What are your favorite recipes for holiday cookies, the dough for which you can make well ahead of time (and refrigerate or freeze)?

I just thought of another one of our favorite year-round cookies, but the flavors go well with the holidays: Martha Stewart's Chewy Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies. The fresh ginger in the recipe makes all the difference .. http://www.marthastewart.com/339353/chewy-chocolate-gingerbread-cookies

I make Seven Layer cookies as found on Deb's site. I can imagine that if wrapped really well, and placed them between sturdy pieces of cardboard and wrapped again to keep the dough from being warped you could put the layers together and freeze them. They keep for 2 weeks, so conceivable you could make them a week before Christmas and have them through New Years...if they last that long! They are so good! Here's the link: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/seven-layer-cookies/

Every year for the Holidays, I make biscotti with pine nuts and golden raisins or chopped apricots and madelines flavored with lemon zest and chopped candied ginger. They freeze well and ship well. They are different enough from the usual that people request them so I make large amounts. I'm thinking you have basic recipes for both, since you are such a great baker, but if you don't I can post the recipes. Then if I have time and energy, I'll make shortbread, date pinwheels, triple ginger snaps, spritz in various flavors, or espresso chocolate chip (or all of them). I try to take the week after Thanksgiving off to bake & freeze cookies, make a couple of potluck dishes for the freezer, and decorate the house so I can enjoy December.

One of my favorite make ahead cookies is Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies. Salted Chocolate slice and bake cookies that are out of this world.

I almost forgot Spritz cookies - a holiday classic: .. http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spritz_cookies/ .. I grew up with these & bought myself an old-fashioned press of eBay last year.

I almost forgot Spritz cookies - a holiday classic: .. http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spritz_cookies/ .. I grew up with these & bought myself an old-fashioned press of eBay last year.

Not specifically for the holidays, but these lemony cornmeal cookies are delicious and the dough freezes well in logs. I use dried currants instead of raisins - prettier, smaller - so easier to cut log in slices - and more interesting, I think. Maybe if you added chopped pistachios, the red currants and green nuts would look holiday-ish: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moscato-Zabaglione-with-Cornmeal-Cookies-107162

Pfeffernussen are fantastic. They have such a rich, complex flavor and the time spent in the fridge only improves their flavor.

I pretty much always have some kind of cookie dough in the freezer, but these are our current favorites, and they do really well when they're frozen ahead of baking:
http://food52.com/recipes/8595_magical_marvelous_memorable_cookies

My grandmother and mother (and I) make these. We have all stored disks of this wrapped and ready to roll out or slice in the refrigerator/freezer with great success.
http://www.food52.com/recipes/3866_grandma_ruths_icebox_sugar_cookies

Nothing says holiday to me like Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean cookies! I use this recipe from 101 cookbooks.
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001408.htm

Hi AJ! I used to make checkerboard cookies with my kids from the Joy of Cooking. Martha Stewart has a very similar recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/314590/checkerboard-cookies

Joy of Baking has a slightly different recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/CheckerboardCookies.html

They are so much fun to make, and of course you can create a swirl design, or other patterns. They are great freeze ahead items.

AntoniaJames! I make these every year without fail:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pecan-Fingers-Puckle-Warts-104426
I have probably held the dough in the fridge at least a week (well wrapped). And I don't form balls then logs, I cut the chilled dough into sticks and roll them just slightly. They spread as they bake into almost a lady finger shape. Melt-in-your mouth kind of cookie...

Nutmeg logs are a classic from my childhood:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/16/food/la-fo-momscookiesrec16f-2009dec16

Thanks so much sdebrango! Anyone else? I'd love to know. ;o)

I make these rugelach every holiday, the dough is fantastic stands up in freezer and refrigerator
http://www.food52.com/recipes/14783_chocolate_hazelnut_rugelach