My Christmas Cookies are the best anywhere, I have spent 10 years perfecting them, and my 9yr old son has figured out how to make them for 30% of the cost and in 30% of the time.

My Christmas cookies are my pride and joy. I have spent years perfecting this recipe, and on top of that I was buying super expensive ingredients to make sure they were perfect. The cookies take me about 3 hours from start to finish. The ingredients were so expensive my wife was calling Christmas Cookies my annual "golf game", cause of the cost. <br>I make 24 dozen cookies for the holidays, plus another 24 dozen for work. For the last 2 years I have had Christmas Cookie donations to pay for my ingredients, and they have covered about 75% of the costs. <br><br>This year my 9-year-old son, who is a cookie eater extraordinaire, asked why I spent so much money on cookies. He thought there had to be an easier way. He and I were discussing different ways that we can save money and time on the cookies. I mentioned I could buy a cookie mix and he zipped it. He said, "Those are gross, and that's cheating." <br><br>After a number of different ideas I had one that I thought was the perfect compromise. I was going to use the cookie mix as my base, and then add my Christmas Cookie recipe to the cookie mix. I was super excited to do this, and my son was a bit skeptical. <br><br>I mixed the cookie mix right as it said to on the bag, then I added all my secret ingredients on top of that. Then I made the frostings the way I always did and decorated. The cookies turned out awesome! The flavor was the same as always, but the price was way cheaper, and the time it took to prepare the dough was significantly shorter.<br><br>My son said there was no difference in the cookies, and he's the cookie eater extraordinaire. My Christmas Cookie donation fund won't be happening this year, because these cookies were so cheap. I didn't tell my wife how much cheaper they were, but now she's not calling them my "golf game" anymore.