Christmas cookies are the one thing everybody expects you to bake, and these 35 make sure the tray never looks the same two years running. There are reindeer sugar cookies with candy noses, snowballs three ways, red and green pinwheels, stacked buttercream trees, Italian butter cookies, cranberry biscotti, sugar cookie bars for the days you can't face a cookie cutter and a marshmallow cereal wreath the kids can shape themselves. Most use what's already in the pantry, several skip the chill time and a few take fifteen minutes start to finish. Perfect for the cookie exchange, the neighbor plate, Santa's saucer and every school party in December.
1. Easy Reindeer Sugar Cookies
Debbie's reindeer are the cookies to make with the kids because there's no chilling and no fussy icing. A simple butter sugar cookie dough gets rolled a quarter inch thick, cut into rounds and baked for eight or nine minutes. Then each one gets a pair of antlers and two dot eyes piped in melted chocolate and a red candy nose pressed on while the chocolate is still wet. Three ingredients for the face, and every reindeer comes out with its own expression.
2. Cherry Almond Shortbread Cookies
Sally's pink shortbread starts with her thumbprint cookie dough and folds in chopped maraschino cherries and almond extract, which is why every bite is buttery and a little floral. Shortbread this rich wants to spread, so the dough chills before baking and the cookies hold their soft, thick shape. A white chocolate drizzle zigzags over the top once they cool. They freeze well, which makes them the cookie you bake in November and pull out for the exchange.
3. Nut Free Cake Mix Snowballs
Kristin's son has a nut allergy, so she built a snowball cookie without the pecans, and it starts with a box of white cake mix. The mix, vegetable oil, egg whites and softened cream cheese make a soft dough that bakes into pillowy rounds, and a heavy roll in powdered sugar while they're warm gives them the snowy coat. They're flatter than a traditional snowball and safer for the classroom party. Five ingredients and about twenty minutes.
4. Christmas Kiss Cookies
Amanda's kiss cookies are the peanut butter blossoms everybody grew up with, dressed for the holiday. The dough uses one stick of room temperature butter and smooth peanut butter, rolls into balls and rolls again in red, green or gold sanding sugar and sprinkles before baking. The chocolate kiss goes on the second they come out of the oven so it sinks in and softens. Make a triple batch, because these are the first to leave the cookie tray.
5. Chocolate Dipped Sugar Wafers
Crystal's wafer cookies are the no bake entry, and they look like a bakery case. Plain vanilla sugar wafers get dipped halfway in melted milk, white or dark chocolate, then finished a dozen ways: red and green nonpareils, crushed peppermint over dark chocolate for a peppermint bark version, green candy melts with a red heart for a Grinch, and a reindeer with candy eyes and half a mini pretzel for antlers. A whole tray takes half an hour and the kids can do the dipping.
6. Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies
Sara's snowballs skip the nuts and fold in two cups of semi sweet chocolate chips instead. Three sticks of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt and flour make a dough that rolls into one inch balls and bakes for ten to twelve minutes, and the trick is sifting powdered sugar over them while they're still hot on the pan so it melts into a glaze, then again once they cool for the snowy coat. They melt in your mouth and they keep for a week in a tin.
7. Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Lisa's cookies are for the person who thinks a Christmas cookie should taste like a mint chocolate bar. A cocoa dough with butter, sugar, an egg and vanilla gets dark chocolate and mint baking chips stirred in, then rolls into tablespoon balls and, if you like, through coarse sparkling sugar before baking at 350. Some she leaves plain, some get the sugar coat, and the two together on a plate look like a bakery box. The mint chips melt into green flecks.
8. Pull Apart Christmas Tree Cookies
Alaina's trees are cookie art you build one ball of dough at a time. Green tinted sugar cookie dough gets rolled into small balls and pressed in rows on the pan, a wide row at the bottom up to a single ball at the top, with a brown ball for the trunk and a little yellow star pressed on the tip. Each tree gets dots of sprinkles for ornaments and a dusting of powdered sugar for snow, and it bakes into one pull apart cookie. One batch makes five trees.
9. Sanding Sugar Thumbprint Cookies
Stacey's thumbprints are the classic butter cookie dough, one cup of butter and powdered sugar with an egg and vanilla, but each ball rolls in red, green or gold sanding sugar before your thumb goes in. Then the well gets a spoonful of jelly matched to the sugar, red for the red, and lemon curd for the gold ones. The sparkle does the decorating, so there's no icing to pipe. They bake at 375 and look like they came from a bakery case.
10. Peppermint Snowball Cookies
Jocelyn has made these every December for years, and her twist on the snowball is the topping. Instead of a roll in powdered sugar, the melt in your mouth cookies get dipped in white chocolate and showered with crushed candy canes, so they crunch and cool at the same time. The dough is the traditional buttery snowball, and she says it isn't the holiday season at her house until a batch or two comes out of the oven. Swap the candy canes for sprinkles the rest of the year.
11. Orange Cranberry Cookies
Kristy's orange cranberry cookies are the bright spot on a tray full of chocolate. Fresh orange zest goes into a soft brown sugar dough with cream of tartar so the cookies stay puffy, dried cranberries fold in, and a glaze of powdered sugar, fresh orange juice and a splash of milk drizzles over the tops once they cool. Don't skip the zest, it's most of the flavor. They taste like a cranberry orange scone and they're ready in under an hour.
12. Soft Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Beth's cut out recipe is the one she uses for her cookie decorating party every year, and the secret is pulling them early. The dough chills at least two hours, rolls out an eighth to a quarter inch thick and bakes at 350 for about eight minutes, before the edges turn golden, then sits on the hot pan five more minutes so the centers finish soft instead of crunchy. Frost them in pastel buttercream and let everyone go wild with the sprinkles.
13. Christmas Cookie Bars
Stef's cookie bars are for the December night when a whole batch of cookies is too much and one pan is just right. Melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar make the base, so nothing needs to soften, and chocolate chips, red and green candy coated chocolates and holiday sprinkles fold in before the dough presses into a pan. Thirty minutes later it's a slab of chewy cookie to cut into squares. Way more festive than the average cookie and half the work.
14. Christmas Mouse Cookies
Melissa's mice are the cookies that get the biggest reaction on the tray. A chilled almond butter cookie dough rolls into balls tapered at one end, a pinch shapes the head and two sliced almonds push in for ears. Right out of the oven, a toothpick pokes a hole in the back for a red pull apart licorice tail, and a mini chocolate chip nose and two dots of black frosting finish the face. Not a creature was stirring, except on the cookie plate.
15. Cutler's Glazed Sugar Cookies
Yvonne's copycat of the famous Utah bakery cookie is a soft cake flour sugar cookie under a thin almond glaze that sets shiny. Three sticks of butter, two cups of sugar, three eggs and five cups of cake flour make a dough that chills, rolls a quarter inch thick and bakes at 350 until the tops crack. The glaze is powdered sugar, almond emulsion and a pinch of meringue powder, and holiday sprinkles go on while it's wet. Pack them in tissue in a tin.
16. Cornflake Wreath Cookies
Sam's cornflake wreaths are the no bake cookie every kid should get to shape. Butter and marshmallows melt on the stove, green food coloring goes in, and cornflakes stir in until they're coated. Then, with oiled hands so the mixture doesn't stick, the sticky cereal shapes into little rings on parchment and red candies press in for holly berries. They set firm, pack well and hold their shape in a tin, which makes them a gift box cookie as much as a tray cookie.
17. Soft Iced Sugar Cookies
The sisters behind Alice and Lois have been making these since they were little, and the recipe came from their grandmother. The point is a soft, thick sugar cookie, not a thin crunchy one, so the dough rolls thick and comes out of the oven before it colors. Then a homemade icing in white, aqua, pink and yellow gets spread on with a knife, not piped, and finished with sprinkles. Their mom gives each grandchild a picture book about sugar cookies with the tradition.
18. Stacked Christmas Tree Cookies
Averie's trees look complicated and aren't. A soft sugar cookie dough of butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, an egg and flour gets scooped in three sizes and baked, then the cookies stack big to small with green buttercream piped in a swirl between each layer and on top. A yellow star sprinkle goes on the point and silver and gold pearls hang like ornaments. Each tree is three cookies tall and stands up on the plate. Make them for the centerpiece of the dessert table.
19. Chocolate Drizzled Cookie Sticks
Kara's cookie sticks are a mini chocolate chip cookie dough rolled out and cut into one by four inch strips with a pizza cutter, which means no scooping and every cookie the same size. The dough has butter, sugar, an egg, vanilla and a little almond extract, chills half an hour and bakes on parchment. Then melted white chocolate and dark chocolate zigzag over the cooled sticks and holiday sprinkles go on before the drizzle sets. They stand up in a jar for gifting.
20. Cornflake Wreaths With Red Candies
Sara's wreath cookies are the retro no bake treat, butter, marshmallows, cornflakes, green food coloring and vanilla, and her kids sort the red candy coated chocolates out of the holiday mix for the berries. The mixture is sticky, so she shapes it fast with buttered hands into rings on parchment and presses the red candies in while it's warm. Red hot cinnamon candies work too. It's rice crispy treats in wreath form, and they set in about half an hour.
21. Italian Christmas Cookies
These are the soft, cakey Italian butter cookies with the glaze and the nonpareils that every Nonna's table had in December. Butter, sugar, eggs, flour and almond extract come together in one bowl, the dough rolls into balls, bakes about fifteen minutes and gets dipped in a thin icing while warm so it drips down the sides, then a shower of red, white and green nonpareils. The texture melts in your mouth. Her father in law says they're almost as good as his grandmother's.
22. Christmas Tree Meringues
Elizabeth's meringue trees are light as air and cost almost nothing to make. Egg whites and sugar whip to stiff glossy peaks with a few drops of green food coloring, then pipe through a star tip into little tree shapes on parchment and bake low and slow until crisp. White nonpareils go on as ornaments before baking, a tiny star sprinkle tops each one and a dusting of powdered sugar looks like snow. Pack them in cellophane bags for a gift that weighs nothing.
23. Sugar Cookie Bars
Jamielyn's sugar cookie bars are the answer to a cookie exchange when there's no time to roll and cut. Salted butter, sugar, an egg, vanilla and almond extract and a spoonful of sour cream make the dough extra soft, and it presses into a sheet pan and bakes in one go. Once cool, a thick layer of almond vanilla frosting spreads over the top and holiday sprinkles scatter across before it cuts into squares. Every bar tastes like the middle of a bakery sugar cookie.
24. Red And Green Pinwheel Cookies
Jessica's pinwheels are slice and bake cookies with a swirl of red, green and white through every one. The dough uses softened butter, two sugars and two egg yolks for a shortbread texture, splits into three and tints two of them, then the three layers stack, roll into a log and roll again in red, green and white nonpareils so the edge gets a sprinkle border. The log chills until firm and slices into rounds. Every cookie is a perfect spiral with no decorating.
25. Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cookies
Jessie's cookies land somewhere between a soft sugar cookie and a gingersnap, with cinnamon and a pinch of cloves for the warmth. There's no butter to soften, no dough to chill and no mixer required, so they go from pantry to cooling rack in under an hour. They bake up puffy and chewy with crackled tops, and a kitchen scale keeps every cookie the same size. They're the plain cookie on the tray that everybody reaches for second.
26. Peanut Butter Cookie Wreath
Sara's wreath is a party platter you build from store bought peanut butter sandwich cookies and a bag of green candy melts. The cookies get dipped in the melted green candy and arranged in a ring on parchment, then a second ring stacks on top so the wreath looks full and three dimensional. Holly sprinkles and red nonpareils scatter over the wet candy, and three white chocolate covered cookies glue on as snowballs at the bottom. No baking, and it's the centerpiece of the dessert table.
27. 3D Sugar Cookie Trees
Evelyn's trees are three sugar cookies in graduated sizes with green cream cheese frosting piped between them through a star tip. The dough chills half an hour so the scoops hold their shape, and three different cookie scoops give the three sizes. Once baked and cooled, the biggest cookie goes on the bottom, frosting swirls on, the next cookie presses in and so on, with a gold star sprinkle on top. They stand up like little trees on the plate and taste like a frosted sugar cookie times three.
28. Cranberry Almond Biscotti
Gina's biscotti use fresh cranberries instead of dried, and the tart pop against the orange zest and sliced almonds is the whole point. The dough mixes butter, sugar, eggs, orange zest, vanilla and almond extract with flour and baking powder, shapes into logs, bakes once, slices on the diagonal and bakes again until crisp. They're the cookie for the coffee drinkers, they keep for two weeks in a tin and they look beautiful stacked in a cellophane bag with a ribbon.
29. Santa Sugar Cookies
The Six Sisters' Santa cookies are round sour cream sugar cookies with a face built from the candy aisle. White frosting covers the whole cookie, red decorating sugar makes the hat, a mini marshmallow is the pom pom, two chocolate chips are the eyes, a cinnamon candy is the nose and a heap of shredded coconut is the beard. The cookie recipe is soft and thick, and the decorating is the kind kids can do without help. A whole plate of Santas takes an afternoon.
30. Soft Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
Heather's sprinkle cookies are the soft baked drop cookie with red, white and green jimmies mixed right through the dough, so there's no rolling and no cutters. The dough is stiff enough to fold the sprinkles in by hand, scoops out with a cookie scoop for even rounds, gets flattened slightly and topped with more sprinkles, gold dragees and a gold star before baking. They stay soft for days and look like confetti on the plate. Set out a glass of milk with these.
31. Eggnog Cookies
Tara loves eggnog and she loves cookies, so she put the carton in the dough. Eggnog goes in with the butter and sugar, nutmeg and a little rum extract carry the flavor, and the cookies bake up soft, golden and puffy like a little cake. They're plain on top, which makes them the cookie for the person who thinks every Christmas cookie is too sweet. Serve them with a glass of the same eggnog, or dust the tops with nutmeg if you want them dressed up.
32. Peppermint Ganache Sandwich Cookies
Cheryl's sandwich cookies look like a bakery box and start with store bought sugar cookie dough. Star shaped cookies bake and cool, a peppermint ganache spreads between two of them, and melted chocolate spoons over the top with a sprinkle of crushed candy canes before it sets. The ganache is the only part you make from scratch, and it's chocolate, cream and peppermint extract. Pack a few in a jar with a ribbon for the neighbors, or pile them on a red platter.
33. No Chill Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Kim's cut out cookies skip the chill, which is the step that ruins a December afternoon. The trick is cool butter and cold eggs instead of room temperature, so the dough rolls and cuts straight from the bowl and bakes at 325 without spreading. Her cookie icing is powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup and almond extract, and she decorates snowmen with black hats and teal scarves, snowflake stars with silver sugar and buttercream swirled trees. Busy bakers, this is your recipe.
34. Classic Spritz Cookies
Donna's spritz cookies are the buttery little wreaths, trees and stars that come out of a cookie press, and her two rules are simple: the butter and eggs have to be truly room temperature, and the pans stay ungreased so the dough grips and doesn't spread. A drop or two of gel food coloring tints the dough without thinning it, and colored sugar or a dip in white chocolate finishes them. A press turns one batch into a whole tin in minutes, and they keep for weeks.
35. Candy Cane Snowball Cookies
Erin's snowballs are her grandmother's Mexican wedding cookies with a peppermint twist. A cup of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and peppermint extract, flour, salt and a cup of finely ground toasted almonds make the dough, which bakes into tender little rounds. Instead of powdered sugar, each cookie gets dipped in melted white chocolate, real cocoa butter white chocolate, not chips, and rolled in crushed candy canes. Her grandma used pecans; use whichever nut you have.
