For many, the holidays bring an opportunity to spend time with loved ones, including enjoying a variety of delicious meals. One well-known tradition in various households is baking cookies. While these cookies are often shaped like Christmas trees, presents, snowflakes and other holiday-themed imagery, this year I encourage you to explore other silly shapes to reflect on what a year 2024 has been.

A great place to start is by looking back at what happened in the music industry. Taylor Swift took 2024 by storm, wrapping up her Eras Tour and releasing a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album and Kendrick Lamar’s “GNX,” continued to amaze fans and push beyond the artists’ typical styles. The rise of new stars like Chappell Roan and continued growth of familiar faces like Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX gave listeners so much more to obsess over. 

Make bright green “Brat” cookies if you were raving to Charli XCX’s energy, or sparkly red lips and espresso cups if Sabrina Carpenter’s romantic and playful lyrics tugged at your heartstrings. If you were getting over a relationship through Olivia Rodrigo’s songs this year, consider broken heart shapes.

Of course, it wouldn’t be proper to reminisce about 2024 without remembering the Olympic Games. Perhaps you found a new favorite form of entertainment in the newly introduced sports of kayak cross or breakdancing. Or maybe you just stuck with your favorite sports and watched the new athletes break records and continue to impress fans with their skills. You can bake a simple set of ring-shaped cookies, ice them in various colors and assemble them into the Olympic rings. To try something more advanced, make shapes of your favorite sports and athletes.

Next, let’s take a look at what the animals have been up to. We saw stars such as the baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng and the rise to fame of capybaras. Making some cute cookies in these shapes and sharing them will be sure to bring smiles to your loved ones. This year was also the zodiac Year of the Dragon, so bake some cookies with elaborate decorations to bid farewell to this mystical creature.

Finally, a shoutout to technological advances. ChatGPT continues to grow and evolve to help us with everyday tasks, such homework and sending emails. As a token of appreciation for its services, bake the optical illusion icon of OpenAI. We also saw huge developments from Tesla with the growing popularity of Cybertrucks, the introduction of Cybercabs and continued launches from SpaceX (often heard here at UC Santa Barbara). Make futuristic-looking cookies in the shapes of cars and rocket ships to express your creative visions. 

Regardless of which category speaks most to you, branch out this holiday season and try some new cookie shapes and decorations to bring some joy and imagination into your life!