Which Is Michigan’s Most Beloved Christmas Cookie?

Grab your flour, apron, and don't forget to preheat the oven!

Now that the 2023 holiday season has officially arrived it's time for one of our favorite annual traditions: family baking day.

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My family isn't the only one who does this, right? Each year during the lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day we check our calendars and block off an entire afternoon, sometimes even an entire day, dedicated to baking Christmas cookies.

These are the cookies that will fill our dessert trays at family celebrations, the cookies that will fill our holiday tins given to friends and coworkers, and of course we'll leave a few out for Santa on Christmas Eve too!

Sure, baking and frosting cookies all day is our reason for gathering, but the real fun is spending time with family and friends--and drinking plenty of holiday cheer.

Michigan's Favorite Christmas Cookie:

When you think "Christmas cookie" things like classic sugar cookie, gingerbread, and those weird food-colored cornflake wreaths come to mind, but which is Michigan's all-time favorite?

According to the most recent data released by Google Trends and Martha Stewart, who knows a thing or two about baking, the most popular holiday cookie in Michigan is:

Polish Christmas Cookies

With such a large Polish population here in The Mitten I'm not surprised this is our favorite cookie. However, I can't include myself among them! I'm not Polish so I'm curious to know: what does a Polish Christmas cookie taste like?

Not only that, but what are they?

When searching "Polish Christmas cookies" images of traditional Pierniczki, a gingerbread based cookie are among the first results however plenty of Kolaczki are included too. So I'm not sure which cookies Martha is referring to, but I'm curious to try them nonetheless.

Which kind of cookies does your family bake for the holidays?