As women have spent less time at home since World War II, family traditions have significantly changed. While it’s unquestionably an appropriate tradeoff for expanded opportunities, it has made a real difference in the amount of attention most families are able to devote to the trappings of the winter holidays.

For most of my childhood, my mother’s full-time job in the weeks following Thanksgiving was to prepare for Christmas. I’m not sure who was setting the expectations for how the holiday was supposed to play out, but she did it up big and she did it on cue.

Like most families, we had the decorations that emerged from storage every year, and through repetition these knicknacks became embedded in my memory of what a childhood Christmas was supposed to be about. I clearly recall a creche from Germany, some porcelain angels, a Santa’s head on the wall and some holiday candles.

But what I remember best about the days leading up to the holiday are the smells that came out of my mother’s kitchen. The holiday season was a time for making and exchanging baked goods.

I clearly remember the plates of cookies and loaves of bread, covered in tinted cellophane, my mother put on the table to be delivered on the 24th of December. Part of the excitement I felt as a child was knowing that we would be able to sample the baked goods that were headed our way from other households.

That exchange of cookies, candies and breads — quintessential homemade and handmade gifts — embodied the holiday spirit.

But baking on that scale kept my mother in the kitchen for several days. Few people have that kind of time anymore, and I sense that the significance of baking as a part of the holidays also has waned. While I’m not sorry that women no longer feel duty bound to stand in their kitchens for days baking, I’m a bit saddened that this tradition is less central to the holiday season than it once was.

An easy gift to give — one that takes less effort than baking dozens of cookies or making candy — is fruit bread. I offer the following recipes from my mother’s recipe box, in the hope that folks who don’t give their neighbors baked goods might be inspired.

Orange Nut Bread

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1 large orange

1 cup raisins or dates

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup nut meats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Squeeze juice from orange into a 1-cup measure and fill the cup with boiling water. Put the rind through food chopper and add raisins or dates to rind to equal 1 cup. Place mixture of orange and dates or raisins in bowl and add the juice mixture. Stir in soda, then sugar, shortening and vanilla. Add beaten egg, flour blended with baking powder, and salt. Beat thoroughly. Add nuts. Place in greased loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Apricot bread

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1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

2 cups sifted flour

1 cup dried apricots

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup orange juice

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup nuts

Soak apricots in water for 30 minutes. Drain well and cut into 1/4-inch pieces.

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, water and juice. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into wet ingredients. Add nuts and apricots sprinkled with flour. Let stand 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. When batter is ready, bake in a 9 1/2-inch-by 5 1/2-inch loaf pan for 55 to 60 minutes.