Your mother probably baked things like Peppernuts, Springerle, and Fruit Cake (which need to be made weeks before using). Or she had a really cold storage area. Our central-heat homes are a lot warmer than homes were years ago. It could also depend on the type of cookie you plan on making.

Personally, I would plan on baking and sending a.s.a.p. and not wait until closer to Christmas. There is always soooooo much food this time of the year, an early package would probably be appreciated even more.

If you don't have space for the baked cookies in your freezer, maybe you can freeze the prepared dough. A container of dough balls takes up less space than baked cookies. If you make the dough up and refrigerate it, it will keep well for 3 days. If you have family members who might eat the raw cookie dough, be sure to make the recipe with Egg Beaters or pasteurized eggs instead of raw eggs as a food safety tip.

-Grainlady

Gingerbread and shortbread also last better than many cookies--I think it's the ones that don't have eggs that are better as they start to dry out. Almost all cookies are at their best within three days. I don't think that the fridge would help much. Cookies usually don't benefit from refrigeration, though if they're very chewy, maybe.

Do the loved ones you're mailing them to have room in their freezers?

When I was young (and in the same kind of warm house Grainlady was warning against), we wrapped each cookie individually in plastic wrap and tied with a curling ribbon shoelace bow. That was mostly so they could be hung from a styrofoam decoration, but I think it also helped keep them a bit.

OTOH, when my best friend and I shipped chocolate chip cookies to the boys at camp, and when they were sent to me across the globe--the kind that have to be eaten by the end of the next day--they were still treats and consumed to the last crumbs, even though they were a little stale. :)

A timely thread for me. I was just wondering how to get cookies out to the west coast

If where you are is having freezing temps, you could store the cookies in coolers outside. Make sure the coolers are weighted on the lids to prevent critter tampering.

If you have a vacuum sealer, you could try sealing the cookies in bags- using one single flat layer, don't stack them. Or if you have jar attachments, seal them in mason jars.

Or you could just ship them off when they are ready, and make sure you mark the box as perishable so the folks getting the cookies know to open them and eat them up :)

If you consume things like Pringles, the cardboard tubes are great for sending cookies in. Choose something where they are stacked tight, not loose and moving freely around in the bag/container. Better yet, place a round of parchment paper or freezer paper between each cookie you stack for shipping. Place a wad of plastic wrap or parchment paper at the end as a cushion, and another at the top when you finish filling the Pringles container as a cushion at the other end.

Another alternative that works well, think of how tins of shortbread cookies are shipped and use that method. Each layer of cookies is separated with cardboard. There are 2-3 cookies in a cupcake paper in each layer.

Loose cookies in a storage container or loose in a zip-lock bag rub together and that action is like sandpaper when one cookie rubs against the other. Try to stack the cookies tightly instead of laying them loosely in the container.

If they are in a zip-lock bag with a lot of air space, they can also easily get broken. If you load the cookies into the bottom of bag so they are stacked tight like they would be in the Pringles container, then wrap the remaining bag around the stack of cookies, they will not move freely in the bag and won't break as easily. Add a layer of bubble wrap around the stack of cookies for additional cushioning.

Our daughter and her family lived in Germany for 4-1/2 years, and our son-in-law is an Army Officer (25-years of service) who has been deployed all over the world at least half of their 21-years of marriage, and these are some of the more successful methods I've used to transport cookies to them.

-Grainlady