Decorating sugar cookies after they come out of the oven can be a fun holiday activity, but I appreciate a cookie that bakes up all beautiful and ready to serve. And though I believe there is no sight more pleasing than an unadorned chocolate chip or magic cookie bar, this latter portion of December demands a certain amount of flair, and stained glass cookies bring just that.

Decorating Christmas cookies is an activity I desperately want to enjoy, but my lack of fine motor skills and short attention span make it difficult. Filling—and then using—a piping bag is also pretty terrible. There is no hack for instilling artistic talent into these talentless hands, but a squeeze-able sauce bottle is much easier to fill and use than a pastry bag.

Royal icing is very pretty, but it doesn’t taste like much. The hard, super-sweet cookie topping is more decor than anything, but if you want to add a little bit of flavour, reach for a bottle of cocktail bitters.

The holidays demand a certain amount of excess, both in terms of sugar and alcohol. To some people, this means something foul like an eggnog Jell-O shot, but we are not some people. Instead, I like to combine a mixture of crushed cookies, pulverised nuts, and any liquor I damn well please to make a decidedly retro confection known as the “boozy ball.”

At this very moment, seasonal bakers around the world are bookmarking cookie recipes, tracking down special ingredients, and panicking when they realise they forgot to leave the butter out to soften. Welcome to cookie swap season.

If you happen to have any Christmas cookies still hanging out, chances are they're past their eating prime. Stale cookies aren't the bad news you think they are though, as they can now become that divine substance known as "cookie butter".

Chilling your dough is a necessary step when making cut-out sugar cookies, but rolling out a super hard disk of cold dough can take a good bit of effort. To save yourself all that arm work (and a bit of time) roll it out before chilling.