The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook Cookies and Treats from America’s Golden Era
Becky Libourel Diamond
When I think of Christmas past I imagine mantals covered in pine and cedar with matching wreaths hung on the doors, candles in the windows, a tree with red bows and a festive atmosphere. I love to cook and of course I imagine cookies and candy treats to tempt the taste buds and hot apple cider with spices. I love Christmas, I love every aspect of the holiday except undecorating afterwards.
The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook Cookies and Treats from America’s Golden Age is the perfect book for Christmas. It makes a great present for your family, friends and yourself. This book has yummy recipes for cake, pie and cookies. The pictures make the recipes come to life. There is information about the tradition of Christmas and Hanukkah during the Gilded Age.

Thank you NetGalley for the delightful ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions written are completely honest and my own.


Wonderful cook Book that has me excited to start Christmas baking.

This is going make my holidays so much more jolly! Such fun recipes that cover all of the bases, they're easy and simple enough to take the stress out of food prep.

I received an ARC of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review -

I LOVE the aesthetic of this cookbook - it is so cozy and beautiful and I love the little blurbs of history sprinkled throughout. The helpful tips at the beginning of the cookbook was a great idea. I appreciate the mix of culture, though I wish there was a more substantial Hannukah section. I hope to purchase a physical copy when it is released!

The only change I would make is more pictures of the actual recipes. It did make me a little suspicious that there were so few pictures - I plan to try a recipe soon. I know there are some AI cookbook issues floating around, so I hope that wasn't used in this case.

Perfect gift for the history geek in your family!

The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook was a fascinating insight into Christmas traditions and recipes during the period. There are some recipes that were nice to read but I'm not sure I would make them, others I definitely would, especially the candies and sweets section.

This was a super interesting cookbook. The photos are beautiful. I loved the history and stories that go along with different aspects of the Christmas holiday such as dressing up as Santa or information about each recipe. It is 100* here otherwise I would be baking up all these sweet treats. I can't wait to try them out once the weather cools down enough to bake. I would definitely be interested in purchasing a physical copy of this cookbook!

3.5 stars

What a fun book with lots and lots of info. I do wish there was a picture for each recipe though.
While I do try to always make at least one recipe before a cookbook review, I sadly cannot this time do to dietary restrictions. I will however be making a couple of these for sure come Christmas time for my family.

I received a free copy of, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook, by Becky Libourel Diamond, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Everything looked so good in this cookbook, cookies, and cakes and pies. I really loved the pictures in this book, and the informative pages about Christmas and Hanukkah during the Gilded Age.

This is a gorgeous cookbook about a niche subject, I felt right at home reading it. The loads of information that paint the world of the Gilded Age at Christmas time was truly fascinating. I loved the different facts about things like the origin of Christmas cards, the space Black folks carved in society during an age when they were quite often overlooked, and the section about Hanukkah. It felt inclusive and authentic.

The recipes weren’t the main focal point of the book, I think maybe because it suffers a bit from my usual complaint with many cookbooks: a slight lack of photos of the food. It’s easy to pay less attention to the recipes when there aren’t substantive photos of the way it’s all supposed to look. However, the photos that are in there are charming—big Christmas trees, lovely dishes, scans of old ads and cards.

Thank you Becky Libourel Diamond, Globe Pequot, and Net Galley for this jolly read!

I really enjoyed the history and stories that were intertwined with the recipes, and the information about the various countries that contributed to the recipes and other Christmas traditions.

The book was really beautifully presented and would look great on display in a kitchen or to give as a gift. I loved the pictures that were included and would have like more, particularly for the less common recipes to see how they should look. However, the ones that were included complimented the book nicely.

As someone with a big family and a lot of large gatherings to go to over the holiday season, I appreciate recipes that make a large quantity!

A terrific idea that needs more photos and illustrations to bring this Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook to full life. I would have loved a photo for each included recipe.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook.

The best part of this cookbook, for me, were the historical facts and anecdotes about how and where Christmas rituals and customs originated.

The history of the Gilded Age oriented sweets and treats was fascinating, though I'm not a fan of of the flavors.

Also, most of the recipes were for many servings, owing to the fact that in those days, people received many guests and carolers during the season and cookies were offered as part of hostessing and hospitality duties.

The worst part of this cookbook, very few photos of the treats and recipes being discussed.

This read more like a brief history on Gilded Age Christmas traditions and customs with some recipes sprinkled in.

A beautiful book full of recipes, anecdotes and xmas history snipets ! All you need to create your Gilded Age inspired xmas party. There's also a recipe for Hannukah and New Year's Eve. A very inspirational and instructive cookbook.

This is a beautifully put together Christmas recipe book that combines some of my favourite holiday treats with interesting Gilded Age history. A couple of my favourite sections are before we even get to the recipes. There's a great anecdote about Mark Twain and his family during the holidays and then some great tips on handling egg whites (something I ALWAYS struggle with). Each recipe also comes with its own little history.

As an Pennsylvanian living in Scotland, I was excited to see my favourite baked goods from both sides in this book - my all time favourite cookie recipe, molasses cookies, and a new favourite, mince pies! I have many wonderful memories or being a small child and baking molasses cookies with my Nana every year. The recipe in this is very similar but we always roll ours in cinnamon sugar before baking 😊 I haven't yet tried making my own mince pies so I'll give this recipe a try this Christmas!

Where this has lost stars... One of my pet peeves with recipe books though is when not every recipe has an image of what the baked good should look like and this is the case with The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook. I am very visual when it comes to baking/cooking. I need to have an idea of what the outcome should look like. Considering it's discussing historical recipes, I would have liked to have seen each recipe have an image of what the baked good should have looked like during the Gilded Age.

I will not lie, I was intrigued by what type of treats would be featured in this book and as someone who recently cleared out thier great grandmother's recipes, I was prepared for some real weird ones, but most of them are really great and things I will absolutely make this holiday season. (Coffee Cookies, I am looking at you.) The information between recipes was really interesting and I am in love with all the Gilded Age holiday art that is plentiful in the book.

Fantastic read as a wonderful piece of history or as a cookbook as intended . I loved reading this and going through the recipes, wonderful nostalgic pictures, interesting and informative, as well as wonderful recipes, will be looking to buy a physical copy I enjoyed it so much

Nice vintage pictures and interesting history of Christmas traditions, especially those in America. It is and American publication and as such recipes are given in cups measures. I just don’t want to make such large quantities, three dozen cookies? Hence the low rating. However if you just love Christmas you will love this this book.

This is such a gorgeous and well thought out cookbook. The colors and typography are amazing. The recipes look delicious and I can't wait to try several of them out.

What a lovely cook book with traditional recipes from times gone past to make your Christmas parties more exciting I have already added sand tarts and chocolate wine to my list for this year and loved discovering what a sugar plum actually was (not a plum lol). This is a beautiful nostalgic book of treats for Christmas to have fun trying out.

Gorgeous cookbook with beautiful vintage photography and peppered with backstory and history to the recipes. Reading this like a warm hug from my Gran on Christmas at her house (some of my favourite memories). I also liked that it was inclusive and had a whole section on Hannukkah, too. Excited to use some of these recipes for homeschool with my kiddos.