Hello everyone,
So I'm getting way way way ahead of myself and am starting to think about Christmas. I'm considering offering some Christmas baking this holiday and was looking to create some sort of menu of treats to offer.
So what I need from all of you is some idea of what everyone's favorite treats are. If anyone has some great Christmas goodie recipes they'd like to share that would be great too.
If there is anyone who has done Christmas baking in the past any tips or ideas you have to share would be great too!
I'll explain to you all why I'm thinking sooo far ahead. Yesterday I started thinking about Halloween and what I want to do for that. This year is my first Halloween in my house. We have a pretty big enclosed car port and I'm hoping to make it into an awesome witches layer to give out my treats. I'm going to do cookies with my business card on them. Then since parents always check what appears to be home made treats they'll see my card.
Anyways I figured this would be a great time too to start advertising the Christmas baking since the parents will be there with the kids. I'm going to make cupcakes for the kids to eat while they're at the house and I'm going to advertise this all on my website and in my newsletter so hopefully I'll get a good turn out.
Anyway so back to the Christmas thing. Any ideas would be great but most of all I'd love to know what everyones favorite treat(s) are.
Thanks, Rachel
Hi Rachel,
You're not alone! I have been thinking about Halloween treats, an awesome Thanksgiving cake, and my annual Christmas cookie swap already 
The most popular Christmas item around this house is FUDGE. yum.
Also, peppermint pinwheels and of course gingerbread men / people.
I think the biz card on the homemade Halloween treats is a great idea, can I use it, LOL.
Have fun!
I thought I was the only one thinking that far ahead!! I found some neat cooke cutter from www.sweetc.com in the sape of mittens/sweater/hats. Also I collect cookie tins with winter pictures on them and would love to see if I could make a couple of them into cakes.
I like to make "Buckeye Balls" they're very delicious!! Made with chocolate and peanut butter and parafin wax. If you need the recipe just PM me.
Lazy_Susan
Here is a thread from last year with lots of recipes:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-11675-favorite.html+favourite+cookie+recipe
Cindy
I thought i was the only one who was thinking about the holiday baking.
Cindy6250 THank you for that link! WOW 
The biggest hit I made last year was the christmas mice - no baking required and they were a HUGE hit.
Christmas Mice Picture
I love Christmas baking!
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/49732/Christmascookies2.JPG
These are some of my goodies.
I make homemade turtles, fudge, buckeyes, truffles, chocolate suckers,
then so many cookies I can barely remember them all...candy cane cookies, thin mints, Reese Cup surprises, three colored cookies, Mexican Wedding Balls, Spritz, too many others to think of this time of year! 
Here is a good, easy, no fail recipe for peppermint fudge. When I make it I actually replace the 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate with another cup of milk chocolate. HTH, Kristen
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
Dash salt
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
3/4 cup crushed hard peppermint candy
DIRECTIONS:
In saucepan, over low heat, melt chips with EAGLE BRAND® and salt. Remove from heat; stir in extract. Spread evenly into waxed paper-lined 8-or 9-inch square pan. Sprinkle with peppermint candy.
Chill 2 hours or until firm. Turn fudge onto cutting board; peel off waxed paper and cut into squares. Store covered in refrigerator.
I make peanut butter fudge, chcoalte fudge, white choc. cranberry cookies, sugar cookies, brownies, choc. crinkles, mexican wedding cookies (I put red and green glitter in powder sugar), peanut butter cookies, mini cakes (baked in foil pans and decorated), mini chocolate and pecan tassis.. I usally start right after halloween. I have time before that I will get ahead start.
White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon brandy
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped dried cranberries*
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and brandy. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. For best results, take them out while they are still doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
*** Dried cranberries soak in hot water for 10 minutes and then chop.
Makes 24 servings
*************************
Chocolate Crinkles
Source: Better Homes and Gardens
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
Directions
1) In a mixing bowl beat eggs, granulated sugar, chocolate, oil, baking powder, vanilla and salt with an electric mixer until combined.
2) Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. If necessary, use a wooden spoon, to stir in remaining flour until combined. (Dough will be soft.) Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours or till dough is easy to handle.
3) Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar to coat generously. Place balls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake in a 350 degree F oven 10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are crackled (do not overbake). Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool.
Makes 72 cookies.
Prep: 25 minutes
Chill: 2 hours
Bake: 10 minutes per batch
haha...I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking about holiday baking!
Rachel,
I LOVE the idea of doing a witches' lair in the car port! This will be our family's first Halloween in our new house too. I just told my husband your idea and he really likes it too.
For Christmas I love making chocolate-dipped pretzels, turtle pretzels, elfin bites (little squares of shortbread with sprinkles), snowballs, chocolate crinkles...I can't remember them all! I can't wait to start baking!
Leslie
You guys are giving me the itch!
Leana - How do you store all your baking if you start after Halloween? Do you freeze? I'm just curious. I might do the same as it frees up time closer to Christmas when it gets absolutely crazy.
You're not the only one Nermal03 that likes to think of things like this ahead of time. This might sound pathetic, but I start thinking of my Christmas baking in January! I love making and giving goodies to friends and family around Christmas time and always love trying out new recipes.
Here are a few suggestions on how to go about packaging and giving out the goodies. One year after Christmas, I bought some plastic holiday containers from Walmart that were on clearance and I stocked up on them. Then the following Christmas, I bagged up the individual goodies and put them in the container. After doing that, I put the lid on the bottom of the container and then wrapped the container in cellophane and tied it with ribbon and curled the ribbon. It looked really neat and people seemed to really like it.
We've bought some more supplies for this year's goodies for Christmas. We bought some krinkle paper and some shrink wrap from www.uline.com . We also bought some clear plastic containers, they were a set of 3 containers in descending size and what I think I would do with them is fill up each container and stack them in a pryamid shape and tie them together (kind of like what you see in some of the fancy stores).
I hope these ideas will help you out.
You just gave me the coolest idea! Tape the candy I give out at Halloween to my postcards for advertising! thank you, thank you, thank you!
I have been trying to figure out how to get them out and about short of putting them on people's doors and I really want to stay local so what better way than advertising to the parents of kids within walking distance?
I love your carport-cookie idea - I'm sure you will be the most popular house on the block
heres a list of stuff i make at Christmas, not way ahead. i am a last minute person just because i think of a few new things at the lst minute.
hamemade caramels, popcorn balls, russian tea balls(mexican wedding cakes), cream cheese cookies, pecan logs, peanut butter cups, peanut clusters, white and chocolate, peanut butter balls, coconut bon bons, ornage bon bon, homemade mints, turtles, peanut butter fudge, regualr fudge, hay stacks, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolae covered ritz crackers with peanut butter between them, small pound cakes, and usually somehting else when i see it on the recipes i pick up at the stores or off theinternet.
I don't know about anyone else, but I love trying new recipes. After I'm done with my Christmas baking, I'll start the search for waht to make for the following year. I look in cookbooks, magazines, and the Internet for new recipes that sound good and easy to make. I also make sure to make a variety of different things and make sure not everything has the same type of flavor. For example, I'll make sure that not everything has chocolate in it or not everything has peanut butter in it.
I do have a question though. For those of you who give out Christmas goodies to people, what do you think would be better: to offer a larger variety of goodies but fewer servings per person (1-2 pieces per person) or to offer a smaller variety of goodies but more servings per person (at least 3-4 pieces per person)? This has been something that has plagued me for awhile. I always like doing a lot of different things but I want to make sure people have enough of each thing.
I think handing out a variety, albeit a smaller amount, is better. With all the likes and dislikes: chocolate, nuts, PB, fruits & allergies, why not give more to choose from... and I am a show-off 
I like friends/family to see the variety of things I can bake.... What can I say? It's the one thing I do well! I also love to see the faces when they try something new and really enjoy it... I remember one year I tried a butterscotch/chocolate chip/rice krispie treat candy-like "log" that actually caused my uncles to fight over the last piece.... : ) Not that I want to cause holiday fighting but, they loved it!
Just wanted to bump this thread!! YUMYUM!
i usually make too many xmas treats. LOL.. here is my list.
Cake (of course) for our annual xmas eve party
choco.cashew nut crunch
fudge
choc. raspberry creams
choc. truffles
triple layer choc. mints
choc covered oreos & pretzels.
sugar cookies.
I am sure I am missing something. LOL
I've been thinking ahead too! I have so much to plan for that I have to stay ahead or I'm lost!! 
I usually do:
Peanut butter fudge
chocolate fudge
holiday divinity
potato candy
egg nog snickerdoodles
Marble bark
decorated sugar cookies
apple spice cookies
I love this thread...I'm getting some great new ideas!!
I am so EXCITED Christmas is my favorite holiday. I just made about 6 batches of cookie dough and put them in the freezer. I can't wait til the week of christmas to bake it.
here's what I am making this year;
Decorated sugar cookies
Raspberry and Apricot gem cookies
white chocolate macadamia cookies
pumpkin chocolate chip glazed cookies
snickerdoodles
Almond powdered sugar cookies
I am only making cookies this year because I am supposed to be taking it easy(Doctors orders) this is about a third of what I would normally be baking for the holidays
Neni -
I am comming to your house for Christmas. LOL!!! I am the only one in my family that LOVES white chocolate macadamia nut and snickerdoodle cookies. So I never make them......I would just eat them all. LOL!!!
Fall is my favorite time of year - that is when all the Great Holidays are!
If I was baking cookies on a Thursday, and wanted to make up the dough on Tuesday, should I freeze the dough or could I just put the dough in the fridge?
Thank you
Hey there,
I don´t know if my post is any relevant to you but there is a lovely app called "German Christmas Baking" with 99 traditional German recipes. :)
xx
AWow, I've never seen this and I see that most of the post were in 06. So I'm still going to tell what I'm going to make for Christmas. My husband loves potato candy. Everyone loves my peanut patties that I have to make bunches even for his work. I can get 5 batches cooked up before the first one is ready to spoon out. I also color some teal blue and add slivered almonds and unsweetened coconut chips. It makes the last few batches tighten up quick, to turn out into patties. They are really good and different. I also love decorated sugar cookies, I have collected many cutters through the years. I also love to make my Grandmothers pumpkin cake. Of course chocolate fudge with pecans or almonds. I think I have gained weight thinking about it. Merry Christmas!
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