WINNSBORO – Every year since 2014, The Voice has published photos of the Fairfield/Blythewood Cookie Elves at work, packaging thousands of decadent holiday treats to be delivered a few days before Christmas to their friends and relatives as well as to many elderly and shut-ins in the community.
On a prescribed Cookie Day, a group of friends in matching black-and-white-striped Elf aprons gather around a large table in Chief Elf Norma Branham’s dining room, packaging 80 or so clear plastic clamshells with Branham’s locally famous chocolate fudge, plus ginger snaps, pecan bars, fruitcake bars, Italian wedding cookies, and cheese straws – all made by Branham.
“Be sure to pile the fudge high,” Branham directs as the Elves busily pack the treats into various sizes of colorful holiday cupcake papers and nestle them into the cookie boxes.
At the end of the assembly line, Branham wraps a pretty Christmas ribbon around every box, then ties the ribbon into a big bow on top. She pats the bow approvingly – ready for delivery.
Branham said there was never a plan to organize a Cookie Elf brigade.
“It just gradually happened over the years,” she said.
“I guess it had its beginning the year after Eddie and I were married in 1978,” Branham said. “Every Sunday we would take meals to friends or people who needed to be uplifted for one reason or another. That continued over the years until we were also delivering cookies at Christmas time. Our kids, George and Leah, sometimes pitched in to help with delivery.
“It was just before Christmas in 2013 that my friend Mitzy Davenport, who passed away in 2020, started helping me fill little trays with cookies and fudge that we delivered to people in the community,” Branham said. “Since then, other friends have joined us.
“I bought us matching aprons in 2015, and I think that’s when we officially became Cookie Elves,” Branham said with a laugh. “We just have the best time every year getting together a week or so before Christmas to package and deliver the cookies.”
The Elves pack the cookie boxes and help deliver, but they say it’s Branham who does the heavy lifting.
She begins preparing for cookie day at least two weeks ahead. She cooks 60-70 pounds of fudge, enough Italian wedding cookies to fill two 20” x 15” pans (3 inches deep), enough cheese straws to fill another two 20” x 15” pans, four 20” x 15” pans of fruitcake bars, four more 20” x 15” pans of pecan pie bars, and 2,000 ginger snap cookies.
It’s a lot of work, but work that Branham says she loves.
Cookie Day begins at noon a week or so before Christmas, with a holiday lunch prepared by Branham that includes a gift exchange between the Elves. Then Branham starts pulling out giant trays of cookies, fudge and other treats to be packed into 80-90 boxes – and the afternoon work begins.
By 4 or 5 p.m., the clamshell boxes are filled with goodies and tied in ribbon, stacked on tables and other furniture around the room, ready for delivery that day and over the weekend. Each Elf delivers five or six cookie boxes.
Branham’s husband Eddie delivers another 60 or so around Fairfield County, often accompanied by his daughter Leah and 12-year-old granddaughter Maci King. Carrying on the family tradition, Maci delivered her first cookie box, accompanied by her dad, George King, when she was barely three.
“Everyone loves to get something special, unexpected, and good to eat at Christmas,” Branham said, “especially people who might be ill, or lonely, or somehow in need of kindness and attention. Christmas is a wonderful, joyous time of the year for most people,” she said, “but not for everyone. And we don’t want to forget those special people.
“We look forward to doing this every year,” Branham said. “It makes our Christmas brighter.”
