The holidays are upon us and the one thing I’ve been eagerly awaiting is baking holiday cookies with my older sister. Are you one of those people, like myself, who has been excited for the annual holiday traditions since Halloween? I can’t help it. There are just so many fun activities to do this time of year that I can’t contain myself! I’m the type that starts playing holiday music as soon as socially acceptable. This year, so far, I’ve put up my Christmas tree (I waited until Black Friday), I’ve gone skiing twice, went to the local Holiday Open House, and I even volunteered to judge Petoskey, Michigan‘s Downtown business holiday window decor! All that’s left to do is bake holiday cookies.
My sister, who recently relocated from Chicago, Illinois, back home to Michigan, has the perfect kitchen setup for baking holiday cookies.
Holiday Cookie Kitchen
What makes my sister’s kitchen so perfect for holiday baking? Her L-shaped countertops run the length of her kitchen, approximately 20 feet, with bar stools at the end for entertaining. She has a four-foot by four-foot kitchen island, which is perfect for rolling out cookie dough and organizing ingredients/recipes. Her extra-wide refrigerator is great for chilling dough and storing all the extra ingredients (and wine) we would need for our baking extravaganza!
Fun fact: If you are selling your home and you’ve heard that the smell of freshly baked cookies will help your prospects, I’ve got news for you. Researchers at Washington State University found that the smell of freshly baked cookies may actually deter house hunters from buying your home. If you’re going to try this type of tactic, make sure you go with the simpler smells; the more complex the smell profile, the more confusing it can be for the buyer. Instead of focusing on your charming home, they may end up focused on “What’s that smell?” So while it may be tempting to entice the buyer with the smell of cookies, there may be more effective ways of catching their interest, such as attractive home staging.
The Perfect Selection
For our holiday baking, we decided to select from an assortment of holiday cookies that would make great gifts for friends, colleagues, and family. We chose Chocolate Kiss Cookies, Vegan No-Bake, Vegan Coconut Balls, Frosted Sugar Cookies, and Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal Cookies.
Our process was surprisingly efficient given that my sister’s kitchen has so much square footage. We were able to move around each other with ease and in just two and a half hours our holiday baking was complete! We put all of the cookies in decorative tins and planned to give them out as gifts. However, it turns out that I may have to make more cookies because someone around my house hasn’t been able to keep their hands out of the cookie jar!
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