I love the stretch between Christmas and New Year's Day. It's a time when it seems as though the holiday pressure has receded but the celebratory atmosphere remains. At my house, all of the guests have departed, and I'm trying to harness every remaining celebratory vibe to make fun plans for the upcoming year.
In the cookie decorating department, I'm hoping to shake things up a bit. I want to experiment more with different techniques and colors. However, I also don't want to lose ground in those areas where I have improved over the past year. Developing a personalized combination of style, technique, and color is definitely at the top of my New Year's resolutions.
Luckily for me (and hopefully for you too!), this week's hot list* is filled with so much inspiration. We are very fortunate to have so many talented artists who share their creations, often with instructions and process information. I can assure you that my project list for next year is already quite lengthy as a result!
The cookies featured in this Spotlight are the top-trending cookies for this week that were posted this year. Though all have some type of Christmas theme, each offers a terrific example of technique, artistry, or composition. Accordingly, I'm going to refrain from my usual commentary. Each of these photos speaks for itself.
#1: Christmas Gnomes and Reindeer by Cláudia Dmytriw Pichek
#2: Christmas Balls II by Dora
#3: Sugar Plum Fairy Dessert Tray #1 by Kelly Russell
#4: Gingerbread Houses by Zeena
#5: Merry Christmas by Bożena Aleksandrow
#6: Santa and Friends! by Di Art Sweets
#7: Tea for Christmas by Zeena
#8: Christmas Cookies by Evelindecora
#9: Cookie Connection Christmas Wishes from Julia by Julia M. Usher
#10: Zimní Vánoční Krajina aka Winter-Christmas Landscape by Dita
This Spotlight is a wonderful end to what has been an incredible year of sharing and inspiration. Congratulations to @Cláudia Dmytriw Pichek, @Dora, @Kelly Russell, @Zeena, @Bożena Aleksandrow, @Di Art Sweets, @Evelindecora, @Julia M. Usher, and @Dita for being featured this week. And a huge thank-you to all who continue to make us such a wonderful cookie community!
Before I leave you to enjoy the ringing in of 2024, I'd love to hear your New Year's resolutions, especially those in the cookie category! I've shared mine, so please share yours below! 
Happy, happy New Year to all!
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. 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.
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