I bake Christmas cookies. Not just a single batch, but serious quantities of Christmas cookies – one year I made 32 different kinds. In order to have a diverse array of cookies during the holiday season, you need to start early. Immediately after Thanksgiving, bake cookies that get better with age, like Pfeffernusse. You can also begin making any refrigerator cookies, shaping the dough and freezing. About two weeks before Christmas, you can begin making doughs that need to chill before they are rolled out. Most of these can be refrigerated for several days. Begin baking a week before Christmas, doing a few recipes each day. Use a few of your frozen and refrigerated doughs, and make 1-2 cookies that don’t need advance prep. If you’re organized, you’ll have an impressive array of fresh cookies to get you through the holidays.

If this still seems like too much work, why not try a cookie swap, where you bake several batches of one recipe, and then trade with friends?