Yuletide is here?and retired teacher cum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom looks forward to finishing up this unlucky year. But she won't be hanging up her apron just yet?because this year's Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat.

Phyllis would like to think she's entering the Christmas cookie contest for the fun of it?but that's not exactly true. She can't imagine anyone beating her snowflake-shaped lime sugar cookies. Then, during her annual Christmas cookie exchange, Phyllis heads over to the elderly Mrs. Simmons's home and finds her dead, in a pile of lime sugar cookies. But with a number of names on Santa's naughty list, this case may be a hard cookie to crumble.