Just like in Tuscany, Christmas brings lots of festivals, street fares and reasons to have fun here in Tennessee!
Every year we drive the curvy 35 minutes drive to the sweet town of Tellico Plains. This one red light, gazebo centered town is the foot of the Cherohala Skyway. This area is known for its lovely waterfalls, hiking trails, camping sites, hunting and curvy mountain drives. But at Christmas they slow down even more so adding tea lights along the downtown streets, decorated lamposts, a living Nativity, Santa’s house, the Grinche’s cave, mule and horse drawn buggy rides, merchants selling their local art and food and………The famous Cookie Caper.
The Cookie Caper is a tradition for us. Not that we couldn’t make these cookies ourselves, they are not award winning or hard to find cookies. But they are homemade by the local town ladies and all the proceeds of your cookie purchase goes to charity. Here is how it plays out….
Stand in line (which reaches down the street), sipping the free hot chocolate to keep you warm that you got from the Arts Council across the street, when you reach the entrance you are given plastic gloves to put on your hands. The apron clad volunteers hand you a tissue filled white box and encourage you to have fun! You walk around a room filled with literally dozens and dozens of cookies and treats. But be careful-they charge you by the pound at the end while wrapping your box up with a lovely red ribbon.
There are the old fashioned stand by cookies, new recipes to try, fudge and candy too. This year we almost strolled along the town too long and missed out. They were almost out of our favorites but we still managed to spend enough money to make a dent in our wallets. The box never makes the ride home without someone stealing a “taste”. I always encourage we transport them into a more seal tight tin but my family reminds me they will not be around that long! and they are always right.
It is a great fundraising idea and so fun to fight over the cookies when you get home!
See what I mean….
YUM!!!!
