Incidentally, one of my friends told me that she scours the thrift shops for plates and containers to fill with Christmas goodies. She washes them well, and if they get returned, great, and if they don’t get returned, then she’s not out much money. These plates are usually a lot nicer looking than aluminum or plastic ones. Some of them are even Christmas themed.
I don’t think they’ll work as drop cookies - they don’t spread out much, they just kind of puff - otherwise they wouldn’t hold the cookie press shape. If you do drops, press them with the bottom of a glass or something to make them flatter. If the edges split apart doing that, though, they may overcook with a mushy middle. Chefguys’s idea to roll them (in waxed paper) into a log, refrigerate, and then slice would be your next best bet.
ETA - the dough’s too soft to roll out and cut
But, but, but - cookie presses are fun and only about 20 bucks! Yeah, I know. Still kind of an expense for once a year.
I don’t mind the expense at all. I DO mind having a cookie press taking up space, and I mind cleaning it. I used to have a cookie press, but got rid of it because it took up too much space and I didn’t like cleaning it.
I think that using the bottom of a glass to press drops might be my best option.
I bought an electric version, after much frustration with my old manual press. It works pretty well.
I am so sorry you’ve led such a deprived and underprivileged childhood.
I would be happy to bake you some cookies if you would like. This is possibly one of the saddest posts I have ever seen on the SDMB. 
…* slowly getting up … gets run over again by thundering herd of Dopers signing up for Dogzilla’s cookies* …
Yeah? What’s the cleanup like on an electric version? I don’t have a pressing (haha) need to make cookies all the time, but it’s tempting.
Yes, this is a sad post…but I’m not baking cookies for him. Unless I get myself a new electric cookie press and go overboard with experimenting and have too many cookies.
Thanks for the kind offer Dogzilla. 
I’m going to bake some cookies next week. I’ve baked Toll House cookies before and will do a batch this weekend for my office party at work. Then next week, I’ll try the Holiday shortbread cookie with candied fruit recipe that I found on the Internet.
Fudge using a jar of marshmallow fluff and toll house chips is something else we make and freeze during the holiday. Fudge at Christmas is something my wife and I have always done. We freeze enough that lasts until Feb or March.
We’ll have plenty of sweets.
My mom and my husband’s mom always made Christmas cookies, so of course I follow tradition. Sugar cookies and pecan balls (like mexican wedding cookies but with pecans) are mandatory. I usually make spritz - I think I will do chocolate spritz this year. I need one other cookie to have a good variety - I’m thinking pinwheels or almond biscotti. I save the gingerbread for homemade gingerbread houses that I make between Xmas and New Year’s and let the kids decorate.
I do hate cleaning the cookie press but I like being able to churn out several dozen cute cookies in a few minutes.
Cleanup on mine is simple and quick - it takes only five minutes or so. You want to make sure the model you’re looking at breaks down easily, but not into too many fiddly small parts.
Neither one is a problem, really. You’ve just got the head, the plunger and the barrel to clean. A soak in hot water gets rid of a lot of the residual dough.
I highly recommend the following, which is my mother’s recipe:
Orange Nut Crisps
½ Cup granulated sugar
1/3 Cup butter
1 Cup sifted flour
1 Egg, separated
¼ Pound (about 1 cup) chopped walnuts
Grated rind of 1 orange
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 Tsp orange juice (delete for crisper cookies)
Cream sugar and butter together very well. Work in flour, orange rind, lemon rind, orange juice and egg yolk. Work this all together thoroughly with hands or with mixer dough hook. Make into 24 small balls (fewer if larger cookies are desired). Roll each in slightly beaten egg white, then in chopped nuts. Place on greased sheet and flatten out with a fork to about a quarter of an inch thickness. Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
.…finds Vita Beata all beat up, bruised, on the floor…looks around…slowly backs out of thread
…shakes fist at unhelpful BubbaDog, prints delicious sounding Orange Nut Crisps recipe, looks both ways for advancing crowds, exits …
:: glances up at empty PM inbox ::
I knew it would be an offer nobody would take me up on. Now I will have dozens of delicious, made-from-scratch-with-real-Irish-butter cookies all to myself. Muah ha ha ha ha.
These sound really good. I’m going to make some this weekend.
I need to quit reading this thread. Or at least I need to quit copying the recipes! The Orange Nut Crisps sound incredibly good.
They’re addictive, alright. The zest gives some tang so the usual butter/sugar combo doesn’t put you into a coma so quickly.
(tiptoes in)
(looks around)
(quietly prints out Orange Nut Crisps recipe)
(tiptoes out)
My daughter doesn’t really care for very sweet things, but she likes the occasional cookie. I think that she’d really enjoy these crisps. But I probably need to make a couple of trial batches before I give them to her. But how to dispose of the trial batches? 