A Christmas Quarrel

CookFight is an occasional series in which Kim Severson and Julia Moskin battle it out in the kitchen. The latest challenge: the holiday cookie plate.

Kim Says ...

Good cooks know their strengths, which is why I thought Julia Moskin would understand she had no business making Christmas cookies.

Christmas cookies are the pop-culture expression of the biggest Christian holiday in America. A good cookie plate is built on a delicate mix of tradition, community and deliciousness. There must be the cookie for Santa, the cookie you grew up eating and the extra special ones to give as gifts. Cookie plates can also be competitive, a point no one who has been to a Christmas cookie exchange party would dispute.

My dear friend and cooking competitor knows not of the Christmas cookie. She was raised Jewish on the Upper West Side. I was raised a Roman Catholic in the South and Midwest.

Sure, she may have eaten a few Christmas cookies at the office, or at least one of those Star of David sugar cookies with blue icing that Christians make this time of year as a kind of peace-talky gesture. That does not a Christmas cookie expert make.

Still, she wanted to rumble. Fine, Moskin. I pity the fool.

I like a Christmas cookie plate that says this is a house filled with holiday cheer, where guests are welcomed and good neighbors are celebrated. So, after consulting some of the best holiday cookie bakers I know, I made my plan.