Read more stories of acts of kindness in the November/December 2025 feature.
Many people know Anna Hazlett for her years of work with the local tennis community, but her dedication to a sweet tradition also has won her many fans.
The story starts with Helen Schroeder, who baked Santa cookies each holiday season. Hazlett’s friend Joan Brougham shared some with her and her two children. Once the latter were adults, Hazlett sought cookies for herself.
“I didn’t realize at the time it was Helen, who I had known for years, and whose husband (Henry) delivered my kids … She said, ‘Well, of course you can be on the list,’” Hazlett remembers. “I don’t know how many families in Evansville benefited from these cookies over the years, because when you would go into her home, every room was filled with these Santa cookies.”
Hazlett took over the holiday tradition when Schroeder passed away in 2006 — so important was this tradition to Schroeder that she was buried with a Santa cookie. Her sons gave Hazlett all of her supplies to continue baking the cookies. Hazlett estimates her late friend baked 1,000 cookies a year in her McCutchanville home, and she charged very little for them. “Every Christmas, people flocked to her house,” says Madeline Roe, who lived in McCutchanville near Schroeder and now is one of Hazlett’s North Side neighbors.
Starting after Thanksgiving, it’s a two-week-long process from baking to decorating. Hazlett bakes 500 cookies as Schroeder notated the recipe — with just a few adjustments — and hangs her friend’s photo on the wall to watch over her. Helpers decorate each cookie by painting on rosy cheeks and lips, affixing red sugar crystals on the hat, and icing on a beard. “The fun part is when they start to come to life,” Hazlett says. Roe helps envelop each completed cookie in plastic wrap. “The Christmas season wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t baking these cookies. It’s a labor of love. Helen and Anna put their heart and soul into these cookies,” Roe says. Hazlett retorts with a laugh, “I always say, ‘What did you do to me, Helen?’”
Hazlett gives away the cookies to neighbors, friends, and family — especially those with children — and those who may need their spirits lifted. “The cookies have a different meaning for whatever is going on in people’s lives that year. It could be a happy time, or it could be a sad time — a loss of a pet or loved one,” Hazlett says. “It’s just a way of cheering everyone up a little bit.”
