Christmas is a time for Families, Fun, and Festivities! A time of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time for Santa, stars, and singing carolers. A time for ornaments, gifts, and twinkling lights. Of sleigh rides, hot cocoa, and gingerbread cookies.

Christmas cookies make wonderful gifts, and everyone enjoys making and decorating them. Most baked cookies can be frozen decorated or undecorated, or you can freeze your cookie dough now for baking and decorating just before the holidays. You'll find dozens of recipes for cookies and links to recipes and more on the Net. Use the menu on the right to jump to other cookie & holiday recipe pages.

It is that time of the year again. The malls are bedecked with tacky decorations, Christmas carols are playing everywhere, the neighbors already have their Christmas lights plugged in, and everyone is exchanging Christmas gift lists. It is one of my favorite times of the year, and the time for my favorite holiday tradition...Christmas cookies.

Every year we make thousands of Christmas cookies. Literally. I have the photos to prove it. And the frosting stained cramped hands every year to boot!

This year is no exception, and we are gearing up to make some of our favorite cookie recipes, as well as a few new recipes. Here is a collection of some of my favorite cookie recipes and links to other collections and great recipes.

If you just have too many choices and cannot decide what cookies to make, here are a few suggestions. For me, Christmas would not be complete without a bunch of gingerbread men. My recipe makes soft chewy cookies that are still very firm and hold up well to mailing and frosting, even by little engergetic fingers. No more tears over the "perfect cookie" that as you are adding the last dab of frosting breaks in half. These cookies are sturdy, but not as hard as a rock. They are probably the most requested cookie that I make every year.

Right after my Gingies, comes not a cookie, but a brownie type recipe on the list of most requested treats. If you have never made brownies from scratch, you do not know what you are missing. These brownies, Peanut Butter Ribboned Fudgies, with a decadent ribbon of peanut butter filling running through them, are truly spectacular. They are rich and fudgy, but just cakey enough not to be cloying. The variations I have listed (including the Brownies ala Carrie, named for my sister who adores them) are all excellent and disappear in seconds. They are firm and moist and hold their shape well enough to be excellent in mailing packages.