For us, Christmas cookies are one of the hallmarks of Christmas.

I baked Christmas cookies with my mother when I was growing up, and my children make Christmas cookies every year with me. We bake cookies, decorate cookies, give cookies as gifts, and eat cookies while we drive through neighborhoods after dark looking at Christmas lights.

Of course angels, stars, trees, and snowmen make great cookies -- and I certainly wouldn't ever complain if anybody offered me any! But if you're feeling particularly festive and creative and want something a little more unique, you could add one or more of these Wilton cookie-cutter kits to your collection.

I think my favorite kit is the one one the right. I never would have thought of making a Christmas cookie shaped like a stocking or a wreath, but what a great idea! They seem to lend themselves to a lot of decorating ideas -- you could even put someone's name or initials on the stocking cookie!

I am terrible at wrapping gifts.
Just terrible!

Either I cut waaay too much wrapping paper, or I over-cut just enough so that there's a spot on the back that's uncovered (causing me to start all over again.) My wrapping paper folds are usually crooked.

And don't even get me started on the corners!

Lately, my usual solution to this problem is to get either my husband or one of my daughters to wrap all gifts for me.

Another obvious solution which I sometimes use is -- gift bags!

Gift bags are great because
a) They require no effort or skill to wrap a gift, and you completely avoid the dreaded corners;
b) They can be reused again and again.

I found these three holiday bags, all with different themes -- candy canes, snowmen, and Disney fairies. I particularly like the snowman bags. They look like something you could use not only for gifts, but also just for toting things around during the holiday season.

I love bears.

In fact, I love bears so much that when I was pregnant with my first child, my mother suggested that I name it "Teddy" if it was a boy. (It wasn't, and I didn't.)

Ironically, I bought teddy bears more before I had kids than after. I guess because after I had kids, my need for more bears took a backseat. And, interestingly, my kids were into stuffed dogs and other animals more than they were ever into stuffed bears.

Here are a few Christmas bears I found, all at a pretty good price.

If I had all the money and space in the world, I'd set up a decorative bench in my house that was lined with teddy bears like the first two.

And while I'm imagining having all the money and space in the world, I'd also have a tree with nothing but bear ornaments (like the one on the right.)

We currently have a sparkly red tablecloth that we use in December, but I had never thought of using Christmas placemats until I saw these three featured on Amazon for $6 or less.

One problem with having a tablecloth is that it invariably gets dirty approximately twenty minutes after I put it on the table, and then usually ends up spending half the month of December sitting in the dirty laundry basket.

I got a second red Christmas tablecloth to help combat this problem, but that then usually ends up meaning that within 48 hours both tablecloths end up sitting in the dirty laundry basket, where they often will reside for up to two weeks. (Or often, on Christmas Eve, when we suddenly say, "Aack! Where's the tablecloth?" and frantically throw them into the wash.

Anyway, placemats seem like they could help with this problem. It's easier to throw a placemat (or two) into the laundry than an entire tablecloth, and hopefully they would keep the actual tablecloth cleaner longer -- ooh, let's say maybe for an entire 72 hours, even!

Plus, you can mix and match so that you have different colors or patterns for different people or different days.

The "Funkins Cloth" (the one on the right) is particularly interesting because it's designed to be not only a placemat, but also a napkin, particularly for kids on the go. So that's a simple way to dress up your kid's lunchbox during the month of December. (And honestly, I can't imagine why you couldn't use it for you own lunches as well!)

I found these three different Christmas headbands at Amazon for less than $6 each. I think they snowmen are my favorite of the three.

Of course, these are perfect for a holiday party, but I'll bet there are plenty of other times you could get away with wearing these.

For example, depending on what your work environment is like, maybe you could wear it to the office the week before Christmas. If you're a teacher, you can definitely get away with wearing this kind of stuff at work, especially on the day there's some sort of holiday assembly.

I play the piano for several holiday parties every December, and so far I've never worn anything more "daring" than Christmas earrings. But now I'm wondering if I should wear something like this  ... probably not for the entire evening, but just to slap on for some photos or before playing some particularly fun songs.

I'm getting ready to take a Disney trip in two months as I type this -- I just scheduled reservations for us at The Garden Grill with Chip and Dale, and The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Friends -- so it's easy for me to have Disney on the brain.

If you have any Disney Lovers in your house, you might want to check out these different Disney stockings that Amazon is running a deal on right now.

Each stocking is less than $6 each, and two of them are less than $4!

My personal favorite of the three is the Tinkerbell stocking. My younger daughter had a Tinkerbell birthday party when she turned four, and my older daughter's favorite book is Peter Pan, so I guess it makes sense that I would feel partial toward Tinks!