Making up platters of candy and cookies for friends and family at Christmas time is a common practice. My family takes it a step further and gives out Christmas cookie gift baskets.

We have a great time getting together and making them as a family. Not only do we have fun together but we get to try out new recipes sometimes.

The focal point of our Christmas cookie gift baskets is always decorated sugar cookies and we make these together. We have so much fun cutting them out and decorating them. We are all always looking out for fun new cookie cutters or ways to decorate them. All the kids get involved in the decorating too!! In our family we have one recipe that we especially like to use and since it has to be chilled we each make up a double batch at home to bring with us.

Each family brings several dozen cookies already made to put in the gift baskets. Depending on how many gift baskets you are going to do this can be a lot sometimes. But it is easier to make 20 - 30 dozen cookies from the same recipes than from several recipes. Each of us usually has our "specialty" cookie that we bring, but sometimes we will find a new recipe and change it up a bit.

Your Christmas cookie gift baskets don't have to be extremely large, most of the people you give them to will also be doing holiday baking so you don't need to fill them to the brim with cookies. My family usually gives them to neighbors and friends as a thinking of you gift. So it is the thought, not the quantity that counts!! Plus by doing it this way you can have a few of each different kind of cookie so that makes them special.

We use inexpensive baskets and decorate them with ribbon. We wrap them with Christmas colored cellophane to keep them fresh and top it off with a bow. If for some reason we will not be able to deliver a basket right away we will put the cookies in ziploc bags until we can deliver them. You want to make sure your cookies stay fresh.

Then when we are all done we each take our own cookie gift baskets and deliver them to our neighbors and friends. They enjoy them and we have had a great day with our own family making the gift baskets.