Gingerbread People Holiday cookie projects: White snowflakes, dreidel trios, and ornaments

Notes: Whether you're decorating a tree, a room or a table during the holidays, these long-lasting cookies bring sparkle, color and the feeling of warmth that no store-bought ornament can provide into your house. Making them is an ideal Saturday project to usher in the holidays. String the finished cookies on stout wire and run them along your banisters, mantels, or coil them up into a wreath or centerpiece. Light candles to catch the twinkle in the sugar crystals. One batch of dough will give you about two dozen cookies; if you plan to double the recipe, make two separate batches. You can add color to the cookies by coloring the icing or by using white icing, then dusting the icing with colored sugar before it sets. After it sets, knock off the excess. The latter gives a prettier, more sparkly effect. Strangely, both cold milk and hot whiskey toddies go perfectly with spicy gingerbread. I heard of a guy who will make you any shaped cookie cutter you want out of copper and you can order them online.