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From Rockefeller Center to Hot Sulphur Springs, a family’s cookie tradition carries on

Jon Duncan Hagar sits with his mother, Susan Hagar Ewing, in front of a fresh batch of the family's famous gingerbread cookies.
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Many families have holiday traditions that center around sweets. But for one Hot Sulphur Springs family, the tradition of baking gingerbread cookies has lasted almost a century.

Laura and Jon Duncan Hagar, authors of “A True Christmas Cookie Story: The Cookies that Made a Family,” describe the sweet tradition that brought generations together and even led to a successful business.

Celebrating Christmas despite the Depression

Jon’s mother, Susan Hagar Ewing, grew up near New York City during the Great Depression. When Susan was 2 years old, her mother Irene “Glennie” Glenn decided to decorate the family Christmas tree with gingerbread cookies.



The family didn’t have enough money for ornaments, but thanks to Glennie’s baking skills and ingenuity, the tree was decorated. Glennie created the dough and frosting from scratch, then meticulously cut out and decorated each cookie.

The end result? Storybook characters from Susan’s picture books hung on the branches of a tree they’d cut from the forest.  



The designs for the gingerbread cookies have been passed down since the 1930s.
Laura Hagar/Courtesy photo

A tradition made of sugar and ginger

Jon and his wife, Laura, said the cookie tradition grew over the years in several ways. Glennie designed more cookie cutters to add to her characters, including traditional ones like Santa and reindeer. The cookie cutters were made of brass and wood.

In addition to new characters, the family also started sharing the treats with friends and neighbors.

Times were hard, so Glennie got the idea to sell her confectionary to help support the family. A shop in Rockefeller Center sold her cookies, and by the early 1940s, the crisp cookies with intricate frosting designs had became a sellout.

The cookies were sold around the world from the shop in the heart of New York City, and several newspapers wrote about what Glennie’s baking truly symbolized: entrepreneurship and love of family. 

In addition to supporting her family financially through the Great Depression and World World II, Glennie created a tradition to bring them all together. 

One glance at the gingerbread people and you know a woman with an understanding of children has given heart and hand to such small affairs.

Clementine Paddleford, the New York Herald Tribune, 1942
The tools and cookie cutters have been passed down through the family for generations.
Laura Hagar/Courtesy photo

Journalists cover the ‘Cookie Lady

As Glennie’s cookies grew in popularity, several publications wrote articles about her.

In Ladies Home Journal, writer Evelyn Sanger Ringold described how Glennie combined motherhood with a thriving business.

“Irene Glenn manages every phase of her business singlehandedly, from cookie dough to tax returns; and she runs her house as well. On a ‘business’ day, she gets up at 7:30 and does the household chores,” writes Ringold. “By 9 or 10, she’s at work on her cookies. She will stop to make dinner for her family — a ‘good dinner, too’ — but in holiday season must go back to work after the dishes are done.”

Journalist Clementine Paddleford with the New York Herald Tribune described how Glennie’s Christmas characters were on display in midtown Manhattan.

“One glance at the gingerbread people, and you know a woman with an understanding of children has given heart and hand to such small affairs,” Paddleford wrote in the November 1942 article.

As the gingerbread business boomed, Paddleford wrote that Glennie sold 10,000 cookies one Christmas.

Images of the cookies appeared in the 1985 edition of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.

This article on the gingerbread business appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on Nov. 23, 1942.
Laura Hagar/Courtesy image

A gift passed from mother to daughter

Jon explained that the sale of the cookies helped put his mother through college. There, Susan met her future husband, with whom she had four boys, including Jon.

As an adult, Susan became the “cookie lady.” Although she humbly said her cookies weren’t as beautiful as her mother’s, she felt proud to continue the tradition of rolling out the dough, making frosting and using her mother’s tools to etch designs in the gingerbread. Her children loved watching the cookie-making process — especially eating them.

Jon inherited the cookie cutters and tools his grandmother first used. As his mother grew elderly, Jon took up the tradition. Now, three generations have produced the treats from Glennie’s not-so-secret recipe.

Jon Duncan Hagar is pictured with his mother, Susan Hagar Ewing, in Steamboat Springs in 2015. Ewing holds one of her angel cookies.
John F. Russell/Courtesy photo

Children’s book chronicles the Christmas tradition

Susan died in 2017, and Jon decided to honor her memory with the children’s book, “A True Christmas Cookie Story,” published in 2020. Jon wrote the story and Laura provided the photos.

“The book documents how the special cookies came into being, the number of lives touched and the family that was created because of the cookies,” Laura said.

In the book are several references to newspaper and magazine articles on Glennie’s cookies, which are credited with spreading the word.

Paddleford, who authored the piece in the New York Herald Tribune, described the first Christmas Glennie adorned the tree: “Tucked among the green branches were little Miss Muffet, Tom, the piper’s son, Little Bo-Peep and a dozen other of her best friends. All through holiday week, children of the neighborhood came to see the tree people.”

As gingerbread-making became a business, Glennie made countless cookies that would travel to far-reaching trees and tables. Now Jon and Laura are happy to share cookies with friends in Grand County.

That first Christmas “was the beginning,” Paddleford wrote. “There never was an ending.”

To order the book, visit Amazon.com or email Laura Hagar at lmhagar@yahoo.com.


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