How I learned the meaning of Czech Christmas through intoxicating and delicious pastries

By Casey Glynn

Delicious treat or cunning trap? (photo by Rebecca Weinstein).

It’s like looking at a treasure chest full of priceless jewels.

If you could eat jewels.

Each jewel is unique as a snowflake and as perfect as Hugh Jackman’s abs. Together they form an optical illusion out of pattern, texture, shape, and color.

The only variations in color are white chocolate and dark chocolate. And at least two thirds are double stacked and filled with jam.

I lean forward to try to breathe in the spiritual essence of a timeless tradition, and choke on the toxic mushroom cloud of powdered sugar that shoots up at my face.

I have just been inducted into the wonderful world of Czech Christmas cookies.

My roommate looks up briefly as I hop around the room, coughing and frantically pounding at the recently acquired layer of white powder on my new black dress.

“You look like a coke head,” she tells me helpfully before returning her attention to the American television show House, MD.

Composing myself, I eye the tiny cookies warily. (more…)