Christmas Cookie Recipes
December runs on cookies: tins for the neighbors, a plate for the swap, something on the counter for whoever walks in. Forty-eight recipes, sorted the way you actually bake, from the classics you make every year to doughs you can make in November and bake in December.
Six to Bake First
One out of every section below. If your list is long and your December is short, bake these six and call the tin done.
Soft Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies
Soft in the middle and still sharp at the edges, thanks to a double chill. A family recipe that holds its shape under royal icing.
Black Cocoa Crinkle Cookies
The crackle tops come out near-black from the cocoa itself, with little to no food coloring. Roll in granulated sugar first, then powdered, so the cracks read white.
Red and Green Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies rolled in red and green sanding sugar before they bake. The sparkle is the entire decoration, which makes this the fastest tray here.
Stained Glass Window Cookies
Crushed hard candy melted into the cut-out windows so light comes through. Hang them on the tree, or eat them before anyone notices.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies
Cinnamon and a little chile behind the chocolate, with toasted marshmallow across the top. The heat shows up a beat after the sweetness does.
Easy Holiday Slice and Bake Cookies
Roll the log in sparkling sugar, freeze it, then slice and bake only what you need that day. The lowest-effort cookie on this page.
Classic Christmas Cookies
The list everybody's family already has, done by people who tested it properly. Gingerbread, shortbread, snickerdoodles, blossoms, and the pecan snowballs somebody always asks about.
Soft Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies
Soft in the middle and still sharp at the edges, thanks to a double chill. A family recipe that holds its shape under royal icing.
Buttery Vanilla Shortbread
Four ingredients and nowhere to hide, so use the good butter. A rim of sparkling sugar before baking gives the edges their crunch.
Snickerdoodles
Cream of tartar is what makes a snickerdoodle a snickerdoodle: tangy, chewy, and crackled across the top. Roll them twice in cinnamon sugar.
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Press a chocolate drop candy into each one the second they leave the oven. The crackle that forms around it is the whole point.
Jam-Filled Thumbprint Cookies
Buttery dough, a deep well of jam, and a batch that freezes before or after shaping. Shallow wells let the jam run straight out.
Russian Tea Cakes
Pecan snowballs rolled in powdered sugar twice, once warm and once cool, so the coating actually stays white. They keep a week in a tin.
Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Melted butter for a chewy middle, chocolate chips, and a handful of red and green candy-coated chocolates. The everyday cookie, dressed for December.
White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Chewy oats against tart dried cranberries. This is the cookie people reach for when everything else on the plate is chocolate.
Pfeffernüsse (German Iced Spice Cookies)
Black pepper, cardamom and anise under a thin sugar glaze. They start firm and soften over a few days in the tin, which is the point.
Chocolate Christmas Cookies
Nine cookies for the people who pick the chocolate one first. Several lean on black cocoa, which is how you get a near-black crumb with little to no food coloring.
Black Cocoa Crinkle Cookies
The crackle tops come out near-black from the cocoa itself, with little to no food coloring. Roll in granulated sugar first, then powdered, so the cracks read white.
Black Cocoa Sandwich Cookies
Thin dark wafers that snap, with vanilla filling in the middle. Black cocoa is what makes the color read as cookies-and-cream rather than brown.
Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Dutch-process cocoa dough with peppermint, dipped in white chocolate and pressed into crushed candy canes. Ten minutes of decorating for a tray that looks like an hour.
Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
Cocoa mix in the dough, a marshmallow pressed in at the end, a square of chocolate on top. Serve them warm while the middle still pulls.
Coal Cookie Sandwiches
Two craggy black cocoa cookies with buttercream between them. The joke is the shape; what is underneath is a proper chocolate sandwich cookie.
Lump of Coal Cookies
Darkest cookie on this page: black cocoa, bittersweet chocolate and a hit of espresso, with sugar-crusted edges that break like the real thing.
Our RecipeChocolate Marshmallow Cookies
Twenty minutes, one bowl, and a marshmallow pressed into a black cocoa dough so it melts into a molten stripe. Ours, and the fastest bake in this section.
Our RecipeHomemade Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Wafers made near-black with black cocoa, and a vanilla filling you scale to whatever ratio you believe in. The correct answer is more filling.
Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Shortbread made with cocoa and a ganache center that sets soft. Chill the dough hard before you press the wells or they spread into each other.
Icing that sets hard
Decorated cookies only work if the icing dries firm enough to stack and box. Royal Icing Mix is the whole thing in one bag, water in and glossy out, so piping, flooding and detail work all come off the same batch.
Decorated Christmas Sugar Cookies
Cut-outs, flood work, marbling, and one tray that gets all its decoration from a bowl of red and green sugar. Start at the bottom of this list if December is already busy.
Nordic Gingerbread Cookies
Dark, heavily spiced and rolled paper-thin, finished with fine white lines of powdered sugar icing. The most graphic cookie on the page.
Decorated Christmas Sugar Cookies
Everything in one post: cut-out dough that holds its edges, royal icing made with meringue powder, and how to flood without the border breaking.
How to Decorate Christmas Cookies, Three Ways
Marbled, piped and brush-embroidered, all from one batch of royal icing. Your tray looks varied without you learning a new skill for each cookie.
Soft Frosted Christmas Cookies
Thick, soft, grocery-case style, made properly. Buttercream instead of royal icing keeps them pillowy for days rather than setting crisp.
Swirled Christmas Cookies
Red and green dough twisted together before slicing, so the pattern is inside the cookie. No piping bag anywhere in sight.
Black Cocoa Cut-Out Cookies
Near-black cut-outs that keep a crisp edge and make white royal icing look twice as bright. Black cocoa does the color, with little to no food coloring.
Snowflake Cookies with Royal Icing
Full decorating method for snowflakes: icing consistencies, white piping over blue, and a sanding sugar finish. Meringue powder throughout.
Christmas Tree Cookies
Royal-icing tree cut-outs from a decorator who walks through every piping step. The newest decorating tutorial here and the easiest to copy.
Red and Green Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies rolled in red and green sanding sugar before they bake. The sparkle is the entire decoration, which makes this the fastest tray here.
Showstopper Christmas Cookies
The one you photograph before anybody gets to eat it. Stained glass, linzer, macarons, an edible gift box, and a checkerboard that hides its trick until you slice it.
Watercolor Snowflake Cookies
Royal icing flooded white, then painted with food color thinned like watercolor. Looks like it took a class; takes a brush and a steady hand.
Chocolate Snowman Cookies
Stacked chocolate rounds with piped faces and scarves. Hand these to a kid once the icing is mixed, since nothing about them needs to be neat.
Stained Glass Window Cookies
Crushed hard candy melted into the cut-out windows so light comes through. Hang them on the tree, or eat them before anyone notices.
Christmas Present Cookie Boxes
A gift box built from cookie panels, glued at the seams with royal icing, then filled with more cookies. The centerpiece if you have an afternoon.
Raspberry Linzer Cookies
Almond shortbread, a window cut in the top half, raspberry jam between. Dust the lids with powdered sugar after assembly, never before.
Peppermint Mocha Macarons
Espresso in the shells, peppermint in the buttercream. Macarons are a project, but the shells bake and freeze weeks ahead of the day you fill them.
Wreath Butter Cookies
Butter-cookie wreaths piped with a star tip and dotted with red for the berries. No cutters and no rolling pin involved.
Checkerboard Holiday Cookies
Vanilla and chocolate doughs stacked into a grid, chilled solid, then sliced. The reveal happens at the knife, which is the fun of it.
Christmas Meringues
Peppermint meringue kisses striped red inside the piping bag. Written for fresh whites; Meringue Powder swaps in if you would rather skip separating eggs.
Christmas Cookie Bars & Brownies
When the list says forty cookies and the oven says four trays, bars are the answer. Bake once, cool, cut, done.
Mocha Peppermint Brownies
There is espresso in the batter and peppermint over the top. Fudgy enough that they want a hot knife and a few minutes in the fridge first.
Gingerbread Brownies with Eggnog Frosting
Molasses and warm spice worked into a brownie base, eggnog buttercream over the top. Two holiday desserts in one pan, which is efficient of them.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies
Cinnamon and a little chile behind the chocolate, with toasted marshmallow across the top. The heat shows up a beat after the sweetness does.
Christmas Tree Brownies with Sprinkles
Brownies cut into trees, glazed, and buried in sprinkles. They hold a month in the freezer, which is why this one turns up on every make-ahead list.
Cranberry White Chocolate Bars
Blondie base, dried cranberries, orange in the cream cheese icing, white chocolate drizzled over. Cut them small, because they are rich.
Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
Cheesecake swirled through a red velvet brownie so every square gets both. Chill the pan before slicing or the swirl drags across the cut.
Make-Ahead & Freezer Christmas Cookies
Doughs that sit in the freezer until you need them. This is the section that turns a week of panic baking into an afternoon in November.
Easy Holiday Slice and Bake Cookies
Roll the log in sparkling sugar, freeze it, then slice and bake only what you need that day. The lowest-effort cookie on this page.
Freezer Cookie Dough
One master dough, scooped and frozen in November, baked straight from frozen all through December. The how-to behind every card in this section.
Icebox Cookies
Slice-and-bake in its oldest form, a buttery log that keeps three months in the freezer. Chill it properly and the rounds come off the knife clean.
Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread
Flecks of red and green running through a shortbread log, edges finished in sanding sugar. Slice them thin so the pistachios show.
Spritz Cookies
Pressed butter cookies topped with colored sugar. The dough freezes, the baked cookies freeze, and the press handles the decorating for you.
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Crumbly, deeply chocolate, and built to sit: weeks in a tin, months in the freezer as dough or as baked cookies. Sugar on the edges does the finishing.
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We've Got Answers
How far ahead can I bake Christmas cookies?
Most drop and slice-and-bake cookies keep about a week in an airtight tin and three months in the freezer. Decorated cut-outs are best iced within a few days of baking, though the undecorated cookies freeze fine. If you are baking for a party, freeze dough in November and bake the week of.
Is it better to freeze cookie dough or baked cookies?
Dough, for anything you want to taste fresh. Logs and scooped balls bake from frozen with a couple of extra minutes and come out like day-one cookies. Freeze baked cookies when you need the oven free later, and thaw them uncovered so condensation does not soften the edges.
How long does royal icing need to dry before I can stack cookies?
A flooded surface skins over in about an hour and dries through in six to eight, longer in a humid kitchen. Give them a full overnight before you stack or box them, and add time if you piped detail on top. Royal Icing Mix sets firm, which is what makes stacking possible at all.
Which Christmas cookies ship well?
Sturdy ones: bars, slice-and-bake rounds, shortbread, biscotti. Skip anything with a fragile piped edge or a wet glaze. Pack in layers with parchment between, fill every gap so nothing shifts, and mail early in the week so the box is not sitting in a facility over a weekend.
Can I get red and green sugar without synthetic dyes?
Yes. Our Naturally-Colored Sanding Sugars take their red and green from plants rather than synthetic dyes, and the crystals hold their color through the oven. Red and green are the two we make, which happens to be the entire Christmas palette.
How many cookies do I need for a cookie exchange?
The usual ask is half a dozen per guest plus a dozen for the tasting table, so a twelve-person exchange means about seven dozen. Pick one recipe that scales cleanly and one that looks like it took effort, then bake the scaling one twice.
More Baking Adventures
Things to Make With Meringue Powder
Royal icing, stable buttercream, macarons and meringues, all out of one tub.
black cocoa
Best Black Cocoa Powder Recipes
Where the near-black crumb on half this page comes from, in thirty more bakes.
Baking Tips
A Guide to Royal Icing
Consistencies, drying times, and how to keep a flooded cookie from cratering.
White Sparkling Sugar Recipes
The coarse sugar that makes a plain cookie look dressed for December.
Finishing Sugars 101
Sparkling, sanding, pearl and turbinado, and which one goes on what.
Best Brownie Recipes
One pan, cut small, the quickest way to fill a plate in December.