Dust off those tree-shaped cookie cutters and (pro tip) get yourself one of those carpal tunnel wrist braces because boy, oh, boy, it's baking season and the gloves are coming off. Heck, even Blake and Gwen admitted to getting competitive in the kitchen during the holidays. The most wonderful time of the year.
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If you haven't been invited to at least one cookie-decorating party (read: judgy get-together for everyone to sneer at your culinary weaknesses), then you're missing out on what makes the holidays so special: crying over the mess of confectioner's sugar in your kitchen and loading up on all sickly-sweet forms of pure cholesterol.
But seriously, everyone loves Christmas cookies. One bite and you're immediately on a Polar Express passage back to those childhood memories of grandma's gingerbread cookies or nonna's ricotta cookies. Whatever your family's bite-sized Yuletide traditions, Santa isn't the only one filling up on dough.
Ever wondered, in the fiercely competitive spirit of holiday baking, what the most popular Christmas cookies across America are? If so, today's your lucky day. Google Trends has provided a map of 2022's uniquely-searched Christmas cookies coast-to-coast, showing which confections were overrepresented in each state, compared to the country as a whole.
The results are pretty diverse. Sure, there are a lot of classics: gingerbread and sugar cookies abound. But there are also a ton of culturally-specific standouts, from Hawaii's Ube Christmas cookies (made with bright purple yams) to West Virginia's Mexican wedding cookies.
If you're looking for inspiration (the Ube cookies are sure to land you first-place), feast your eyes upon our nation's most sought-after holiday morsels. And let the Great American Bake-Off begin!
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