My favorite holiday cookie recipes

My mother has been baking holiday cookies for as long as I can remember—at least 50 years and counting. Many years ago, she gave me a binder with her cookie recipes in it, which I basically ignored for a long time.

But in 2009, when our eldest daughter was six, I started making some each holiday season. And pretty much every year since then, I've made a batch of holiday cookies. Here's a sample plate of this year's batch^*Click the image for a larger version with cookie names…

And as nice as it is having her written recipes, some complete with notes, I wanted to digitize them, for easier access. I also wanted to convert them from their use of the inane US-based measuring system to one based on weight in grams, which greatly eases preparation (assuming you have a good kitchen scale).

I'm posting each one individually, but they won't appear in the normal blog post flow. Instead, I'm consolidating them all on a new recipe collection page that I'll keep updated as I add more in the future.

The cookie recipes include full ingredient lists, required amounts (in both inane US unit and common sensical grams), and preparation instructions. I also put each recipe into LoseIt, the app I use to track my eating; if you use that app as well, you can click the link on each recipe to add it to LoseIt. While I still love eating holiday cookies, I do try to do so in moderation now.

(All of the recipes on that page came from my mom, except for the ones for shortbread and soft gingerbread cookies, which came from, well, I'm not sure where I found them.)

I loved these cookies as a child, and my kids have grown up with them for most of their lives–and the eldest is now in her first year of college, and still requested holiday cookies this year. Twelve years is brief amount of time compared to my mother's continued run, but it's become a holiday tradition in our home.