Cookie Gift Baskets

"Cookie" is usually one of a child's first few words, and we continue to say it with the same delight throughout our lives. Whether it's chocolate-chip cookies with milk, biscotti with coffee or ginger snaps with hot cocoa, cookies are irresistible. Give someone special a basket full of assorted cookies, and you'll be irresistible too.

Home-style Cookies and Specialty Cookies

You can't go wrong with an assortment of basic home-style cookies such as chocolate chip, thumbprint, oatmeal or sugar cookies. An assortment of bar cookies is a nice selection, too. Choose hermits, seven-layer bars, lemon bars or chocolate-raspberry, and put in plenty of pretty paper napkins for sticky fingers.

Holiday cookies, of course, are a wonderful tradition. Pfeffernusse, Mexican wedding cakes, and all kinds of shaped and decorated butter cookies seem essential for the winter holidays. Don't forget the gingerbread people, too. Heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day, shamrock cookies with green sprinkles and bunny cookies have also become anticipated elements of their holidays.

If you'd like to create a somewhat different basket, consider a selection of dainty wafers and other tea cookies. Another idea would be an all-chocolate basket, with several different kinds of chocolate cookies and bars. Huge cookies that can be decorated like cakes or inscribed with messages are also popular gifts. You can also make or order cookie bouquets, a group of flower-shaped cookies on stems, which would be a lovely and unusual gift for an anniversary, Valentine's Day or other occasion when flowers might be expected.