LIKE many Scots, I did not get Christmas Day off work as a public holiday when I started my first job in 1970. For almost 400 years, until the 1950s, Christmas was hardly celebrated north of the Border. New Year was always considered the big winter celebration, a festival associated with the winter solstice and the Yule celebrations connected with the Vikings, our northern European ancestry and Pagan rituals.

Hogmanay is celebrated on the eve of Ne’erday, the first day of the New Year. No-one really knows where this strange word stems from, but there are several possible derivations involving Norse, Gaelic and Flemish. Scots are notorious for our Hogmanay celebration, which is now copied throughout the world; with fireworks and bonfires, plenty of good spirit, friendship and partying on a grand scale. No wonder we need Ne’erday to recover and wisely, this has been a public holiday in Scotland for centuries past.

The celebrations frequently continue into those first few days of New Year, with friends and family visiting one another and toasting the year ahead as a fresh start and new beginning. As a result, old customs abound, often varying from one household to another and handed down through families. Homes should be ablaze with lights to ward off evil spirits, but this is also the time of year when you must clear out all the old and prepare for the new. The house should be cleaned from top to bottom, all debts cleared, clean clothes prepared, the fire grate swept clean and the ashes disposed of – all by midnight when "the bells" chime the hour. In my house we always open the front and back doors, to allow the old year out and the New Year in.

The first person to put his foot across the threshold after midnight must be a harbinger of good fortune, with gifts to signify great cheer, warmth and prosperity for the year ahead. Traditionally, these are a piece of coal for the new fire, some shortbread or salt, black bun, or whisky. These symbolic gifts should be carried by a dark-haired man. A fair-haired man is a risk apparently – he could be a Viking and carrying an axe!

Being allowed to stay up late to bring in the bells is a wonderful childhood memory. My parents always celebrated and I know my dark-haired father was a popular first-footer. Communities were smaller and more neighbourly in those days. The whole street welcomed each other into their homes, with the merriment lasting several days. One year, my parents held a very big party. It seemed a rip-roaring affair to me, as I sat at the top of the stairs watching in fascination through the bannisters as the grown-ups enjoyed themselves. Some had brought musical instruments, including a trumpet and a clarinet, as well as drums. Tunes I recognised from wireless were hammered out loudly on the family piano and everyone was dancing. It must have been some celebration – perhaps in advance of my dad’s 40th birthday later in January? That would have been 1956. I will never know, but I loved the atmosphere, the live music and the laughter.

By the time you read this article, most Scots will have brought-in the New Year already and will be planning to continue celebrations for a few more days. But remember, if you are visiting neighbours, it is considered bad luck to go empty-handed. Having lots of butter, shortbread was long regarded as a luxury and baked especially for celebratory times of the year and big occasions such as family weddings. It marries very well with a good dram too.

It is the large proportion of butter added to the flour and sugar that makes shortbread "short" – a term used in cookery to describe shortcrust pastry, for example, which also should be light and crumbly in texture. The essential fat added to baking was called shortening by bakers and short bread originally referred to leftover dough which was sweetened and baked in the oven until crisp. Adding butter made it an expensive treat. I have read that bakers called it short bread, rather than biscuit, as biscuits were taxed and bread was not.

Caraway seeds were a popular flavouring, as was citrus peel, dried lavender, rosemary and almonds. Shortbread can be made as biscuits, pressed into carved wooden moulds, cut into even-sized fingers, or triangular "petticoat tails". The name for these is said to be derived from the triangular patterns – or tallies – used to cut the fabric and make round, hooped petticoats in the days of Elizabeth I. But Mary Queen of Scots’ French Court brought many culinary terms into the Scots language and some believe that this name stems from the French words, petites gatelles, meaning little cakes. Shortbread is always decorated simply by pricking with a fork.

I have made this recipe since I was nine years old, and took it with me to The Three Chimneys in 1984; we still bake it like this today. It has been served in all sorts of ways over the years, especially as an accompaniment to our gorgeous, Scottish soft fruits in summertime, with homemade ice creams, syllabubs and sorbets. Slightly salted Scottish butter is essential. I always use white rice flour to make the biscuits more crumbly. This is not always easy to find in a supermarket, but most health shops stock it. Alternatively, you can use cornflour, which is easily available. This makes a softer textured biscuit, which many people prefer.

It was once said that every Scotswoman is born with a rolling pin under her arm. I am proud to be one of those women, but my New Year’s resolution is to encourage more younger women to get baking and cooking more often at home – especially enjoying doing so with children.

Happy New Year and lang may yer lum reek!

The Three Chimneys Shortbread

(Makes up to 24 biscuits)

250g Scottish salted butter, plus a little for greasing baking trays

125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling and cutting

125g white rice flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C, gas mark 5.

2. Lightly grease two baking trays.

3. Cream together butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.

4. Sieve together plain flour and rice flour and add to butter mixture.

5. Mix together well with a wooden spoon and then, using clean fingers, gather the mixture into a ball of dough. This may seem a little dry at first, but it will come together.

6. Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface or board. Gently knead the dough together until it is soft and pliable in the warmth of your hands.

7. Roll out dough to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the biscuit shapes and lift, using a palette knife on to the greased baking trays.

8. Prick the biscuits with a fork and place the trays in the oven to bake for 15/20 minutes until very light golden brown.

9. Remove from oven and sprinkle with caster sugar while still warm. Leave to cool slightly and carefully lift biscuits on to a wire tray to cool completely. They will continue to crisp up as they get cold.

10. Store in an airtight tin between layers of non-stick parchment paper, for one or two weeks at most. Warning: it will not last long as it is irresistible!

Shirley Spear is owner of The Three Chimneys and The House Over-By on the Isle of Skye, and chairwoman of the Scottish Food Commission, which is helping to build Scotland into a Good Food Nation. See threechimneys.co.uk