I compared store-bought ginger cookies and the cheapest, most festive kind was my favorite

• I tried three kinds of packaged ginger cookies from the grocery store.

• Tate's gluten-free ginger zinger cookies impressed me with bits of crystallized ginger.

• The best store-bought gingerbread cookies were Little Debbie's iced gingerbread cookies.

Nothing says the holiday season like a ginger cookie for dessert.

Many brands release seasonal versions of their most popular items during the holidays, from peppermint Milano cookies to Reese's peanut-butter Christmas trees.

I tried three kinds of ginger-flavored cookies, all of which can be found on most grocery store shelves and pack just the right amount of spice for the holiday season.

Here's how store-bought gingerbread cookies ranked, from worst to best.

My least favorite brand of cookie was Tate's Bake Shop's gingersnap cookies.

The bag cost $5.79 at my local Key Food Marketplace.

The bag came with 14 cookies.

This is comparable to other brands of packaged cookies I usually buy.

The cookies were very crispy, but they were not hard to bite into.

Sometimes I find ginger snaps can be a little tough, but these ones crumbled easily.

The cookies were a touch too spicy for my liking.

I thought the cookies tasted strongly of spices like cinnamon and molasses but were slightly off-balance in sweetness.

These cookies were borderline spicy, which I'm personally not a huge fan of. However, I did enjoy the texture.

Next up were Tate's gluten-free ginger zinger cookies.

These cookies, the most expensive of the ones I tried, cost $5.99 at my local Key Food Marketplace.

This package also came with 14 cookies.

However, unlike the ginger snaps, these cookies supposedly contained pieces of crystallized ginger. I was excited to see how the flavors would measure up.

The cookies were about the same size as the ginger snaps but slightly thicker.

I could also see the pieces of ginger on the surface of the crispy cookies.

These cookies were sweet, with just the right amount of ginger flavor.

I loved the texture of the crispy cookies and the crystallized ginger and thought these were just as good as any non-gluten-free cookies I've ever tried.

My favorite of the three kinds of ginger cookies was the Christmas gingerbread soft cookies from Little Debbie.

At my local Stop & Shop grocery store, a box of eight cookies cost $3.59. They were the least expensive, but the box also contained the fewest cookies.

Each cookie came individually wrapped.

I thought these cookies would be a really cute touch for a festive school lunch or snack on the go.

The cookies were sweeter than the other two kinds I tried.

The icing and smattering of red and green sprinkles upped the sweetness, but I also preferred the softer texture of these gingerbread cookies compared to the other two kinds.

Aesthetically, I also thought these were the most festive for the holiday season.

The cookies brought me back to my childhood with their perfect balance of sweetness, spiciness, and soft texture.

While I enjoyed all of these cookies, I would choose the classic gingerbread cookies for a sweet, festive treat.

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