Healthier Christmas Snacks are a fun appetizer for Christmas! When you get to this point of Christmas, do you feel like it is time for something to eat that is a little bit healthier?  I know that I sure do. We made these cute little snacks for Cub Scouts the other day and they were a big hit.

One of the boys is lactose intolerant and so we decided to have this wonderful little Healthier Christmas Snacks treat. I felt like it worked out great! Plus, we didn’t have them all buzzed up from eating too much sugar and so I felt like it was a win, win.

 

What Ingredients Do I Need For Healthier Christmas Snacks?

Here’s a list of ingredients you’ll need to make this snack (scroll down for the full recipe):

 

• Grapes
• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Mini marshmallows
• Toothpicks

 

How Do I Make Healthier Christmas Snacks?

Here’s the simple steps you’ll follow to make this snack (scroll down for the full recipe):

 

• Wash and pat dry the grapes and strawberries.
• Take a tooth pick and place a green grape on the very bottom.
• Next place a banana on top of the grape.
• Put a strawberry on next.
• Finally place a mini marshmallow on top of the strawberry.

 

 

Since it is Christmas Day, here is another story: I hope you enjoy it!

 

The Christmas Tapestry:

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. On December 18th, they found themselves ahead of schedule and just about finished.

When December 19th rolled around, a terrible tempest (a driving rainstorm) hit the area and lasted for about two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.

 

A Flea Market Purchase

On the way, he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

 

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus, but had just missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next 45 minutes. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

 

The Tablecloth She Had Made 

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a white sheet. “Pastor,” she asked, “Where did you get that table cloth”? The pastor explained the story to her. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her  the next week.

 

 

She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

 

The Tablecloth He Recognized

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the Pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare . The pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.

The man asked the pastor where he had gotten the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war. How could there be two tablecloths so much a like? He told the pastor how the Nazis came. How they forced his wife to flee for her safety and how he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between. The pastor asked if he would allow him to take him for a little ride.

 

The Reunion

They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earthlier.  He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment. They knocked on the door. When the woman opened the door, the old man saw the greatest Christmas gift he could ever imagine.

May you all have a Merry Christmas and very Happy Holidays. Thank you for supporting My Recipe Treasures! And we hope that 2019 is the best year ever for all of you!

 

Tips and Tricks For Healthier Christmas Snacks:

 

• I must say that if the tooth pick is too short, I broke one in half and used 1 1/2 toothpicks.
• If you do not want to use bananas, you could use string cheese cut into 1″ rounds.

 

A Few More Easy Christmas Treats:

 

Rolo Pretzel Treats

Holiday Cranberry Salsa

Cheese and Meat Tray