Over the years it has expanded to offer a selection of food gifts including cheeses, meats, chocolates and baked goods. Information: Swiss Colony Petits Fours with Gingerbread House
sells for $29.95 |
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TM
This Christmas, when you’re flipping through mail-order catalogs to find the
perfect gift for those hard to please relatives in far off places, try The Swiss
Colony for a gift that’s twice as sweet. When you buy a box of 72 petits fours,
The Swiss Colony will send a pre-made Gingerbread house to a sick child in a
hospital in your region at no extra charge.
The Swiss Colony explains that
“Gingerbread was historically one of the original holiday foods used to decorate
both the home and the traditional Christmas tree. The first cookbook printed in
the late 1400s includes a recipe for Gingerbread. At that time, folks thought
Gingerbread was a health food, so it was called “Lebkuchen.” (In German, “Lebens
Kuchen” means life bread.) Throughout Europe, the baking of Gingerbread was
originally considered an art form, only Gingerbread bakers were allowed to
create it—except at Christmas and Easter.”