For many of us, December is "the most wonderful time of the year". Though, for most of us, it is also the busiest! I don't know about you, but my to-do list gets longer each time I look at it! My little coastal town is having its annual Christmas festival at the end of the week. It's full of seasonal festiveness and is also a fundraiser for various local charities. They really go all out. A couple of the more popular attractions include a gingerbread display and a sweet shoppe. As a result, I have two large gingerbread projects and 250 cookies due over the next seven days. There is currently some serious Christmas cookie craziness going on at my house! I'm trying to reduce the stress by leaning all the way in. Christmas music is at full volume and, much to the delight of my dogs, I constantly smell like sugar. 
That all said, it certainly feels fitting to have this week's hot list* feature the top-trending Christmas cookies. Cuteness and creativity abound in this week's featured clips, so if you're not yet in the holiday spirit, this roundup is sure to get you there. Let's have a look, shall we?
#1: Christmas Trees by Bożena Aleksandrow
#2: Snowman by CHIKAKO.F
#3: Happy Christmas Cookies by CHIKAKO.F
#4: Christmas Baubles and Stars in Green, White, and Gold by Bożena Aleksandrow
#5: Mama Noel - View #1 by Mahsa_abbasi
#6: Pink Christmas Royal Icing Decorated Cookies by Goloven Olga
#7: Christmas Minis by Lola Willard
#8: Santa's PJs by Montserrat Esquivel
#9: Vintage Cookie Box House - View #1 by Alison Friedli
#10: Ginger Cookies by Yazz Ross
How was that for a delightful dose of ho-ho-ho?! Special congrats to @Bożena Aleksandrow for earning the coveted cover spot and being featured twice. Her piping on her trees and ornaments is immaculate, and I love her rich color choices! Kudos as well to @CHIKAKO.F for also appearing twice with various pastel Christmas cuties, and to @Goloven Olga for her pink Christmas set now appearing for the second or third time in a recent Spotlight!
Whatever you celebrate or have on your to-do plate, I hope you have a chance to stop and smell the gingerbread this holiday season - and to partake in the many festive offerings on Cookie Connection! Remember, Challenge #58 with Delorse Sword (all about beautiful bows) is underway. Delorse's kickoff video is not to be missed! Julia is also offering 20% off all of her Christmas-themed online tutorials throughout the month. (Just use code HOL20 at checkout.) In addition, she's running two stencil sales as we speak, which you can read about in this forum post. And, last but not least, Julia's 2025 cookie calendar is now on sale. All calendar proceeds go toward defraying the ongoing maintenance costs of Cookie Connection - so not only does the calendar make a great stocking stuffer, it also serves the very good cause of allowing Julia to continue to bring this site to us for free. I encourage you to check out all of these holiday gifts - there's a little something for everyone here! Cheers!
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.
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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. 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.
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