Christmas is the sweetest of all holidays. No other time of year can you find so many candy canes, pies, cakes, cookies and sugared-up younguns.

On Christmas Eve, kids leave sweets to fortify Santa and when Santa comes later that night to fill their stockings, he leaves sweets to fortify the kids. The candy in my stocking was always store-bought - never homemade. I figured with all that work elves had to do making toys, shoveling behind Blitzen, and all those other elf chores, they didn't have time to make candy. They just hopped in the sleigh, headed to the Piggly Wiggly and then loaded up candy canes, Lifesavers, Pop Rocks, Sugar Daddies, and Milk Duds.

I loved my Milk Duds, but they just couldn't hold a candle to Momma's fudge. It wasn't that quickie marshmallow cream and powdered sugar stuff, but authentic boil-then-stir-and-stir-for-seven-hours fudge. During Christmas break, Momma gathered my sisters and me in the kitchen to help make fudge. We'd measure, pour, argue, stir, and then take turns getting glasses of cold water for Momma to test the doneness of the fudge. My younger sister and I liked chocolate fudge, and Daddy and my older sister favored the peanut butter fudge. Momma gave me her recipes and it has taken me years to get my fudge to be as good as hers.

There's something mystical about making fudge - you need to know the exact time to stop cooking and know when to stop stirring. Not boiling the fudge mixture long enough, failing to stir it long enough, or even holding your mouth wrong results in the fudge being a sticky, gooey tar - or worse - a dried out cow pie like clump. I finally invested in a candy thermometer since I couldn't master the paranormal ability to determine the difference between a softball, hardball, or curveball stage of fudge-ness.

Another popular - and evil - Christmas candy is divinity. About thirty Christmases ago, my Sunday School teacher gave me pecan divinity as a Christmas treat. It was the fluffiest and most delicious bite of heaven I'd ever tasted. I have tried and failed to make edible divinity for years. My divinity was nowhere near fluffy, but more on the construction glue side of things. Preparing fudge is easy compared to what you go through to produce divinity. Divinity may have a heavenly name, but it's a real devil to make.

Don't believe me? Here are a few rules about divinity that I've discovered:

• The humidity must be below 60%.
• You must have an iron hand with a lot of stirring stamina.
• The planets must be in the correct alignment.
• You need to burn out the motors of at least three mixers.
• When you think you're finished beating the divinity, beat it some more.
• Have a box of tissues and your therapist's phone number handy to help you deal with the denial of failed divinity.
• Don't plan on any heavy lifting for at least a week after making divinity.

In addition to candy, there are plenty of Christmas cakes to make the holiday sweet. Most of the Christmas cakes that appeared on our family's table were made from scratch. Granny Polly's Coca Cola cake, Momma's Red Velvet cake, and Daddy's nut cakes are a few of my favorites. Nowadays when I make cakes, I often use boxed mixes because my family doesn't pay much attention to the cake - they are more interested in the sugary frosting.

I cheat by using boxed mixes when making cakes, but my pies are made from scratch. I peel loads of Granny Smith apples and add real butter and spices to make an apple pie that will curl your toes. My Lemon Ice Box pie is yummy not only because I use real lemons, but also because the recipe came from a combination of Granny Polly's recipe and my mother-in-law's recipe. Take a bite and you'll do the Happy Pie Dance - if you don't faint first.

Cookies are another Christmas sweet. Momma's delicate Angel Finger cookies, buttery Gingerbread men, and sparkling sugar cookies were some of my favorites. Someday I'm going to host a Cookie Swap like folks did years ago. Cookie Swappers brought two dozen of their favorite homemade cookies, copies of their cookie recipe, and a cookie tin. One dozen was presented to the Cookie Swappers to taste and the other dozen was to stock the Cookie Swappers' tins. At the end of the party, you left with cookie breath, a tin filled with several different kinds of cookies, and a fistful of recipes.

Stay tuned for more sweet SouthernAngel stories!