The holiday season is a great time to realize how fortunate we are to have what we have and to help those who may not be as fortunate as we are. It is also a wonderful time to get away from the stress of work and visit with family and friends, those that are so easy for you to neglect during the year when dealing with the daily stress of work and life.

For some people, though, the holiday season is the perfect excuse to put the diet on hold and enjoy a healthy amount of delicious food. Whether the food should consist of sumptuous turkey or delicious pies on Thanksgiving or all kinds of sweets for Christmas, the holiday season provides the perfect chance to dust off the cookbook and prepare some scrumptious holiday creations. Baking cookies and cupcakes is one way to ring in the holiday season, as the whole family can get together to whip up a batch of desserts, sharing them with friends and indulging in them on their own. If you are looking for some recipes to add to your repertoire, here are a couple of websites that specialize in holiday-themed cookies and cupcakes.

Christmas-Cookies.com is a great place to start if you want to browse through many recipes to find that perfect cookie recipe to put smiles on the faces of your family and friends. From the home page of the website, you can browse different categories of cookie recipes, from bar cookies, candy & fudge, and cookie cutter to a whole variety of categories that make finding the right recipe that much easier. There are also special collections of recipes that share a common theme, such as Low Carb Cookies, Top 25 Recipes, and more. There are also plenty of links to holiday cookbooks filled with recipes and pictures, should you choose to order one just in time for the holiday season. Most recipes are rated on a scale of one gingerbread man to five, allowing you to guess at a glance whether or not a recipe is worth your time. Every recipe is written clearly and the directions are easy to follow, and after every recipe is a section devoted to user comments, where people who tried the recipe can share their experiences with the recipe. All in all, Christmas-Cookies.com is a great place to head if you want to browse a large variety of cookie recipes to find just the right one.

iVillage has a decent collection of cupcake recipes located in a section devoted to “the season’s best cookie and cupcake recipes”. Although there is not an overwhelming amount of holiday cookie and cupcake recipes on the website, the recipes themselves are of a very high quality and are written with clear, numbered directions that allow you to more easily keep track of where you are in the preparation of the cookie or cupcake. From French Lace Oatmeal Cookies to Chocolate with Cabernet Cupcakes, the recipes on this website are not necessarily directly related to the holiday season, but by adding your own inventive touches you can most certainly make the recipes your own. On the side of the page, though, there are plenty of links to all kinds of food-related websites that may or may not be of interest to someone searching for recipes, such as holiday entertaining and the like.

About.com’s Southern Food website has an extensive list of holiday cookie recipes, along with a helpful section devoted to tips related to holiday baking and serving. While the recipes are presented in a simple list fashion, there are so many recipes that just scanning the list should quickly result in a tasty-looking recipe catching the eye. Recipes are clear and easy to follow, with the ingredients listed in bullets and the directions simple to understand. In the tips section, there are links that will help you with decorating holiday cookies, baking and freezing cookies, mailing cookies as gifts, and a link to even more cookie recipes. There are also links to a page devoted to holiday recipes in general as well. For a thorough list of holiday cookie recipes, this website is a great place to visit. Similarly, cooksrecipes.com presents an extensive list of holiday cookie recipes that is more than suitable for the average baker to find a recipe that is more or less perfect. Not all of the recipes are related to the holiday season, but there are enough to where it would be difficult to not have any recipes catch your eye.

Moms Menu has a brief but informative section of the website devoted to several different holiday cupcake ideas. Each recipe focuses on one different aspect of the holiday season, such as snowmen or Christmas tree ornaments, making each recipe uniquely festive and plenty of fun for the family to gather and make. These recipes assume that you already have a favorite recipe for the base cupcake, but then allow you to decorate each cupcake into a beautiful bit of holiday spirit. The recipes are detailed enough for the cupcake aficionado to make the perfect holiday cupcake and they are very easy to follow. Several recipes have links to illustrative articles that detail certain aspects of the recipe, such as a step-by-step photo tutorial of how to decorate using gumdrops. All in all, if you want to get into the spirit of baking holiday-themed cupcakes, Moms Menu has a useful page devoted to just that.

Everything you ever wanted to know about cupcakes can be found Martha Stewart’s website, specifically the section devoted to cupcake recipes. Several picture icons at the top of the list of cupcake recipes allow you to sort the list by themes, but browsing the list of recipes is just as interesting as well. While not all of the cupcake recipes are devoted to holiday themes, much of the fun of browsing recipes is to slightly alter an existing recipe to fit the bill. One of the best thing about Martha Stewart’s website is the vast amount of pictures that allow you to see what a recipe will (or should) look like after you make it, and considering these pictures’ penchants for whetting one’s appetite, you will most definitely want to put your renewed knowledge into action to whip up one of the delicious recipes. There are also plenty of links to articles that are filled with tips and tricks to make sure that your holiday baking endeavors go as smoothly as possible – it is MarthaStewart.com, after all.

The Internet is a large place, and although these websites are excellent resources to find all of your holiday cookie and cupcake recipe needs, there are plenty more recipes still out there. These websites, though, should get your started on the right path to whipping up some delicious holiday-themed treats for your friends and family, seeing as there are dozens upon dozens of recipes throughout all of these websites combined. Nothing encapsulates the spirit of the holidays like gathering in the kitchen with the rest of your family to make a batch of cookies to share with friends or to enjoy with the family, and these websites will help you find the perfect recipe.