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"One year when my son was a toddler, his grandmother walked in the kitchen to find us in a cloud of flour, with colored sugar and sprinkles all over the floor. &amp;quot;What are you making, Henry?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;We are making a Big Mess!&amp;quot; he answered happily. (We were making Christmas cookies!) One of my favorite activities this time of year is hanging out in the kitchen with my three daughters making Christmas cookies. (My son? He&amp;#039;d now rather hang back and then eat them.)   Here are five reasons I love cooky-season:  Going wild with decorations. The more, the merrier is our decorating motto, so we pour on the jimmies and sanding sugars and tinted icings. The rest of the year, we&amp;#039;re conservative chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal people. The smell of almond extract. Seems like this is the only time of year I use it, to make those cookie-press Spritz cookies. (Mmmm, that&amp;#039;s Woman&amp;#039;s Day&amp;#039;s Hazelnut Spritz in the foto!) Ogling recipes. I swear I get as much pleasure looking at Martha Stewart&amp;#039;s Cookies cookbook or any of the holiday specials out now as I do eating them. Trying something new. Even though we each want our favorite classics \u2014 sugar cut-outs, Spritz, gingerbread men, date balls \u2014 there are so many enticing choices out there, it&amp;#039;s always fun to find a new one to join the annual rotation. Last year my daughter discovered pumpkin cookies. Another year we tried peppermint candy cane twists. Any suggestions for us for this year?? Arranging the finished products on pretty platters. Most of the year, I plop them from the cooking rack to a big plastic tub. But there&amp;#039;s something about Christmas cookies that merits lookin&amp;#039; pretty on a plate. Especially the special Santa plate on the 24th\u2026not that the cookies we make now will last that long. We usually have to do some emergency re-baking in time for that!  Hey did I mention I&amp;#039;m pretty sure the first two (or three) are calorie-free if you&amp;#039;re with your kids and/or wearing red and green?! What else is there to like about Christmas cookies? \u2013Paula Spencer, WD &amp;quot;Momfidence&amp;quot; columnist "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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