1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. With mixer on med-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, and salt until creamy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla, scraping down side of bowl.
3. With mixer on low speed, beat in flour just until combined.
4. Tint with food coloring as desired.
5. To make spritz, load about 1/3 of batter into cookie press. Press cookies onto large cookie sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart.
* To make shaped cookies like I did, press dough into the shaped cookie pans, lining them with sprinkles or colored sugar, as desired.
6. Bake 12-18 minutes or until deep golden brown around edges.
7. Cool on cookie sheet on wire rack 10 minutes. With spatula, transfer cookies to rack to cool completely.
*After cooling on wire rack, I turned the pans over and the shaped cookies popped out.
**This recipe should make about 10 dozen spritz cookies. In the shaped pans, it made 3 dozen trees and snowmen.
Christmas trees have been sold in the United States since 1850, although Christmas wasn't declared an official holiday until June 26, 1870. There are two competing claims as to which president was the first to place a Christmas tree in the White House. Some scholars say President Franklin Pierce di in 1856; others say Presidnet Benjamin Harrison brought in the first tree in 1889.