If there’s any day that rivals Pie Day for making our house smell like a bakery, it’s my annual Christmas Baking Day.

Yes, I’ve already been doing some Christmas baking…German cookies for Christmas School, lussekattes for Santa Lucia Day, other various treats here and there. And we’re saving the gingerbread and sugar cookie baking for the week after Christmas. But there’s always one day prior to Christmas each year when I bake all my “fancy” Christmas cookies, and that’s what I did on Saturday…28 dozen of them!

I baked our old favorites (raspberry-almond thumbprints and chocolate peppermint). I made some newer favorites that will probably be old favorites in a few years (chocolate crinkles and linzer). I tried a few new recipes that looked interesting to me (meringue kisses and peppermint meltaways). And I tried to recreate an old, store-bought favorite with decent success (a duplicate of Keebler’s anise-flavored Jingles).

Yes, there was a point when I couldn’t find our kitchen under all the cookies. And yes, it feels like we’re living in a bakery. But I love organizing pretty plates of Christmas cookies, and sampling some along the way!