MILWAUKEE — Christmas is less than a week away and your to-do list might look as long as Santa's naughty or nice list.
If holiday baking is something you still need to get done — local shops can help save you time.
It's the busiest week of the year at National Bakery & Deli.
"There's a method to the madness, I think. We don't know," laughed Jeff Callen, the co-owner.
The kitchen at the bakery's east location is cranking out thousands of pounds of Christmas cookies.
"Literally thousands of pounds of pecan fingers," said Callen.
At 98 years old, it's Milwaukee's oldest bakery, and just like in years past the shelves are brimming with hard-to-find treats like Pfefferneuse, and the classics too.
It seems that Cream City's bakeries could rival Santa's workshop in this final week before Christmas. Aggie's Bakery & Cake Shop in West Allis is so busy — they've had to stop taking cookie preorders.
"We're making about 562 pounds of cookies just for this week alone," explained owner Rachel Schmidbauer.
But you better not pout because there is plenty for you to pick up in store, including their spin on pecan fingers, made with the same recipe since 1977.
"We always say, what's not broken, we don't fix," added Schmidbauer with a smile.
No matter what treat is at the top of your list, local bakeries say they're here to give you the gift of time by doing the baking for you.
"We understand people are very busy. It's a very busy time of year so we do our best to try to relieve that," said Schmidbauer.
Both bakeries will be closed on Christmas Day for some well-deserved time off. Before that, you can peek at store hours and ordering deadlines by clicking the links below:
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