Christmas Cookies for Kids
The best Christmas cookie for a kid is one they can get their hands into. Every recipe here gives a small baker a real job, from rolling snowballs in sugar to building a reindeer face, and the grown-up keeps the oven. Thirty Christmas cookies for kids, sorted by that job.
Start With These Six
One from each section below, from a pretzel-antler reindeer to a stamped cookie dipped in glaze. Start here if the kids only have one afternoon.
Peanut Butter Blossom Reindeer Cookies
Kids roll the peanut butter dough in sugar, then press in pretzel antlers, candy eyes and a red candy nose while the cookies are still warm. Twelve reindeer, zero piping.
Green Heart Crinkle Cookies
Bright green peppermint dough rolled in sugar, with a red heart sprinkle pressed into every crackled top. Thirty-six cookies, and each one is a small kid job.
Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
No rolling pin and no cutters: cream cheese dough rolled into balls and coated in sprinkles or sanding sugar. Bake them straight from frozen whenever the kids are home.
Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Skip the chill: this dough goes from bowl to oven without the wait kids hate. Red and green candies, white chips and jimmies go in the dough and on top.
No-Bake Christmas Cookies
Boiled cocoa, peanut butter and oats make the classic no-bake, dressed here with red and green candies and sprinkles. Dutch-Process Cocoa in the pot gives a smoother chocolate flavor.
Holiday Stamp Cookies
Each ball gets rolled in sugar and pressed with a stamp, then the baked cookie takes a dip in tinted milk glaze. Scatter Naturally-Colored Sanding Sugars on the wet glaze for red and green sparkle.
Reindeer and Snowman Christmas Cookies
Each one bakes as a plain cookie and turns into a character once the kids press on pretzel antlers, candy eyes and a red nose.
Peanut Butter Blossom Reindeer Cookies
Kids roll the peanut butter dough in sugar, then press in pretzel antlers, candy eyes and a red candy nose while the cookies are still warm. Twelve reindeer, zero piping.
Vanilla and Cocoa Reindeer Cookies
Two doughs, one pale and one cocoa, so every kid gets to pick a reindeer. Make the dark batch with Black Cocoa for a near-black herd.
Christmas Penguin Shortbread Cookies
Four-ingredient shortbread rounds get dipped in dark chocolate on two sides for wings. Candy eyes and an orange candy beak finish each penguin, and small hands can manage both.
Coconut Snowman Cookies
A powdered-sugar glaze and a roll in coconut turn two sugar-cookie circles into a snowman. A food marker draws the faces, so nobody needs a piping bag.
Chocolate Reindeer Cookies
Chocolate cake mix makes the dough, so kids get straight to the building: a vanilla wafer muzzle, candy eyes and pretzel antlers on a glossy ganache top.
Easy Gingerbread Men
Golden-syrup gingerbread written as a bake with kids, with piped icing smiles and candy buttons. Royal Icing Mix makes easy glue here: just add water and the buttons stay put.
Sprinkle first, bake second
Hand a kid a pinch of Naturally-Colored Sanding Sugars before the tray goes in, and the decorating is done by the time the cookies come out. The fine red and green crystals are colored by plants with no synthetic dyes, and they stick to raw dough without a drop of icing.
Roll-and-Shape Christmas Cookies
If a kid can roll a ball of play dough, they can make every cookie in this section. Roll it, coat it in sugar and press something on top.
Green Heart Crinkle Cookies
Bright green peppermint dough rolled in sugar, with a red heart sprinkle pressed into every crackled top. Thirty-six cookies, and each one is a small kid job.
Snowball Christmas Cookies
Butter, pecans and no egg, rolled into balls and then twice through powdered sugar. Kids love the second roll most, mainly for the snow it leaves on their hands.
Green and Red Butter Cookies
Five ingredients, one-inch balls, then a roll in red or green sugar before baking. Use Naturally-Colored Sanding Sugars for the roll and the color comes from plants.
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
The cookie-tray classic: peanut butter dough rolled in sugar, with a chocolate kiss pressed in hot from the oven. Unwrapping the kisses is the job every kid volunteers for.
Holiday Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
Sugar cookie balls coated in red and green sugar crystals, set up as an assembly line so every kid gets a station. Cream of tartar keeps the centers soft.
Soft Molasses Cookies
Soft, spiced molasses cookies for Santa's plate, plus a freeze-the-dough-balls method for baking on short notice. Roll them in White Sparkling Sugar for the big crystals the creator suggests.
Christmas Sprinkle and Sugar Cookies
The sprinkles go in the dough or on before baking, so they stick without icing and the decorating is done when the timer goes off.
Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
No rolling pin and no cutters: cream cheese dough rolled into balls and coated in sprinkles or sanding sugar. Bake them straight from frozen whenever the kids are home.
Christmas Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
One chewy dough three ways: sprinkles stirred in, tops dipped in red and green sparkling sugar, or rolled in nonpareils. Let each kid pick a method and compare.
Chewy Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Brown sugar gives these a chewy center, and half a cup of red, green and white jimmies goes right into the dough. Make them big for Santa or medium for the lunchbox.
Christmas Confetti Cookies
More than a cup of Christmas sprinkles goes into this big-batch soft sugar cookie. Forty-eight cookies covers the classroom party and Santa's plate on the same night.
Soft Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Cream of tartar keeps this sugar cookie pillowy and pale, so the red and green nonpareils do all the talking. A good first recipe for a kid who wants to measure.
Christmas Sprinkle Candy Cookies
Thick, bakery-style cookies loaded with jimmies, white chips and mini candy-coated chocolates. Cold butter keeps them tall, and eight big cookies feel like an event.
One-Bowl Drop Cookies
No shaping and no cutters. Kids stir in the candy and scoop the dough, and the grown-up handles the hot tray.
Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Skip the chill: this dough goes from bowl to oven without the wait kids hate. Red and green candies, white chips and jimmies go in the dough and on top.
Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
Molasses and spice meet white chocolate and cinnamon chips in a big, soft drop cookie. A pinch of White Sparkling Sugar on each before baking adds the crunch the creator suggests.
Cinnamon Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Melted butter means one bowl and no mixer, which makes this a good pick for younger helpers. Cinnamon, mini chips and Christmas sprinkles all get stirred in.
No-Bake Christmas Cookies
The grown-up does the one hot step on the stove. Everything after that, from shaping to sprinkling, belongs to the kids.
No-Bake Christmas Cookies
Boiled cocoa, peanut butter and oats make the classic no-bake, dressed here with red and green candies and sprinkles. Dutch-Process Cocoa in the pot gives a smoother chocolate flavor.
Cornflake Wreaths
Marshmallow, butter and cornflakes shaped into rings while warm, then dotted with red cinnamon candies. Shaping the wreaths with buttered hands is the most fun job in the kitchen.
No-Bake Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Almond flour, peanut butter and agave rolled into rounds, pressed with a fork and topped with sprinkles. Five minutes and no oven, so they fit a weeknight and a lunchbox.
Pressed, Stamped and Cut-Out Cookies
A cookie stamp, a cutter or a cookie press does the shaping, so kids get a crisp design without any piping. Most of the color goes on before baking.
Holiday Stamp Cookies
Each ball gets rolled in sugar and pressed with a stamp, then the baked cookie takes a dip in tinted milk glaze. Scatter Naturally-Colored Sanding Sugars on the wet glaze for red and green sparkle.
Stamped Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies
Six ingredients and a cookie stamp turn out snowflakes, trees and a crisp Merry Christmas. A roll in White Sparkling Sugar before stamping gives the edges a crunchy shine.
Butter and Cream Cheese Stamped Cookies
Plunger cutters cut and stamp Santa, a reindeer and a snowman in one push, and chocolate dots finish the faces. Less sugary than most, which the grown-ups tend to appreciate.
Christmas Cut-Out Sprinkle Shortbread Cookies
Sprinkles bake right into the dough, so the cut-outs come out decorated and nobody waits for icing to dry. The no-spread dough keeps stars and trees sharp.
Christmas Spritz Cookies
Kids take turns on the cookie press while the colored sugar goes on before baking. One batch makes about a hundred small cookies.
Christmas Double Chocolate Star Cookies
Cocoa star cut-outs dipped in dark chocolate and showered with sprinkles while it is still wet. Black Cocoa in the dough turns the stars near-black.
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We've Got Answers
What can kids do at each age when baking Christmas cookies?
Match the job to the hands. Toddlers can dump pre-measured ingredients, stir a bowl and shake sugar over a tray. Kids around five to seven can roll dough into balls, press cutters and thumbprints, and dunk cookies in glaze. By eight or nine most can level a measuring cup, crack eggs and scoop dough on their own. The oven, the mixer and the hot trays stay with a grown-up at every age.
What are the easiest Christmas cookies to make with toddlers?
Pick a recipe with one job and no waiting. No-bake cookies skip the oven, sugar-rolled balls only need rolling, and a slice-and-bake log lets a toddler press sprinkles onto each round before it goes in. Skip anything that needs chilling between steps or careful piping, because the attention span runs out before the dough is ready.
Is it safe for kids to taste raw cookie dough?
Not ordinary dough. Raw flour and raw eggs can both carry bacteria, so the house rule is no licking the spoon until the cookies are baked. If tasting is half the fun, mix a separate edible dough with no egg and heat-treated flour: spread the flour on a sheet pan, bake it to 165 degrees F and let it cool before you use it.
How do I keep sprinkles from going everywhere?
Give every kid a rimmed baking sheet as their workspace, put one topping in each small bowl with a spoon, and decorate right on the tray the cookies bake on. Sugar pressed onto raw dough sticks without icing, so there is less to knock off later, and anything that lands on the rim tips straight back into the bowl.
Can I make the dough ahead so the kids get the fun part?
Yes, and it is the easiest way to bake with kids. Most cut-out, slice-and-bake and drop doughs keep two to three days in the fridge or about three months in the freezer, wrapped tight. Thaw frozen dough overnight in the fridge, then bring it out when the kids are ready to roll, shape and sprinkle. The mixing is the dull part anyway.
How do I get red and green on cookies without synthetic food dyes?
Color the outside instead of tinting the dough. Naturally-Colored Sanding Sugars come in red and green, colored by plants with no synthetic dyes; press them onto raw dough or onto a glaze while it is still wet. Fruit and nuts help too: dried cranberries, chopped pistachios and crushed freeze-dried raspberries bring red and green to a plain dough.
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