Do Not Let the Rising Christmas Cookie Index Keep You From Treating Your Neighbors


A few weeks ago I received the 2022 update to the “Christmas Cookie Inflation Index” from a national community development organization.

Charles Marohn, founder of non-profit Strong Towns, spends time each year making Christmas cookies. For several years he has tracked the increasing price of cookie ingredients.

He provides a chart of his cookie ingredients and costs back to 2019. The chart shows a 12% increase in the cost of making his cookies compared to last year, but a 29% increase since 2019.

Granted, his chart is a snapshot of costs where he lives. Our ingredient costs here in western Greene County might have gone up more, or less.

That last number is interesting since the official government estimate is of 17% inflation since 2019. Either way, I think anyone who goes to the grocery store and buys food knows their shopping cart is holding less for a lot more money.

Marohn’s basket of cookie-baking ingredients in 2019 cost $49.94. If those ingredients rose by just the official inflation rate, they would cost $58.62, a hefty increase. Instead, that same basket of ingredients costs $64.48. 

He notes in his article that he got these same baking ingredients from the same shelves, in the same store, in the same neighborhood that he has for decades. 

An economy in the grips of inflation is disorienting, like being on a treadmill that slowly and secretly gets faster and steeper. 

Although your costs have gone up, this is not the year to stop making cookies for the neighbors.

Reach out to your neighbors with a plate of goodies, a song in your heart, a smile on your face, and help make this season kind, bright, tasty and neighborly!

If cookies are not your styl,e there is still time for a simple gesture that lifts up a neighbor or makes your community a place we love. How about one of these ideas?

  • Set up an outdoor picture-taking event for kids.
  • Bring out a fire pit in your front yard to roast marshmallows or make s'mores. 
  • Find a tree or evergreen in the neighborhood that could be a joint decorating event - complete with hot chocolate and music
  • Invite your neighbors over for a holiday open house or Christmas tea.
  • Use the element of surprise with a gift or act of service that would bless your neighbors.
  • Know parents who could use a night out?  Offer to babysit a neighbor’s child for free.
  • Go caroling and give a homemade card to your neighbors.
  • How about a neighborhood Christmas potluck for neighbors?

Until next week: Merry Christmas to all.


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