f you like to bake with your kids and you are health conscious, Christmas cookies present something of a conundrum. Cookies are usually packed with sugar and butter, and it’s hard — impossible, maybe — to make a healthy Christmas cookie.

Most Christmas cookies are also made with white flour, which has little nutritional value.

"White flour is nutritionally deficient," says Steve Furey of Azalea, a baker who delivers hand-ground whole-grain bread to customers in the Rogue Valley every other week. "Modern roller-milled flours (white) remove the nutritious bran and germ from wheat berries, resulting in the loss of fiber, minerals, vitamins and unsaturated fats," Furey says.

And even though they look great with all those sprinkles on them, who really likes to eat those flat Christmas cookies that practically break your teeth when you bite into them anyway? Kids may grab a handful of Santas and some reindeer, but do they eat more than a head or a hoof before casting the plate aside?

What to do? Make Christmas biscuits.

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"Biscuits are quick, forgiving and make a happy mess," says Nancy Cross of Portland, who has taught cooking and chemistry classes at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and who often cooks with her kids.

"You can’t foul up a biscuit, unless you fuss compulsively," Cross says. "Kids can mix the dough with their hands, pat it, cut it all by themselves."

Kids can make Santa’s coat buttons out of Sundrops (a natural alternative to M&Ms) or chocolate chips, and also decorate the cookies with raisins, walnuts, sunflower seeds, bits of dried apricot or whatever else strikes their fancy. The batter takes only a few minutes to whip up. Your kids will enjoy rolling out the dough. Then the cookie cutting fun begins. The most time- consuming part of this activity is the cleanup afterwards. Since the dough is sticky, it can be hard to get off the cutting board. To avoid this problem, clean it while the biscuits are baking.

Jennifer Margulis is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail her at properzioprose@jeffnet.org.