In many households, baking holiday cookies—and sharing them with friends and family—is a well-established tradition. It's always more fun when cookie-making is a group activity. Everyone gathers in the kitchen to spend the afternoon mixing, rolling and cutting out batch after batch, then savoring the aroma as the cookies emerge from the oven. The hardest part, of course, is waiting for them to cool just enough so you can sample a few.

Home-baked cookies are sure to please everyone on your list. Packaged in decorative boxes or tins, they make a thoughtful hostess gift and are a wonderful treat to send to faraway friends. And cookies are great to have on hand when guests stop by.

For your holiday baking this season, we offer recipes for some old-fashioned favorites, including Mexican wedding cookies and ginger snaps (ours boast a double dose of ginger). These recipes and many more are featured in Cookies, one of the newest additions to our Williams-Sonoma Collection series. This book also includes a chapter on decorating to help you transform your cookies into delectable works of art.