Decorative Cookies

These soft, cakelike little cookies from France are made sweeter still when formed into the cherry-cheeked likeness of the jolliest old elf of them all -- Santa Claus.

Black pepper is the secret ingredient in these sugar-and-spice cookies that make beautiful decorations.

Santa (or someone with more permanet residence at your house) may make these lists, but he won't have a chance to check them twice if there are hungry elves around!

Sparkling with a dusting of orange-infused sugar, these melt-in-your-mouth cookies make a lovely addition to a gift box of Chrismas treats.

Create cookies that look like poinsettias, complete with green leaves.

Kids will adore making their own decorations of nutmeg-spiced heavenly hosts whose "stained glass" windows are simply crushed hard candies that melt during baking and reharden when cool.

Get the big kids in your house rolling and cutting, and let the littler ones decorate these three-dimensional sweet trees.

Create the coziness of a cabin in the middle of the Vermont woods with a warm fire, a cup of coffee, and, of course, these delicious cabin- and tree-shaped cookies.

To give these meringue elf-toppers their jocular colored pom-pom, pipe on a bit of tinted icing after baking.