Well I started my holiday cookies.
Actually I think this year I will make all my cookie dough first. I'll freeze the dough if not baking within a few days. Then bake them off closer to Christmas.
I made the dough for these today:
Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Macadamia Cookies With White Chocolate Chunks
Snickerdoodles
I used to make most of my cookie dough starting back in October, and freeze it, until we would bake it in December. Those cookies you do same day are many of the same ones I would do the day or two before, and put the containers on my back porch, but that was back when it was always below freezing at these times, not 60°, like it is today, so it was like a refrigerator out there on the porch! The ones in the freezer were slice-and bake, which are also good storage cookies after baking, since they are crispy cookies. Snickerdoodles and oatmeal snickerdoodles were some of the most popular hand formed cookies, and one of my friends would always make a 6 recipe batch of CC cookie dough, to bring over to start a day with. I made very few roll out cookies, but I would sometimes roll out some shortbread, cut them out, and press a design in them, and get them on the sheets, before my friends would get over, and clean up, and ready the kitchen. We would set one day aside for baking all of the chocolate cookies - this way, the dark crumbs don't get on the light cookies, and visa versa. And we would bake the spice cookies last, on the non-chocolate days, as spices do linger on the sheets. Even after I started using parchment paper, cut to size for full sheets, the spices were there, unless thoroughly cleaned. Of course, we could just clean the sheets thoroughly, but cleaning six 18x26 inch baking sheets is not fast, and that's a lot of down time - better to just start again tomorrow!
Those were the days! Usually my #1 gift every year, but most people are no longer with us, moved away, or developed diabetes. And, of course, this year has been like no other, so baking will be minimal - maybe some habanero gingersnaps, and some CC coconut macaroons.