While I know many people begin their holiday baking around the first of December, I try to delay holiday baking until about the week before Christmas. I do so for several reasons:
- having Christmas cookies feels more special if we only eat them for about 10 days of the year
- I stay on my healthy-eating track until later in December (and do far less damage to my waistline as a result)
- I'm busy with gathering and wrapping gifts in the earlier part of the season and therefore don't get around to holiday baking until relatively the last minute
- the treats are fresher for gifting on Christmas day to my son and daughter-in-law and to our neighbors, as well as for our family's consumption on Christmas
- that last week blitz of cookie and treat making, with Christmas music playing in the background, really gets us all in the Christmas spirit
So those are my reasons for not baking until this last week before Christmas. Now, onto my list of what I'm baking. It looks like a lot, but we hand these out to a lot of friends and family.
- gingerbread men, using this very frugal recipe
- decorated sugar cookies (a family favorite -- we all decorate the cut-out cookies)
- caramel nutty bars, recipe here
- thin mint fake-outs (like the Girl Scout cookie, but only uses 4 ingredients: Ritz crackers, chocolate chips, vegetable shortening, peppermint oil)
- spiced nuts, using this recipe
- chocolate covered pretzels, coated with crushed peppermint candies
- dark chocolate-dipped dried apricots
- white chocolate-dipped oatmeal, cranberry, pecan drop cookies, using this recipe
What's on your holiday baking list?
Do you have a favorite holiday cookie or treat? Mine has always been gingerbread men. Now that I'm older (and have a much slower metabolism), I opt for mini gingerbread men and women, using tiny cookie cutters that my daughters played with as young girls and later found their way into my cookie cutter jar.
