Countdown to Christmas! (Including Christmas Cookie Countdown Links)

It is December 1st, and that means only 24 more days to Christmas! This month we are going to be sharing all kinds of Christmas stuff so stay tuned for that. On the next two Mondays, we are going to shout out to two great websites that offer so many Christmas Cookie ideas, it will give you diabetes just thinking about it! So I am going to be sharing some of the experiences I had last year with baking. And I am going to try and share recipes with you that really use the same ingredients. One thing I hate about baking multiple recipes is having to buy so much stuff and then you are stuck with it and have no use for it the rest of the year.

So last year I made FIVE different types of Sugar Cookies, some Shortbread Cookies, THREE different types of Fudge, THREE different types of Cheesecake, THREE different Chex Mixes, Cake Pops, and a few other little goodies to use up some of the ingredients I had left. I can't give an exact list really, but I encourage you to have the baking essentials at hand if you are doing any kind of baking (Flour, Sugar, Powdered/Icing Sugar, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Butter or Margarine - I recommend Butter, Decorations - so like sprinkles, M&Ms, little candies, anything you like), probably some melting chocolate or chocolate chips, depending what your family likes. I made a lot of recipes with Peanut Butter so if you are not allergic that would be a great purchase and if you are a non-nut butter would be fine I am sure. And if you plan on doing the fudge, you will need Sweetened Condensed Milk.

So today we are sharing links from two other places, these are in no way connected to us whatsoever but I really enjoyed what they did last season, so you can probably find a new version this year or browse their previous years. So we are going to start with Amanda's Cooking. Each year she does a 12 Days of Christmas Cookie thing on her website. And it is a great way to get into the Christmas season, there is one cookie recipe for each of the first 12 days of December. This is a great idea for multiple reasons, and it may be as simple as the Elf on the Shelf made them cookies that day (if your family does that). And I am sure that most, if not all the recipes can be frozen and thawed later in the month when you are ready for them.

And of course, what would a holiday be without Tasty. They have a wonderful video on Youtube (below), with 31 Christmas Cookie ideas. So you can bake cookies every day of December if you wanted to!