diff --git a/Documentation/how-to-build.rst b/Documentation/how-to-build.rst
index 13c2f1868c021be83cef8ac4b3ab9fbcb7004688..6f55d36068445530d478ad4c57d86baa3b9df3f7 100644
--- a/Documentation/how-to-build.rst
+++ b/Documentation/how-to-build.rst
@@ -58,6 +58,19 @@ can build with *ninja*.
 
 .. note::
 
+   If you intend to work on the firmware, you might want to enable debug output
+   in the firmware version you build.  You can do this by calling ``meson``
+   with additional arguments.  To do so, add you meson arguments to the
+   bootstrap call like this:
+
+   .. code-block:: shell-session
+
+      ./bootstrap.sh -Ddebug_prints=true
+
+   (``debug_prints`` is an option provided by our firmware)
+
+.. warning::
+
    Our build-system contains a few workarounds around short-comings in meson.
    These workarounds might break on some setups which we did not yet test.  If
    this is the case for you, please open an issue in our `issue tracker`_!
diff --git a/bootstrap.sh b/bootstrap.sh
index 1363d4ebe413a252ba8e7e540405a63458320c0a..e9de7e9748ad859d65363d6b94aa421662503480 100755
--- a/bootstrap.sh
+++ b/bootstrap.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 test -d build/ && rm -r build/
 
 git submodule update --init ./lib/micropython
-meson --cross-file card10-cross.ini build/
+meson --cross-file card10-cross.ini build/ "$@"
 
 set +x
 
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index e58eb189d3fcc084bad0acc72c8e030a97771d5a..4851b17596d54583608ef9cedcb890a367d89ed3 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -21,6 +21,13 @@ add_global_arguments(
   language: 'c',
 )
 
+if get_option('debug_prints')
+  add_global_arguments(
+    ['-DLOG_ENABLE_DEBUG=1'],
+    language: 'c',
+  )
+endif
+
 add_global_link_arguments(
   '-Wl,--gc-sections',
   '-lm',
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e0a79c540133acc94716e895ed5e8697cfe2847b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+option(
+  'debug_prints',
+  type: 'boolean',
+  value: false,
+
+  description: 'Whether to print debug messages on the serial console'
+)