60+ Best Christmas Cookie Recipes (2024)

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Celebrate the holiday season with the best Christmas cookie recipes. From classic favorites to festive twists, these recipes will fill your home with the sweet aroma of holiday cheer. Get ready to create a cookie platter that steals the show at your festive gatherings! And don’t miss my all-time favorite sugar cookie icing.

‘Tis the season for baking! Consider this your ultimate guide to all things Christmas cookies, including tips and tricks for successful holiday baking. So, dust off your cookie cutters, preheat your oven and crank up the holiday music, it’s cookie-baking time! And don’t miss my trick for how to roll out cookie dough.

Classic Christmas Cookies

Let’s get festive! From marshmallow Christmas wreaths that have been in my family for more than 30 years to the best sugar cookies with icing, you’ll find classic Christmas cookies that make the perfect addition to your cookie platter.

• Chocolate Sugar Cookies: This recipe yields soft, chewy, chocolatey cookies that always maintain their shape after baking, which makes them perfect for decorating with your choice of frosting and sprinkles.
• Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies: These jumbo-sized cookies are made with molasses and plenty of ground ginger, cloves and cinnamon.
• Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies: These buttery shortbread cookies can be filled with your choice of ganache, caramel or jam, making them the perfect customizable sweet for your holiday party or cookie exchange.
• Peanut Butter Cup Cookies: This recipe is a longtime family favorite at our house and stars a soft and chewy peanut butter cookie filled with a Reese’s peanut butter cup. It’s salty-sweet perfection!
• Chocolate Rugelach: I’ve recreated my grandmother’s recipe, which stars the most incredible cream cheese dough filled with a combination of semisweet and bittersweet chocolate for the perfect amount of sweetness.
• Gingerbread Cookie Cups with Cream Cheese Frosting: Soft and chewy gingerbread cookie cups filled with an irresistibly smooth cream cheese frosting.
• Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies: These buttery cookies are made with basic pantry ingredients and can be customized with your favorite crushed candy toppings or sprinkles.

Festive Christmas Cookies

• Sprinkle Sugar Cookie Sticks: Step aside, cookie cutters. There’s a new sugar cookie in town and your services will no longer be needed.
• Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies: These soft and chewy cookies are the perfect combination of sweet white chocolate chips and minty crushed candy canes.
• Homemade Samoas Cookies: They’re the ultimate combo of a buttery shortbread cookie base topped with caramel-coated coconut and drizzled with chocolate. I sold many a Samoas cookie during my Girl Scout days and they’ll forever be my fave!
• : These bakery-worthy cookies are also freezer-friendly!
• Thin Mint Cookie Truffles: Go from classic cookie to show-stopping dessert bites combining tangy cream cheese, crunchy cookies, a chocolate shell and a sprinkle shower.

Flourless Christmas Cookies

• Flourless Christmas Monster Cookies: These soft and chewy cookies are loaded with peanut butter, oats and chocolate. Best of all, there’s no need to chill the dough, so warm cookies are only minutes away!
• Flourless Chocolate Cookies: They’re extra-rich and fudgy in texture, very brownie-like in taste and the perfect flourless treats.
• Coconut Macaroons with Pineapple Jam: Easy, 3-ingredient coconut macaroons topped with a dollop of sweet and tangy homemade pineapple jam.
• Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies: These naturally gluten-free cookies are loaded with hearty oats, peanut butter and your choice of chocolate chips or chunks. Best of all, they’ll be on your table in less than 25 minutes!
• 3-Ingredient Coconut Macaroons: They take less than 30 minutes to make and are perfect for gifting!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Lovers

• The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies: A surprising ingredient guarantees these cookies are soft and chewy in the center and crisped around the edges.
• High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies: They’re soft, tender and quick to whip up.
• Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies: Banana bread lovers, meet your cookie match! If you’re a fan of the classic quickbread, you’re going to love these.
• White Chocolate CheesecakeCookies: They pair the pillowy lightness and tanginess of cheesecake with the chewy bite of a classic chocolate chip cookie.
• Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie: It takes minutes to toss together and can be baked in several smaller pans for individual servings.

Slice-and-Bake Christmas Cookies

No-Chill Christmas Cookies

• Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies: Imagine the texture of a rich, fudgy brownie, but in the circular shape of a good ol’ chocolate chip cookie.
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies: They’re soft, chewy and loaded with peanut butter!
• Blended Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies: My secret to the best-ever oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Blended oats!
• Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies: They’re easy to make, full of peanut butter flavor and don’t require any dough chilling.
• Kitchen Sink Cookies: Consider this your ultimate cookie template and raid your pantry for any mix-ins you desire.
• Oatmeal Chocolate-Covered Raisin Cookies: This update on good ol’ fashioned oatmeal cookies stars plump chocolate-covered raisins mixed into my go-to oatmeal cookie dough recipe.

Cookie Bars

• Frosted Soft Sugar Cookie Bars: Forget the cookie cutters in favor of this foolproof recipe!
• Red Velvet Brookies: Half red velvet brownie, half chocolate chip cookie, these brookies are the ultimate dessert mashup! They’re rich, fudgy and best of all, made with basic pantry ingredients.
• Monster Cookie Bars: Soft and chewy flourless cookie bars loaded with peanut butter, oats and chocolate.
• Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars: They’re soft, chewy and perfect for pairing with a cold glass of milk.
• Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars: Just imagine the best chocolate chip cookies but in soft and chewy cookie bar form. Stir in some crushed salted pretzels, sprinkle a few more on top, and then finish off the baked bars with a final drizzle of melted chocolate for the ultimate sweet and salty dessert.
• Homemade Samoas Cookie Bars: Buttery shortbread base, caramel-coconut topping and dark chocolate drizzle.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies (Brookies): The perfect balance of the best chocolate chip cookie dough marbled together with the ultimate rich and fudgy brownie batter.

Saltine Toffee

While Saltine toffee might not be your typical Christmas cookie, it’s a crowd-pleasing and festive holiday treat that I couldn’t resist featuring in this roundup! Often referred to as Christmas crack or toffee bark, it typically consists of a layer of saltine crackers coated with a toffee-like caramel layer and topped with chocolate. The sweet-salty combo makes it a must-have for the season’s indulgences. Trust me, it’s a delightful addition to your holiday sweets lineup!

Freezer-Friendly Christmas Cookies

Several Christmas cookies freeze well, allowing you to prepare them in advance and enjoy the festive treats throughout the holiday season. Here are some types of Christmas cookies that typically freeze well:

• Sugar Cookies: Both baked and unbaked sugar cookies can be frozen. If you’re freezing the dough, shape it into a disc or log before wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap.
• Gingerbread Cookies: Ensure they are fully cooled before freezing.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies: Most chocolate chip cookie recipes freeze well. You can freeze either the cookie dough or the baked cookies.
• Shortbread Cookies: Known for their buttery and crumbly texture, often freeze beautifully. Wrap them well to prevent freezer burn.
• Biscotti: Being twice-baked and firm, hey retain their texture well after thawing.
• Slice-and-Bake Cookies: Shape the dough into logs or discs for easier freezing.
• Peanut Butter Cookies: Whether classic crisscross or thumbprint variations, usually freeze well.
• Oatmeal Cookies: Oatmeal-based cookies, with ingredients like rolled oats and chocolate chips, are known for their freezer-friendly qualities.
• Thumbprint Cookies: Cookies with jam or fruit fillings, such as thumbprint cookies, often freeze well.
• Pecan Sandies: Their sandy texture holds up beautifully, making them a great choice for preparing in advance.

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