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Sarah Madgic - 12/24

Nehal Patel - 12/24

Mike Devlin - 12/25

Hosai Omran - 12/25

Monica Perkins - 12/29

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If money was no object, what would you do all day?

Direct Theatre and go on long walks

Who is your favorite musical artist?

Stereolab

What is one of your favorite quotes?

"A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does."
-Anton Chekhov

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Jessica Arellano Cruz - 1 Year

Wei Lynn Eng - 1 Year

Kelvin Lee - 4 Years

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What is your favorite TV show or one you never get tired of rewatching?

I'm too lazy to fully rewatch a show, I'll just YouTube clips of funny moments of shows, even if I never seen them. but as of right now I'm going between clips of Boy Meets world (have seen before) to The Boys (never seen before)

What is one hobby you would love to get into?

Probably collect trading cards of any sort, seems like a lot of people are making money off of it as a nice side hustle

If you could host a talk show, who would be your first guest?

Drake because he's Drake and I would like to hoop at his indoor basketball court lol

If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be?

Being able to monetize memes into money lol

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In this ultimate guide to Christmas cookies, I'm sharing my best cookie success tips, recommended tools, a free shopping list printable, and top-rated cookie recipes from my website. If you need cookie help or inspiration, this page is for you!

Welcome to my complete cookie guide. There's enough sugar to last us an entire year!

After years of baking cookies-and writing a cookie cookbook-I have a pretty good understanding of what works and what doesn't. Let me help you avoid a failed batch of cookies with my highest rated recipes and no-fail success tips. I recommend starting with my beloved Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies -also a reader favorite. 🙂

My Cookie Success Guides

Room Temperature Butter

Most cookie recipes call for room temperature butter. There's legitimate science behind this, so don't overlook it. Room temperature butter is cooler than you think, so review my Room Temperature Butter page. And here's my trick to soften butter quickly.

Let's talk recipes. Here are 75+ Christmas cookies including classic Christmas cookies, decorated Christmas cookies, allergy-friendly cookies, chocolate, white chocolate, shortbread cookies, and a category for QUICK cookies!

I'm confident you'll find a cookie to love this holiday season. 🙂

Classic Christmas Cookies

1) Spritz Cookies and Butter Cookies
2) Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
3) Peanut Butter Blossoms and Peanut Butter Cookies
4) Soft Molasses Cookies and Crisp Molasses Cookies
5) Pinwheel Cookies
6) Iced Oatmeal Cookies
7) Raspberry Pistachio Linzer Cookies
8) Snowball Cookies
9) Gingerbread Cookies or try Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies
10) Christmas Sugar Cookies
11) Snickerdoodles (no dough chilling)
12) Jam Thumbprints from Sally's Cookie Addiction
13) Cinnamon Spice Palmiers

Super Festive Christmas Cookies

14) Homemade Gingerbread House
15) Drop Style Christmas Cookies and Christmas Cookie Sparkles
16) Andes Mint Chocolate Cookies
17) Brown Butter Sugar Cookies
18) Easy Cookie Icing for decorating or try classic Royal Icing
19) Red Velvet Kiss Cookies
20) Snowmen Sugar Cookies
21) Chocolate Swirled Meringue Cookies
22) Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies
23) Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
24) Stained Glass Window Cookies

No Chill/Quick Christmas Cookies

25) Christmas Cookies in a Jar
26) Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
27) Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches (like Nutter Butters!)
28) Mini M&M Cookies and M&M Cookie Bars
29) Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
30) Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies (use festive sprinkles!)
31) Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Monster Cookies
32) Flourless Almond Butter Cookies
33) Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
34) Vanilla Bean Biscotti and Dark Chocolate Orange Biscotti
35) Magic Cookie Bars

Allergy-Friendly Christmas Cookies

*Here are all of my egg free baking recipes.

Chocolate Lovers Christmas Cookies

White Chocolate Lovers Christmas Cookies

Shortbread/Slice & Bake

Need Several Batches? How to Maximize Your Time

If you're anything like me, you want to bake at least 5 different kinds of Christmas cookies at once. In fact, I have a dedicated Holiday Cookie Baking Day every single year. After a few stressful experiences trying to cram a bunch of recipes into 1 day, I found the perfect combination of cookies that maximizes my time.

I'm happy to share my schedule and recipe suggestions with you:

1. Make 1 type of decorated cookie. I prefer my gingerbread cookies or Christmas sugar cookies. Make the dough the night before, then bake the cookies first thing in the morning so they are ready to decorate.

2. Make a super festive cookie. I suggest my peppermint mocha cookies or Santa's whiskers cookies. Either dough must chill, so make the dough the night before. The peppermint mocha cookies are one of the most popular cookie recipes on my website.

3. Make a bar cookie and bake them as you prepare the next cookie. I suggest my ultimate magic cookie bars, M&M cookie bars, or peanut butter blondies. (Use festive colored M&Ms instead of Reese's Pieces if desired.)

4. Make a no-bake recipe as the bar cookies bake. I suggest my chocolate coconut snowballs, scotcheroos, or no bake cookies.

5. Bake the cookies from #2. Decorate the cookies from #1 as #2 bakes.

6. Finally, make a no-chill cookie recipe such as spritz cookies (pictured below) or mini M&M cookies. Continue decorating cookies from #1 as these cookies bake, if needed.

Free Printable - Ingredients & Shopping Chart

To make shopping easier, my team and I knew readers would find an ingredient chart helpful when shopping for ingredients. This chart fits 6 recipes-you can list the recipes at the top, then write in the amounts so you can see how many cups, bottles, teaspoons, etc that you need to purchase for each ingredient. You can add extras at the bottom too like candy canes, Hershey Kisses, molasses, etc. (This chart doesn't include basics like salt, baking soda, and baking powder.)

** Free Baking Ingredients Chart PDF: Sally's Baking Recipes Ingredients Chart
Here is a photo preview:

Final Cookie Baking Success Tips

1. Chill the cookie dough. If the cookie dough is particularly sticky, wet, or greasy- chilling is in its best interest. Chilling cookie dough helps prevent spreading.

2. Ditch the specified baking time. I never look at recipe times when I bake cookies. I look at the cookies themselves. The cookies are done when the edges are set and lightly browned.

3. One batch at a time. You get the best possible results when the oven only concentrates on that 1 batch. If you need to bake more than one batch at a time, rotate the baking sheets from the top rack to bottom rack a couple times through the baking process to encourage even browning.

Q: Which Christmas cookies are you making this year? You might also enjoy making a masterpiece yule log, too!

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75+ Popular Christmas Cookie Recipes - Sally's Baking Addiction

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Here are 75 Christmas cookies including gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, allergy-friendly cookies, and a category for QUICK cookies!

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The Geminid Meteor Shower is December 13! 

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The Geminid Meteor Shower is December 13! 

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This is the most active meteor shower of the year. Click through for more information!

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The Geminid meteor shower occurs between November 19 to December 24 and will peak on the nights of December 13 and 14.

2023 will be a great year for Geminid meteor shower viewing as it peaks around the time of the new moon which arrives at 6:32 p.m. EST (2332 GMT) on Dec. 12. When there is no interference from moonlight, skywatchers can see up to 150 meteors per hour at peak times according to the American Meteor Society.

Unlike a majority of the meteor showers we experience on Earth, the Geminids are the product of an asteroid. The reliable shower produces bright meteors associated with the asteroid Phaethon, a strange blue rock that acts like a comet.

Related: Meteor showers guide: Where, when and how to see them

The Geminids are considered one of the best meteor showers every year because the individual meteors are bright, and they come fast and furious.

The Geminid meteor shower is nearly 200 years old, according to known records - the first recorded observation was in 1833 from a riverboat on the Mississippi River - and is still going strong. In fact, it's growing stronger. That's because 's has tugged the stream of particles from the shower's source, the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, closer to Earth over the centuries, according to a statement from astronomer Bill Cooke during a "" discussion.

Where can you see the Geminid meteor shower?

Gemini constellation position:

Right ascension: 7 hours

Declination: 20 degrees

Although it is best visible from the Northern Hemisphere, Geminid meteors can also be spotted from the Southern Hemisphere. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to emanate, known as the radiant. From Earth's perspective, the Geminid meteor shower appears to originate from approximately the direction of the Gemini constellation.

Gemini is fairly easy to spot in the as it is located northeast of the constellation Orion, between the and Cancer constellations. The two brightest stars in the constellation, Castor and Pollux, represent the heads of the Gemini twins.

But don't look directly at Gemini to find Geminid meteors, as the shooting stars will be visible across the night sky. Make sure to move your gaze around the nearby constellations as meteors closer to the radiant have shorter trains and are more difficult to spot. If you only look at Gemini you might miss the more spectacular Geminids.
Related:

(Image credit: Daisy Dobrijevic/Future)

The greatest meteor storms of all time
How to see the Geminid meteor shower

To best see the Geminid meteor shower, go to the darkest possible location, lean back and relax. You don't need any special equipment like telescopes or binoculars as the secret is to take in as much sky as possible and allow at least 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Avoid using your phone and make sure you have the red light setting on flashlights to preserve your night vision.

If you want more advice on how to photograph the Geminids, check out our how to photograph meteors and meteor showers guide and if you need imaging gear, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

What time is the Geminid meteor shower?

The best time to view the Geminid meteor shower is around 2 a.m. local time when the shower's radiant is at its highest point in the sky. The moonlight will not interfere with meteor viewing this year. To calculate sunrise and moonrise times in your location check out this custom sunrise-sunset calculator.

Where do Geminid meteors come from?

The Geminids are associated with near-Earth object 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid that may have undergone a collision with another object in the distant past to produce the stream of particles that Earth runs into - creating the meteor shower.

(Image credit: Sky & Telescope diagram)

The strange asteroid behaves like a comet and orbits every 1.4 years. When Earth passes through the debris left behind by Phaethon the "asteroid crumbs" heat up as they enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up in bright bursts of light.

Editor's note: If you capture an amazing view of the Geminid meteor shower or any other night sky view that you would like to share with Space.com for a possible story or gallery, send images and comments to: spacephotos@space.com.

Additional resources

Explore the Geminid meteor shower in more detail with this on the reliable shower. Read about the curious history of the Geminid meteors with this article published on Universe Today. Find out more about the Geminids along with some fun facts, courtesy of the UK Meteor Observation Network.

Bibliography

Meteor Shower Calendar. American Meteor Society. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/#Geminids

NASA. Geminids meteor shower: Nature's 'holiday light show'. NASA. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/geminids09-transcript.html

Sunrise Sunset Calendars. Sunrise Sunset Calendars - Home. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.sunrisesunset.com/predefined.asp

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Geminid meteor shower 2023: When, where & how to see it

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The Geminid meteor shower peaks the night of Dec. 13-14. 2023 will be a great year for Geminids, our guide tells you where and how to see them.

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Hanukkah is from December 7 - December 15

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Hanukkah is from December 7 - December 15

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Learn more about Hanukkah here!

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Remember to shout-out your fellow colleagues for the hard work they do everyday.

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Remember to shout-out your fellow colleagues for the hard work they do everyday.

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Please feel free to comment below this post, or add your own separate shout-out post by clicking the plus symbol on the lower right corner.

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Kwanzaa is from December 26 - January 1!

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Kwanzaa is from December 26 - January 1!

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Learn more about Kwanzaa here!

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LIST: 2023 holiday events in the Bay Area

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Looking for something to do to get in the holiday spirit? Here’s a list of events happening in the Bay Area sure to make your season bright.

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Include Any Special Holiday Traditions Below!

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Include Any Special Holiday Traditions Below!