Let's Dish: What Cookies Remind You of the Holidays?

December 3, 2009

With cookie swaps and homemade holiday gifts on the brain, all I can think about this week are Christmas cookies. Of course there are the classics, like gingerbread men, linzer cookies, icebox cookies, and sugar cookies. But mostly, when I get geared up for the holidays, I'm reminded of the cookies we made as gifts when I was growing up: jam-filled thumbprints, oatmeal bars, snowy, white Russian tea cakes, and my mother's date balls. What cookies do you crave at this time of year?

Source: Flickr User Dyanna

24 Comments

Jemma84 3 years 22 weeks

Peanut butter blossoms. No one makes them like my mom and she only makes them at Christmas!

Pampire 3 years 23 weeks

Its not Christmas without homemade fudge, YUMMY! Sugar cookies and gingerbread man cookies are a must too! I always make a variety of homemade candy and cookies around Christmas time, they make good gifts too!

gingrlj 3 years 23 weeks

the cookies in the photo I grew up calling Norwegian butter cookies with walnuts. aka a cookie that's got numerous names= one for each country practically! Mexican wedding, Russian date, etc

countchocula 3 years 23 weeks

My mom makes incredible pfeffernusse, which are these incredible German spice cookies that look kind of like those Russian cookies. They're the best when served with hot cocoa!

POPSUGAR Food 3 years 23 weeks

suziryder, are they? I used to think the same thing, but then I tried a friend's Mexican wedding cookies that had cinnamon in them, which Russian Tea Cakes don't have. That led me to wonder whether they're actually two different things...

Soniabonya 3 years 23 weeks

Mexican Wedding cakes. Love them. I only get to have them around Christmas because my uncle and my cousin bake cookies by the tinful as presents :) My sisters and I always snuck into eachother's tins to try to steal the wedding cakes, but all of his cookies are delicious. Macaroons are my second fave for the holidays.

UrbanBohemian 3 years 23 weeks

Oooh, chocolate peanut butter balls and Russian tea cakes! Deeelicious! :-D

ticamorena 3 years 23 weeks

MINCE PIES! (the British variety) I have no idea whether or not these actually qualify as a cookie, and I'm not even sure I love them, but they define Christmas for me! And Speculoos for the Christmas season generally; I'll be spending Christmas in Spain and it's a total seasonal anticlimax- turrón just doesn't compare

muse2323 3 years 24 weeks

I always think of the cut-out cookies we made (sugar cookies from Mom's Betty Crocker cookbook) and snowballs/Mexican wedding cakes/Russian teacakes/pecan balls. The latter are my favorite and once, when I was a kid, I mistook Grandma's molasses cookies for pecan balls and boy was I disappointed! To this day, I can't stand even the smell of molasses cookies.

neonbee 3 years 24 weeks

Dark chocolate crinkles. A cousin of mine makes really good ones every holiday.

xxstardust 3 years 24 weeks

It's just not Christmas in my house without krumkake. They're paper-thin Norwegian butter cookies made in a cast-iron press on the stove top, and when they're cooked you roll them really fast into a tube before they harden. They're traditionally dusted with powdered sugar and they are soooooo good .. buttery and crisp and to me, the epitome of Christmas. And because they take forever to make (they need to be made one at a time, about 2 minutes per cookie) and are very fragile, it's rare that I make them any time BUT Christmas ;]

xxstardust 3 years 24 weeks

macyxmakeup 3 years 24 weeks

Peanut butter blossoms and M&M cookies :) My mom makes these every Christmas!

mek123 3 years 24 weeks

Spitz cookies and cookie-cutter sugar cookies and Hershey kiss cookies and candy cane cookies and Russian teacakes and I'm sure I'm forgetting some (I love my cookies).

GlowingMoon 3 years 24 weeks

My shortbread. I have friends who look forward to it every holiday.

elle j 3 years 24 weeks

pignoli cookies and sugar cookies! I also have a really great chocolate mint recipe I like to box up and give out to family and friends!

suziryder 3 years 24 weeks

Yum, I think those cookies are also called Mexican wedding cakes. If they are, they're my most favorite Christmas cookie! So buttery, crumbly, sweet, nutty goodness! And really easy too! When I have to make a million cookies, I don't want a lot of complicated recipes. When I was growing up, we made spritz cookies (I need to get a spritz cookie press!!!) and red-and-green swirled peppermint cookies. I'm always trying new recipes for Christmas cookies, so I don't have a set of standards yet! Other than snowballs/Mexican wedding cakes and of course you can't have Christmas without sugar cookies!

Spectra 3 years 24 weeks

Those classic sugar cookies that you cut out and decorate with buttercream frosting...we used to make them every single year when I was a kid. And we always made Mexican Wedding cakes (or Russian teacakes) because they were Mom's favorite. Oh, and we also loved those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey's kisses on top.

partysugar 3 years 24 weeks

Gingerbread and sugar cookies. My sister and I used to make plates of them and have so much fun frosting each cookie.

POPSUGAR Food 3 years 24 weeks

missyd, they are Russian tea cakes or snowball cookies, depending on what you call them. They <b>are</b> delicious! Crumbly, vaguely nutty, and not too sweet. :-)

POPSUGAR Food 3 years 24 weeks

missyd, they are Russian tea cakes or snowball cookies, depending on what you call them. They are delicious! Crumbly, vaguely nutty, and not too sweet. :-)