I decided to take a page from Julia's playbook to keep the holiday inspiration flowing. (As a side comment, I can assure you that it is hard to go wrong by taking any pages from Julia's playbook! 
) What all of this means is that this week's hot list* is again comprised of the top 10 cookies within the Christmas clip set. And, once again, it does not disappoint.
We've got so much in this Spotlight! Color! Texture! Sparkle! Whimsy! And a bunch of holiday ho-ho-ho!
Let's get started.
#1: Icing Food Miniatures on Christmas Dessert Table Cookie by Evelindecora (An oldie but a goodie, and a wonderfully festive start to the Spotlight. @Evelindecora has given us so many details to appreciate.)
#2: Gingerbread House by Cláudia Dmytriw Pichek (There is so much texture here. Check out the comments section under @Cláudia Dmytriw Pichek's post to learn how she achieved the glass effect in the windows. It wasn't what Julia thought!)
#3: Christmas House by Cláudia Dmytriw Pichek (This charmer marks @Cláudia Dmytriw Pichek's second appearance this week. It also demonstrates how beautifully she can move from 2-D to 3-D, as both gingerbread homes - this one and the last - are equally textured and festive! Well done!)
#4: Flaky Little Elves by Teri Pringle Wood (The title alone made me smile. And then I smiled even wider when I saw these cuties' faces. @Teri Pringle Wood always brings the magic!)
#5: Santa's Hidden Workshop by vivi (So many tiny and wonderfully impressive details to enjoy here. But my favorite has to be the conveyer belt depositing gifts into Santa's sleigh! Delightful, @vivi!)
#6: Christmas in Purple and Orange by Icingsugarkeks, aka Gabi (Such vibrant color and rich texture in this set, which is @Icingsugarkeks' fourth entry (!) in the current Watch-Learn-Create challenge featuring @Inspirations by Carmen Urbano. Gabi has dazzled us with her challenge entries - and so can you! The challenge is open 'til January 13, so there's still plenty of time to enter. Check out Carmen's challenge kickoff video and the few guidelines here. And remember, Carmen and Julia are giving away three great prizes, so, in addition to the gift of learning, you might get goodies as well!)
#7: Honeycomb Shape Christmas Tree by Stevie Jean (These wet-on-wet cookies are so perfectly executed, but then the overall composition takes them way over the top. Well done, @Stevie Jean!)
#8: Snowbuddies by Nancy@SeasonsOfJoy (Another blast from the past loaded with holiday charm. Congratulations to @Nancy@SeasonsOfJoy for racking up more than 11K views!)
#9: Christmas Cookie: Pink Birdhouse by Evelindecora (Who says Christmas cookies need to be red and green?! This sweet birdhouse is perfect in pink, and its nearly 21K views are testament to Evelin's sensational color choice. Amazing as always, @Evelindecora.)
#10: Christmas Night by Di Art Sweets (This set delivers so much cuteness and eye-catching color that Julia and I decided to feature it as this week's cover art. Great job, @Di Art Sweets!)
How's that for some very top-shelf inspiration?! I hope this roundup helps bring joy and smiles as we head toward our holiday baking finish lines. I just have two more big batches and then I'm all about the ho-ho-ho!
Wherever you are and whatever you celebrate, I hope your celebrations are filled with joy and peace.
So that no one has an unfair advantage in making it onto a hot list, the algorithm is secret even to site administrators. Only our platform developers know the code, which has been exhaustively tested by those developers and Cookie Connection staff.
All photos shown here are the courtesy (and copyright) of the designers listed.
To check out our other hot lists, at any time of day, visit our Hot Spot, also found in the site's main navigation line.
___________________
Lisa Foss is a hobbyist cookie decorator. After careers in corporate communications and freelance writing, she focused her attention on the nonprofit sector. She spent more than a decade at various soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and prison reentry programs throughout New York City. Lisa’s cookie journey began in 2011 when she started making gingerbread houses. After getting a handle on construction, she focused on improving her decorating skills through books, videos, and online tutorials. This exploration brought her to Cookie Connection, which has provided her with an incredible community to learn from and grow with. Though she enjoys making cookies for family and friends, Lisa’s main focus is cookies for charity.
For more information about Lisa and her work, please check out her Facebook and Instagram pages.
Byline photo credit: Shutterstock
Note: Saturday Spotlight is a weekly Cookie Connection blog feature written alternately by Lisa Foss and Julia M. Usher. Its primary intent is to cast a spotlight on the week's top-trending cookie posts, as determined automatically by the site algorithms described above. This article expresses the views of the author, and not necessarily those of this site, its owners, its administrators, or its employees. To see all of Cookie Connection's past Saturday Spotlights, click here.
Comments (7)