Christmas In July At Our House: Recipes, Park Memories, And The Signs That Hold Them

The first time I saw it snow on Main Street, I was holding a hot cocoa with both hands. The toy soldiers were marching by. The lights came up, the flurries started drifting down over the whole street, and my brain reached for a word big enough to hold it. It found one. It is wondrous.

I have been chasing that feeling ever since.

Here is what I have learned about it. That feeling does not check the calendar. It does not care that it is 88 degrees outside and the air conditioning is working overtime. Some of us do not wait for December. We cue the feeling early, on purpose, with a gingerbread cookie in one hand and a cold cocoa float in the other.

That is what Christmas in July is at our house. It is not being early. It is permission.

So today I want to hand you three recipes we actually make, a few park memories I keep coming back to, and a look at the signs that hold all of it on our walls. Pour something cold. Stay a while.

Three Recipes We Actually Make In July

None of these are fancy. That is the point. They are the kind of thing you can pull off on a random Tuesday in July when the house needs a little magic, and every ingredient is already at the grocery store. This is how we do it at our house.

The July Hot Cocoa Float

Hot cocoa in July sounds like a mistake until you pour it over ice cream. Then it sounds like a tradition.

You need (serves 2):

• 2 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 scoops vanilla ice cream
• Whipped cream, and a crushed candy cane if you saved any from December (we always do)

How we make it:

1. Warm the milk in a small pot over medium heat. Do not let it boil.
2. Whisk in the cocoa, sugar, and salt until smooth. Pull it off the heat and stir in the vanilla.
3. Put 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream in each tall glass.
4. Pour the warm cocoa right over the top, slow, so it melts the edges but leaves the middle.
5. Whipped cream. Candy cane dust. Spoon first, then straw.

The warm and the cold hit at the same time. That first sip is December on Main Street with the lights coming on, except you are on your own couch in shorts.

Main Street Style Gingerbread Cookies

I will say this carefully, because it matters to me. This is not any park's recipe and I would never claim it is. This is our recipe, inspired by the feeling of walking past the bakery on Main Street when the whole street smells like ginger and warm sugar. That smell is doing half the work of the holiday. This gets you the other half.

You need (about 2 dozen):

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

How we make them:

1. Whisk the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a bowl.
2. In a bigger bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, molasses, and vanilla.
3. Add the dry mix a little at a time until it comes together into a soft dough.
4. Chill the dough for at least an hour. Do not skip this. Warm dough in a July kitchen turns into puddle cookies.
5. Roll it out about 1/4 inch thick, cut your shapes, and bake at 350 for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges just set.
6. Cool completely, then ice them however your heart says to. Crooked smiles are canon in this house.

The Cookies For Santa In July Board

In December, the cookies go on a plate by the tree. In July, we go bigger. We build the whole board and nobody has to share a plate with Santa.

There is no strict recipe here, just a way of arranging joy:

1. Start with your biggest board or tray.
2. Put a bowl of something dippable in the middle. Warm cocoa, melted chocolate, or vanilla frosting all work.
3. Ring it with your gingerbread cookies, plus whatever else the pantry offers. Sugar cookies, pretzels, marshmallows, candy canes, fresh strawberries because it is July and the strawberries are perfect right now.
4. Fill every gap. A good dessert board has no empty spaces and no rules.
5. Set it out, tell everyone it is for Santa, and watch how fast the family calls your bluff.

Park Moments I Keep Coming Back To

The bakery smell. You turn onto Main Street and it finds you before you find it. Ginger, warm sugar, coffee. Nobody in the family says anything, but everybody slows down. I am convinced that smell is the real front gate.

The garland on the lampposts. Every lamppost dressed in green and red, all the way down the street, like the whole town agreed on something. I remember standing under one and thinking, someone hung this by hand. Someone wanted me to feel this. I think about that every time I hang something on our own walls.

The first sip when the lights come on. Dusk. Cocoa warming your hands. And then the lights come on, all at once, the whole street at the same time, and everyone around you makes the same small sound. I have felt that moment maybe a dozen times in my life. I could not tell you a single thing I was worried about during any of them.

Now it is your turn, and I mean this. Tell me your park Christmas memory in the comments. The smell, the song, the person standing next to you. I read every one.

The Signs That Hold The Feeling

Here is the honest reason our house looks the way it does. Those moments up there are hundreds of miles and most of a calendar away. A handmade sign is how we keep them close. We call them Castle Cues, because that is what they do. You pass one in the hallway and the feeling comes back.

A few from this round of the Christmas collection, and where they live at our house:

Merry Christmas To All Sign. This one lives by the bedroom door, and it is the last thing we see on the way to bed in December. And in July. It is the good night at the end of the parade, the one the whole street says together. Some phrases belong at the end of the day, and this is ours.

Christmas Main Street Bakery. This is the bakery smell, hanging in our kitchen. It sits over the coffee corner, and I am not exaggerating when I say the gingerbread bakes different with it up there. If your kitchen is the room where the holiday actually happens, this is its sign.

Main St. Milk & Cookie Co. Sign. The cookie station sign. It hangs where the cookie jar lives, and it turns a snack into an event. Milk and cookies night is a real thing at our house, in every month that ends in a letter. This sign is why it feels official.

Joy To The World Sign. This one holds the mantel. It is the lights-coming-on moment, the one where everybody makes the same small sound. When the room goes warm and gold in the evening, this is the phrase sitting quietly in the middle of it.

Every sign is handmade in Ohio, made after you order, and ships in 4 to 6 weeks. Mom and I pack every order ourselves, and I still get a little proud sealing each box.

If you want to look around, the preview of the whole collection is live now at jrwd.co/collections/26christmasinjuly, and the drop opens Sunday, July 12. Magic Alerts text subscribers get a password by text at 5 PM that opens the store an hour early, and the public doors open at 6 PM.

That is all the shop talk I will do today. This post is about the cocoa.

Before You Go

Make the float this weekend. Burn the first batch of gingerbread like I did and make a second one. Build the board and blame Santa. And when the feeling shows up in your living room in the middle of July, let it stay. It does not need a ticket and it does not check the calendar.

And leave me that park memory in the comments. I am serious. Those stories are my favorite part of running this little company.

One more thing before I go. We are not done with July. Halloween opens the 26th. If you want first word on that one too, Magic Alerts is where I send it: jrwd.co/pages/magic-alerts.

Thank you for being part of our little handmade family. ✨

Justin Ray
JRW Design Co.