30+ Best Christmas Cookies to Bake This Year

Christmas cookies are the batch baked treats that fill holiday tins and cookie trays, everything from cut out sugar cookies and gingerbread to fudgy crinkles, buttery shortbread, thumbprints and spiced old fashioned favorites.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon, Target, and other partners. If you purchase through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

This is the list I bake from every December, sorted by type so you can jump straight to the kind of cookie you need, whether that is something to decorate with the kids, a rich chocolate cookie for a party, or a sturdy one that ships well. Every recipe here is one from my own kitchen that I have made more than once.

Save this page now and work your way through it all month.

A Simple Plan for Christmas Cookie Baking

If you are baking for a crowd or a cookie exchange, this order keeps the week calm.

1. Pick three or four cookies with different textures and colors so the plate looks varied.
2. Make the doughs up to three days ahead, or freeze them for up to three months.
3. Chill every dough while the oven preheats so the cookies keep their shape.
4. Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack and cool the pan between batches.
5. Store or freeze the baked cookies, then frost and fill within a day of serving.

Cut Out and Decorated Cookies

Start here if you want cookies the kids can help frost and sprinkle.

Easy Cut Out Easter Sugar Cookies

A no chill cut out sugar cookie that keeps its shape in the oven and is ready for icing and sprinkles.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Copycat Lofthouse Cookies

Soft frosted Lofthouse style cookies with a thick swoop of buttercream, easy to tint red and green.

MAKE THE RECIPE

No Chill Gingerbread Cookies

A no chill gingerbread that rolls and cuts cleanly, perfect for gingerbread people and ornaments.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Classic cut out cookies with crisp edges and soft middles, ready for icing and sprinkles.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: loveandlemons.com

Holiday Sugar Cookies That Hold Their Shape

No spread sugar cookies with clean edges, made to hold every detail when decorated with royal icing.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: healthylittlepeach.com

Funfetti Cookies

Soft, melt-in-your-mouth Funfetti Cookies made with sprinkles, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. They’re the perfect treat for birthdays, holidays, or anytime you want something fun and delicious.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Chocolate Christmas Cookies

The tray that empties first at every party.

Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Fudgy chocolate cookies rolled in powdered sugar so they crack into a snowy pattern as they bake.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Brownie Crinkle Cookies

All the crackly top and chewy center of a brownie in cookie form.

MAKE THE RECIPE

M&M Cookie Recipe (Without Shortening)

Thick bakery style chocolate cookies loaded with M and Ms, easy to make festive with a red and green bag.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Cookies and Cream Cookies

Buttery cookies packed with crushed sandwich cookies for that cookies and cream flavor everyone knows.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Chewy chocolate chip cookies with toasted coconut worked into the dough.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Super Crunchy Famous Amos Cookies (Copycat Recipe)

A copycat of the tiny crunchy chocolate chip cookies from the blue bag, great for filling a tin.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Ricotta Chocolate Chip Cookies

These ricotta cookies are an easy adaptation to a classic Italian recipe, including butter and baking powder for soft and creamy cookies. They’re filled with decadent chocolate chips and rolled in granulated sugar with the option of adding icing, jam, glaze, or a frosting.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Red Velvet Cookies With White Chocolate Chips

Bright red velvet cookies dotted with white chocolate chips, one of the prettiest cookies on the plate.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Shortbread, Spritz and Snowballs

The buttery, melt in your mouth end of the cookie table.

Whipped Shortbread Cookies Recipe

Whipped shortbread that is light as air and needs only four ingredients, a classic Christmas cookie.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Cream Cheese Christmas Spritz Cookies Recipe

Tender cream cheese spritz cookies pushed through a cookie press into trees, wreaths and stars.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Peppermint Snowball Cookies With Chocolate Chips (No Nuts)

Powdered sugar snowball cookies with mini chocolate chips and a hint of peppermint, no nuts.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Snowball Cookies with Pecans

Buttery shortbread snowballs packed with pecans and rolled twice in powdered sugar.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: dessertnowdinnerlater.com

4 Ingredient Christmas Oreo Truffles

Christmas Oreo Balls made with just 4 ingredients. These easy No Bake Christmas Truffles are perfect holiday Oreo balls for parties and Christmas treats for kids.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Thumbprint and Jam Cookies

Pretty, jewel toned, and simple to make in big batches.

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies (Soft & Buttery!)

Classic buttery thumbprints with a well of raspberry jam in the center.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Christmas Tree Linzer Cookies

Buttery, soft Linzer cookies shaped like festive Christmas trees make the perfect holiday treat. Follow this easy recipe with step-by-step photos.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: eatlittlebird.com

Cream Cheese Jam Pinwheel Cookies

These cream cheese jam pinwheel cookies are light, buttery, and filled with sweet raspberry jam, then finished with a dusting of powdered sugar for the perfect Christmas cookie.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: moderncrumb.com

Healthy Peanut Butter Jelly Christmas Cookies

Healthy peanut butter and jelly Christmas cookies are the perfect way to kick off your holiday baking. Christmas season is officially here!

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: heavenlynnhealthy.com

Red-Nosed Reindeer Thumbprint Cookies

Bake a festive batch of reindeer thumbprint cookies filled with strawberry jam and decorated with pretzel antlers. They’re an easy, adorable treat for Christmas parties and cookie exchanges.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: adventuresofmel.com

Christmas Cookies

These jam-filled Christmas cookies are one of my favorites for the cozy holiday season: sweet, festive, and perfect for Christmas baking.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: klaraslife.com

Raspberry Jam Sandwich Cookies

Christmas wouldn’t be complete without classic jam sandwich cookies. They’re a festive dessert-platter favorite and surprisingly easy to make.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: ifyougiveablondeakitchen.com

Classic Thumbprint Cookies

Melt in your mouth thumbprint cookies filled with bright apricot or raspberry jam.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: loveandlemons.com

Spiced and Old Fashioned

The cookies that taste like someone's grandmother made them.

Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies (Soft and Chewy!)

Soft and chewy molasses cookies rolled in sugar, warm with ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies With Raisins (Chewy!)

A chewy old fashioned oatmeal cookie packed with raisins, the everyday cookie of the tin.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Refined Sugar Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

The same chewy oatmeal raisin cookie made without any refined sugar.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Chewy Oatmeal M&M Cookies

Chewy oatmeal cookies studded with M and Ms, easy to make holiday colored.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Eggnog Gingerbread Cookies

Soft chewy gingerbread cookies dipped in eggnog icing and finished with festive sprinkles.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: wearenotmartha.com

Gingerbread Biscotti

Twice baked gingerbread biscotti with warm spices and molasses, drizzled with a sweet vanilla coating.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: reallifeoflulu.com

When You Are Short on Time

For the night you remember you signed up for the cookie exchange tomorrow.

Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies baked in the air fryer in under ten minutes, a small batch when you only need a few.

MAKE THE RECIPE

No Chill Sugar Cookies

A simple buttery sugar cookie dough with no refrigeration needed, ready to bake the moment you mix it.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: sugarspunrun.com

No Bake Avalanche Cookies

Four ingredient no bake cookies with crispy rice cereal and marshmallow coated in melted white chocolate and peanut butter.

MAKE THE RECIPE

Photo credit: justsotasty.com

Tips for Better Christmas Cookies

• Chill the dough before baking – even a quick twenty minutes in the fridge firms up the butter so the cookies spread less and hold a cleaner edge.
• Weigh your flour or spoon it into the cup – scooping straight from the bag packs in too much and gives you dry, cakey cookies.
• Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack – cookies on the bottom rack brown too fast on the base while the tops stay pale.
• Pull them when the edges are set but the centers still look soft – they finish cooking on the hot pan and stay chewy in the middle.
• Let the pan cool between batches – dough spread out on a warm tray before it even reaches the oven.
• Decorate only once the cookies are completely cool – icing slides off and colors bleed on cookies that are even slightly warm.

Christmas Cookie Questions

Can I make Christmas cookie dough ahead of time?

Yes. Most cookie doughs keep in the fridge for up to three days and in the freezer for up to three months. Roll drop cookie dough into balls before freezing so you can bake straight from frozen, adding a minute or two to the bake time. Cut out and shaped doughs are best rolled and cut before freezing on a tray, then stacked with parchment between the layers.

How do I store baked Christmas cookies so they stay fresh?

Keep soft cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days, with a slice of sandwich bread tucked in to hold the moisture. Store crisp cookies separately so they do not soften. Frosted and filled cookies do best in a single layer or with parchment between the layers so the decoration stays intact.

Which Christmas cookies freeze the best?

Sturdy cookies freeze best: shortbread, gingerbread, crinkles, thumbprints before the jam, and any drop cookie. Freeze them fully baked and cooled in a single layer, then move them to a container for up to three months. Add frosting, glaze, or jam after thawing so it does not weep.

How far in advance can I bake Christmas cookies?

Bake and freeze up to a month ahead for anything sturdy, then thaw the day before and decorate. Cookies you want at their absolute best, like frosted sugar cookies, are better baked within three or four days of serving. Doughs can be made even earlier and frozen until you are ready to bake.

Pick a few, get the doughs in the fridge, and let the house smell like butter and cinnamon for the rest of the month. Every recipe above has full instructions, make ahead notes and storage tips on its own page.

More Recipe Collections