What does “Plätzchen” mean, and why is it called that?

This baking session is for Plätzchen, Germany’s word for Christmas cookies — and the name is more literal than it sounds. It’s the diminutive of Platz, here meaning “a flat, round shape,” with the -chen ending that makes anything sound small and cute in German. So a Plätzchen is, quite plainly, “a little flat round thing.”

Some etymologies instead trace Plätzchen to Latin placenta (“cake”), but the “little flat shape” story is the one most German dictionaries repeat. Either way, Plätzchen were historically a luxury: sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa were too expensive for most households, so baking a batch was reserved for Christmas.