It's December 9th already, and I've only begun to think about my holiday cookie baking.  Every year, I pore through my recipe folders, sifting through holiday cooking magazines, and considering the many choices of cookies I could produce.

Then, like the way I tend to cook, I circle back to the tried and true cookie recipes I make every year:  we're talking about kiss cookies, wreath cookies, fudge and shortbread.  These are the mainstays of our holiday cookie plates, but I can't stop there.  I need to add a few more varieties.

The fact is, I do love to bake, and I find I can whip up a batch or two of cookies very easily after work.  I love to try new recipes.  So, over the years, I have added many new items to the cookie plate.  There's been the biscotti/mandelbrot years, with candied ginger and white chocolate, or pecans and dark chocolate.  Rugelach has become a favorite, too, although the cream cheese dough, the rolling, the spreading of the apricot jam or the cinnamon filling seem more time-consuming than they really are.  I have added Italian ricotta cookies to the mix, and they are always a big hit: so festive with the white buttercream frosting and the red and green sprinkles.  Cut-out cookies, either sugar cookies or gingerbread, are really satisfying to make and add such holiday flair to the whole cookie presentation, and are well worth the additional time to carefully cut out, frost and bake.  I tried lechkuchen once, a hard kind of molasses-based cookie with candied fruit, but no one liked it and I never tried it again.  The wreath cookies, the old standby of cornflakes, marshmallows, green food coloring, butter and cinnamon red hots, are especially beloved by my family.  Same with kiss cookies, the peanut-butter-based cookie topped with a Hershey's kiss.

My mother used to make pink ladies, or pink ladyslippers.  They are an almond-flavored, crescent-shaped cookie with a dollop of pink frosting on the end.  Somewhere along the line, I lost the exact recipe, and I haven't been able to exactly replicate that great taste.

I made some shortbread last night, and it looked rather plain to take to some friends, so I dipped the ends in bittersweet chocolate.  Simple, rich and entirely satisfying.  

One other thing about Christmas cookies:  it's great to have lots on hand to share with neighbors and visitors, but once the holidays are past, I really don't want to see them again for another year.  How about you?  Do you have a favorite cookie tradition?