On Halloween, anybody can knock on strangers' houses and beg for candy. And Thanksgiving isn’t complete without eating a super dry turkey surrounded by the extended family you pretend to like. However, superior to all of the other holidays and their mediocre foods is Christmas because of the sole reason that it has cookies. Unfortunately, I’ve never had any special cookie recipes passed down from generation to generation. In fact, I’m pretty sure that my grandma has only ever made cookies from a box. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with box mixes, but this Christmas, I want to try something new. So, I pulled out my trusty measuring cups and whipped up five new cookie recipes to see which one could become my new family tradition (or at least a good recipe to bribe my friends with).

#5: Gingerbread Cookies

In fifth place, we have gingerbread cookies with an average rating of 7.25/10 stars. To be honest, I think that’s a pretty fair rating. Gingerbread, in general, tastes like garbage, so I’m more surprised that it got rated so high. I’m sorry if I offended your favorite Christmas cookie, but you really need to get better taste. Anyways, the real issue with this gingerbread recipe was that it was too crunchy. Maybe I should have taken them out of the oven earlier, at 10 minutes instead of 11. To be fair, though, it was only my second time making gingerbread cookies, so I wasn’t really sure what the proper cooking time was. Besides the texture, the cookies were actually really fun to make. I had a blast icing on little smiles and buttons for the gingerbread. They turned out looking more stylish than me on most days of the week. Still, my general consensus is that you should pre-buy gingerbread houses and decorate them instead of wasting time making this recipe.

#4: Snowball Cookies

In fourth place, we have snowball cookies with a rating of 7.75/10 stars. These cookies were good, just not good enough. A cool thing to note is that the recipe only had four ingredients. Technically, there were supposed to be five, but I decided not to poison my friends with “nut allergies.” If you did want to make this recipe, the pecans would probably make the cookies taste better. Regardless, the biggest issue with these cookies was that they were too dry. Eating one cookie by itself is fine, but any more than that, and you’d definitely need something to drink it with. Another issue I have with these cookies is that they don’t really look like snowballs. They’re more like “Knockoff Snowball Cookies.” You could probably add more powdered sugar to fix the cookies' appearance. Either way, I’d probably make these cookies again, just with more liquid. Here’s the recipe if you’d like to make them.

#3: Peppermint Cookies

In third place is peppermint cookies with a rating of 8.5/10 stars. Personally, these were my favorite cookies, but my friends disagreed. They got third place because of a very sad tale involving peppermint extract. You probably don’t care, but it matters to me, so I will share the treacherous saga. It starts like this: I was mixing all of the cookie ingredients. When I went to add in the peppermint extract, disaster struck. The previously half-full bottle of extract was completely empty, with not a single drop left. I was left to mourn the loss of the peppermint extract all by myself. Luckily, if you were to recreate this recipe, you can avoid the tragedy I had to go through by simply checking that you have peppermint extract. One last fun fact about this recipe is that crushing the candy canes (so you can sprinkle them on top of the cookies) is a great way to release all your pent-up rage and emotions. 10/10 would recommend. Here’s the recipe if you’re interested.

#2: Thumbprint Cookies

The runner-up for the best cookie recipe (or the first loser) is thumbprint cookies, with an average rating of 8.5/10 stars. It’s the same score as the peppermint cookies, but I was told that these are just better. I had a lot of fun making this recipe, but it was a little too dry. As we know, nothing is ever my fault, so I blame the recipe. I even added more milk than it initially called for and the cookies were still dry. Also, pro tip: raspberry jam is the best tasting jam for this recipe. Here’s the link if you want to try it out (although let’s be honest, you aren’t going to).

#1: Hot Chocolate Cookies

In the first place, with an overall rating of 8.85/10 stars, is… hot chocolate cookies! These were my second favorite, and rightfully so because they were delicious. Unlike actual hot chocolate, these cookies were not hot or liquid, but they were still great. I don’t have much else to say about these cookies, so I’ll tell a funny joke I found online. What kind of candy is never on time? ChocoLATE. Sorry that was bad, so to make up for it, here’s the link for the cookie recipe.

Whether you choose to make these recipes or not, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Although, it would definitely be more merry and happy if you make some cookies.