Baking sweets is a major part of almost any holiday, and naturally, any holiday cookie making can be done by including friends or family. Organizing a cookie making gathering a few weeks prior to Christmas is a good opportunity to have a good time with friends and receive some delicious homemade christmas goods. There are many different classic Christmas sweets that you can help make, ranging from typical basics like decorated peanut butter cookies to international staples such as Italian pizzelle.

Baking Italian Holiday Treats -- Making up a batch of Italian treats can be a great way to finish with many really wonderful looking sweets. Pizzelle is a traditional Italian cookie that looks like a little waffle. The dough looks a little like waffle batter but will typically also include flavoring oils such as vanilla or lemon. The batter is dropped onto a pizzelle iron, which also impresses a design such as a grid into the surface of the cookie.

Finished pizzelle are often sprinkled with confectioners sugar while they are still warm, or spread with a nut or chocolate spread and served as sandwich cookies. While there are only a few decorating choices for these basic treats, they still are popular at cookie events because of their attractive look and the simplicity of baking a batch of them.

Decorating and Bagging Your Presents -- When your party has prepared all the treats they wish, move to part two of the event by trading little sacks of cookies with everyone else so each one can sample the different batches. You can create paper gift bags yourself with scrapbook stickers, bits of pretty ribbon, and paints, and can make homemade gift tags to personalize each bag.

Have some sheets of red and green colored cellophane handy to wrap up the sweets in small bundles, and finish each cellophane cookie with a cute ribbon before putting it in a unique gift bag. Once the whole group has received their sweets, if you want to you can keep decorating bags and use them as Christmas gifts to bring back home and give to anyone.

These are merely a few suggestions for putting together a fun baking party for Christmastime. You could coordinate a bigger celebration by inviting more friends and family and using many more ingredients and decorating options to the existing ones. In addition to just using pizzelle, you can also include a few different international desserts along with better known varieties such as snickerdoodles and sugar cookies. You can even include several different frosting flavors and recipes, varying from lively glazes to decadent cream cheese.

Whatever cookies you use at your baking party, you'll definitely have an enjoyable afternoon with friends and family and end the event with holiday cookies that are sure to be delicious.