Is this doable for an amateur baker? Christmas biscuits (pic included)

I do a Christmas cookie box every year but wouldn't do it alone, usually it's a family baking session so you could invite your nieces around to join you in baking and then they can take their festive treats home afterwards. I usually choose 5 cookies and work out who will make which recipes. Some of the dough might need time in the fridge before rolling out so work out the timings, you could pre-make a couple doughs so it just needs to be baked and decorated. Have some hot chocolates and music on!

These are gorgeous!

I bake a lot, I enjoy it. I really like making treats at Christmas, e.g. to bring to someone's house for a cuppa / after dinner.

But I voted YABU, because the amount of effort, time and possibly expense that it will take to make enough biscuits of different flavours and shapes, to make a gift like this, just won't be worth it, and they'll be gone in seconds.

Instead, bake cookies for yourself and guests, or smaller amounts to give to your sister, but not as a gift, per se. You are setting yourself up for lots of work and you'll end up being flustered and stressed.

I do gingerbread trees and snowflakes with some lemon icing and edible glitter on the top. It does take time but they do look and taste lovely. Getting yourself some decent piping bottles, mine are semi rigid with like a concertina effect, will help keep you icing neat. These definitely look homemade but my students seem to like them.

I'm a glutton for punishment and I'm usually up to the small hours before the last day of term doing them with sometimes a little help from my teenage children.😂

I absolutely love all-butter shortbread, and that's not difficult to make at all. Keeps well too if stored in an airtight tin. Any mileage in doing that? (Having said that, I never make it myself - I like the Christmas tins and usually buy one of them to have around over New Year.)

Very achievable IMO.

the biscuits are not hard to do, especially if you do double the quantity and only put the best ones in the box.

a home-made box is not always going to look perfect like a shop box, but that is part of the charm.

I recommend pinwheel choc/plain sables (shortbread) - and you can make other pretty patterns too with your sausage of choc and plain dough ( flowers, checkers). Also Italian macaroons - damn, what are they called…riciarelli. Both recipes dead easy and they look good.

Very doable. They don't need to be perfect to be lovely!

Have a think about what kind of biscuit you want to do. Sugar cookies hold their shape really well but they go stale quite fast imo. Gingerbread has better longevity but not everyone likes it. A sugar cookie with something like cinnamon or orange zest could be lovely for Christmas.

If you're using jam to sandwich them, do the jam as late as possible as it will soften the biscuits.

Fiddly icing is a pain - if I were you I would totally ditch it and instead do something like star shaped biscuits dipped halfway in chocolate, or jammy dodger style with jam and a star shaped cut out.

Yes that is do able. What you need are good cutters that are Christmas shaped.

The key with baking is accurate measurement of ingredients and knowing your own oven.

The key with homemade gifts is to know that each on is unique in its own way and is made with love.

Go for it.

I think this is a really lovely new tradition to start Cackly , find a nice Christmas tin & go for it! In my opinion homemade isn't about perfect it's about love

Have done the stained glass window type biscuits with kids at Christmas- relatively easy

I bake regularly and have done for around 3 decades.
I would think I could bake a beautiful tin of biscuits, in reality they would never look that good.
It would take hours, I’d end up frustrated, disappointed and cross at myself and embarrassed to hand them out, whilst having to, or it would be a costly waste of ingredients. 😂