Cookie season is the best season of all. Baking Christmas cookies is my favourite holiday tradition to share with family and friends. From classic sugar cookies with royal icing, to gingerbread men, to peanut butter blossoms and buttery shortbread, you will find a cookie perfect for a big cookie platter, a cookie exchange with friends, or as part of a holiday cookie box. Today, I am sharing my 30 most popular and favourite Christmas cookie recipes.
Classic Christmas Cookies
Christmas Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Christmas sugar cookies with royal icing are golden brown and crisp on the outside, but soft and tender inside. The best and festive gourmet holiday cookie.
Sweet buttery linzer cookies are a classic Christmas cookie with flaky shortbread and fruit jam. The perfect festive holiday treat that melts in your mouth.
Soft chewy ginger cookies packed with ginger, molasses, and cinnamon spice is the most warm and cozy cookie ever. These holiday cookies stay soft for days.
Classic gingerbread cookies are soft and chewy in the centre but crisp on the edges, and warmly spiced. Decorate with royal icing to complete the look on these festive holiday cookies.
Soft tender chewy chocolate crinkle cookies are a classic Christmas cookie that tastes like a rich fudgy brownie with a crackly crust and coated in sugar.
Italian Christmas Cookies (Ricotta Cookies)
Super moist, soft, and sweet Italian Christmas Cookies (Ricotta Cookies) are easy festive holiday treats that are ready in just 30 minutes!
Soft and chewy peanut butter blossoms topped with a chocolate kiss are a classic Christmas cookie that is easy to make during the holidays or any time of year.
Sweet and nutty pecan snowball cookies (Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies) are little melt-in-your-mouth balls of buttery shortbread with nuts.
Buttery Spritz Cookies are impossibly light with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, making them a beloved holiday tradition for a reason.
Christmas Monster Cookies are soft, chewy, festive and packed with holiday cheer! Loaded with oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and red and green MnM’s.
Jam Thumbprint Cookies are soft and buttery, with a sweet and fruity jam filling, and a drizzle of almond glaze. They literally melt in your mouth!
Snickerdoodles are a classic holiday cookie that are soft, puffy, and chewy with crisp edges and a cinnamon-sugar coating. Easy to make and easy to eat.
Red Velvet Cookies with white chocolate are moist and chewy, deliciously chocolatey with a cake-like texture, and are striking red. Ready in 20 minutes!
Thin crispy gingersnaps are a classic holiday cookie loaded with festive spices and molasses flavor. It's a no chill recipe that is quick and easy to make.
Pecan Sandies are easy, slice and bake shortbread cookies loaded with pecans and literally melt in your mouth. They’re sweet, buttery, nutty, and delicious.
Italian Lemon Drop Cookies (Anginetti) are light, cake-like, classic Italian cookies with citrus flavor throughout. Quick and easy to make in 30 minutes.
Peppermint Macarons with festive red shells, creamy peppermint buttercream, and a white chocolate candy cane topping are the ultimate Christmas cookies.
Easy Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are tall and thick, classic Christmas cookies made with peanut butter cookie dough and a mini Reese's cup pressed in.
Eggnog cookies are a delicious soft and chewy holiday cookie with a crackly top. They are made with eggnog, spiced warmly, and drizzled with eggnog glaze.
Chocolate Sugar Cookies are a fun twist on traditional sugar cookies. The warm brown color is the perfect background for creative piping and decorating.
Pecan Pralines are sweet, rich, nutty, and crunchy candies that are so quick and easy to make. Make these melt-in-your-mouth Southern treats in 20 minutes.
Sweet and crunchy Peppermint Kiss Cookies are the perfect Christmas cookies made with a sugar cookie dough, real candy canes, and a peppermint kiss on top.
Molasses Cookies are a popular holiday treat with a crispy exterior and a soft, chewy center which makes them irresistible regardless of the season.
This Christmas Crack Candy is the simplest and most delicious holiday treat you'll ever make! It's sweet, salty, crunchy, and chocolatey.
This gingerbread house recipe with template is easy to make, fun to decorate, and delicious — soft and chewy, yet crunchy and sturdy with crisp edges.
Festive Cookies
Christmas Shortbread Cookie Bites
Funfetti Christmas shortbread cookie bites are little bites of buttery melt-in-your-mouth shortbread packed with festive sprinkles for a fun holiday treat.
Peppermint snowball cookies are a buttery, nutty, shortbread holiday cookie that is topped with white chocolate and crushed candy canes. So festive!
Stained glass window cookies with a soft crisp sugar cookie base and smooth jolly rancher hard candy center are the prettiest holiday cookies and easy too.
White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Sweet and chewy with little pops of candy canes, these White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies taste like Christmas in cookie form!
These homemade Red Velvet Macarons with cream cheese frosting are like the beloved cake but in bite-sized form — bold red color and a hint of cocoa flavor.
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies are a soft, tender, and chewy Christmas cookie that is easy to make with no chilling required. The perfect holiday cookie!
Candy cane cookies are fun, festive holiday cookies with a red and white twist, buttery, crumbly, and sugary with peppermint for a classic Christmas flavor.
Gingerbread Macarons with spiced gingerbread shells, molasses buttercream, and white chocolate and cookie topping are a festive bite-sized treat.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies combines rich, fudgy chocolate with the minty flavor candy canes in a festive, chewy treat. Plus, no dough chilling required!
Cut out shortbread cookies are soft, buttery, and melt in your mouth. Made with a simple 5-ingredient cookie dough and decorated with optional royal icing.
Festive red and green M&M Christmas cookies are super soft and chewy with the crispiest edges. Quick and easy to make in under 20 minutes with no chill time.
Italian rainbow cookies are delicious, colorful, fluffy, and gorgeous, made with three cake layers sandwiched in between jam and covered in chocolate.
Gingerbread biscotti have the best crunchy and crumbly texture, are loaded with festive holiday spices, are easy to make, and stores well for weeks.
Soft and chewy Red Velvet Blossoms are a twist on the classic peanut butter blossoms with their vibrant red color, rich cocoa flavor, and chocolate kiss.
Soft Chewy White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Soft and chewy white chocolate cranberry walnut cookies are beyond simple to prepare and make the perfect holiday treat.
No bake gingerbread truffles with white chocolate are easy to make with just 3 simple ingredients including leftover gingersnaps. Perfect for the holidays.
M&M cookie bars are soft and chewy, have crisp edges with a gooey center, and are loaded with M&M's and chocolate chips. The easiest way to bake cookies!
Festive cranberry pistachio biscotti are crunchy, delicious, and perfect for dunking. This Italian cookie is easy to make with warm holiday flavours.
Pistachio Macarons are delicate, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth cookies filled with pistachio white chocolate ganache filling and chopped pistachios on top.
Shortbread Cookies
These sweet, crisp, buttery, classic Shortbread Cookies are so light that they practically dissolve in your mouth. They’re easy to make with 5 ingredients.
These Chocolate Shortbread Cookies have it all: a crisp exterior, a melt-in-your-mouth texture, and a buttery double chocolate finish. Easy to make too.
Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
Cranberry orange shortbread cookies are bursting with flavour from dried cranberries and fresh orange zest. These easy cookies are rolled, sliced and baked.
Slice and Bake Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Easy slice and bake pecan shortbread cookies are sweet, nutty and buttery shortbread cookies packed with finely chopped pecans that melt in your mouth.
Whipped Shortbread Cookies are sweet and buttery cookies that melt in your mouth. These light tea time treats have crisp edges and a crumbly center.
Mexican Wedding Cookies are a classic treat known for their snow-white powdered sugar coating and pecan-studded shortbread that melts in your mouth.
With their iconic pink, brown, and white stripes, these homemade Neapolitan Cookies are both beautiful and delicious.
Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies are a Christmastime classic — sweet, buttery, and melt in your mouth delicious. Plus, an easy to make slice-and-bake cookie.
Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cookies
Shortbread and chocolate are a match made in heaven. Cut our these cookies into any shape that you like and dip in chocolate.
Pistachio Cookies are the perfect little bites, made with real ground pistachios suspended in a buttery, crumbly cookie dough, which melts in your mouth.
Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies are rich and chewy chocolate cookies with a smooth and velvety chocolate ganache filling topped with crunchy pistachios.
These fluffy Red Velvet Whoopie Pies are made with two soft and moist cake-like cookies, filled with a decadent cream cheese frosting in the middle.
Chocolate Spritz Cookies are a rich and indulgent twist on classic buttery spritz cookies. Dip them in extra chocolate or top with colorful sprinkles.
Hot Chocolate Cookies are soft and chewy, loaded with classic hot cocoa ingredients, and is so easy to make in just 20 minutes (no chilling required!).
These crunchy Almond Florentines are made with sliced almonds, a sticky sweet coating that acts like hardened caramel, and a layer of dark chocolate.
Homemade Samoas Cookies (copycat Girl Scout cookies) have a buttery shortbread base, gooey coconut caramel topping, and melted chocolate drizzle.
These Almond Horns are chewy, horseshoe-shaped crescent cookies covered in crunchy almonds and dipped in chocolate.
White Chocolate Peppermint Gingerbread Cookies
Festive white chocolate peppermint gingerbread cookies are soft and chewy, dipped in white chocolate, with a sprinkle of crushed peppermint candy canes.
Gingerbread Linzer Cookies with Chocolate Filling
Soft and warmly spiced gingerbread linzer cookies with white chocolate ganache and dusted with confectioners' sugar is a delicious Christmas holiday cookie.
More Cookies
Homemade chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy, have perfectly crisp edges, and are loaded with chocolate chips. This classic cookie is quick and easy.
Butter cookies are a classic cookie with a crisp, slightly crunchy texture that melts in your mouth on the first bite — and every bite after!
Palmiers are light, crunchy, swirled treats you can easily make in under 30 minutes using just 2 ingredients. They're buttery, crispy, flaky, and sweet.
Brookies Cookies are the perfect combination of two iconic desserts — brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Quick and easy to make with no chilling!
Cream Cheese Cookies are the softest, cloud-like cookies ever! The tangy cream cheese flavor balances the sweetness and makes every bite light and airy.
Soft and chewy Chai Cookies are loaded with warm chai spices and topped with drizzle of a sweet chai glaze. Quick and easy to make with no chill time!
Almond Crescent Cookies are delicious and crumbly half-moon shaped cookies with a fragrant, sweet almond flavor and a delicate dusting of powdered sugar.
Cinnamon Roll Cookies are soft and buttery slice-and-bake cookie with a cinnamon-sugar swirl, sweet icing, and the cozy flavors of classic cinnamon rolls.
Brownie Cookies are the perfect combination of rich, chocolatey brownies and chewy, gooey cookies. Quick and easy to make with no chilling required.
Butter Pecan Cookies are soft and chewy, have perfect golden crisp edges and loaded with crunchy toasted pecans. Quick and easy to make in under 20 minutes.
Chocolate Ginger Cookies bring together the richness of chocolate with the warmth of ginger. They are soft and chewy and stay soft for days!
Date Cookies are sweet, soft, and chewy with a rich caramel-like flavor from dates and a touch of crunch from walnuts. They are rich and buttery good!
Fruitcake Cookies take all the best parts of fruitcake and turn it into cookie form. They’re soft, chewy, and thick holiday cookies with crisp edges.
Lofthouse Cookies are super soft, moist, and thick, classic grocery store cookies made of a cakey sugar cookie, sweet buttercream frosting, and sprinkles.
Soft, sweet, and creamy, these Peanut Butter Balls are perfect as bite-sized treats for the holidays or any day you need a little pick-me-up.
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft and chewy, easy to make, and so satisfying. Enjoy these cookies in under 20 minutes with no chilling required!
Oreo Truffles (Cookie Balls) are a quick and easy no bake dessert that is rich, sweet, fudgy, and delicious — and made with just 3 simple ingredients.
Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Maple Cinnamon Glaze
Melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter thumbprint cookies with raspberry jam and a drizzle of maple cinnamon glaze are the best holiday cookies and easy to make.
Coconut macaroons are crispy on the outside with a soft and chewy center. Dip or drizzle with chocolate for an even more delicious flavor combo.
These homemade Nutella Cookies are tender, delicious, and chewy, loaded with chocolate chips, chopped hazelnut pieces, and homemade Nutella chips.
Carrot Cake Cookies are soft, chewy, cake-like cookies with a delicious homemade cream cheese glaze. They taste just like carrot cake but in cookie form.
Small batch almond biscotti are crunchy, crumbly and packed with almonds, perfect for dunking into tea or coffee, and they are super easy to make.
French Macarons with Vanilla Buttercream Filling
Easy French macarons with vanilla buttercream filling are sweet, light, airy, and delicate cookies that melt in your mouth. Beginners can make them too!
Soft and chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are a quick and easy one bowl recipe made using simple pantry staple ingredients in under 20 minutes with no chilling!
Cake mix cookies are the easiest cookies to bake with just three simple ingredients in 20 minutes! Mix and match different cake mix flavors and add-ins.
Coffee Cake Cookies combine a soft, cinnamon cookie base with a crumbly streusel topping and a drizzle of sweet glaze. A classic dessert in cookie form!
Sugar cookies are golden brown with crispy edges and soft and thick on the inside. They are buttery and sweet, easy to make in one bowl, and freeze well.
Soft, buttery and, chewy, these sweet Maple Cookies (made with real maple syrup) are quick and easy to make with no chilling required!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thick, fluffy, chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies is when pumpkin bread meets chocolate chip cookies. These no chill cookies are ready in under 20 minutes.
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffles
Dark chocolate raspberry truffles is so much easier to make than you might think! It is literally as simple as combining high quality chocolate, cocoa and raspberry jam.
The Best Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Grab a tall glass of milk and start dipping the best homemade, soft-centered, chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies you will ever try!
Pecan Pie Cookies have a buttery, chewy cookie base with a dollop of homemade pecan pie filling in the center of each one. They taste just like the classic!
Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies
These perfectly soft, chewy and a little crumby chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies literally melts in your mouth. Make them in under 20 minutes.
Coffee Cookies are soft and chewy, loaded with real coffee and chocolate chunks. This quick easy one bowl recipe takes under 20 minutes to make.
Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
The best classic soft and chewy peanut butter cookies are puffy and thick, stay soft for days, and melt in your mouth. Make them in under 20 minutes.
These homemade Matcha Cookies are the perfect soft and chewy sugar cookies with a bold green color and matcha's distinct grassy flavor.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Cookies
Brown butter oatmeal chocolate chip banana bread cookie bites are thick, fluffy, pillowy, cake-like little bites of banana bread heaven.
Persian Rice Cookies with Poppy Seeds (Nan-e Berenji) are irresistible, melt-in-your-mouth cookies made of rice flour, fragrant rose water and poppy seeds.
Make Ahead and Storing Instructions
- How to store. You can make or prepare all of these Christmas cookies ahead of time, and most keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for at least 3 days, up to one week.
- How to freeze. Store these cookies in an airtight container in layers divided by parchment paper, or in a freezer bag (depending on the cookies), and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Making a batch of cookies at a time and storing in the freezer is the best way to make a holiday cookie box with a variety of cookies.
Did You Make Any of These Christmas Cookies?
Please leave a comment and rating below, and let me know what you thought of this round up of cookie recipes. Be sure to snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @aheadofthyme or share it on the Pinterest pin so that I can follow along.
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Recipe
30 Best Christmas Cookies
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Browse the top 30 most popular best Christmas cookies to add to your holiday baking list, from sugar cookies to gingerbread men to shortbread and more.
Ingredients
Depending on the cookies that you are baking, you may need some of the following ingredients:
- flour
- sugar
- butter
- baking powder
- baking soda
- salt
- eggs
- peanut butter
- chocolate chips
Instructions
- How to store: You can make or prepare all of these Christmas cookies ahead of time, and most keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for at least 3 days, up to one week.
- How to freeze: Store these cookies in an airtight container in layers divided by parchment paper, or in a freezer bag (depending on the cookies), and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Making a batch of cookies at a time and storing in the freezer is the best way to make a holiday cookie box with a variety of cookies.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes (+up to 2 hours chill time)
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Calories: 200
P&T says
We made 5 and they were all delicious! Thank you for the wonderful recipes.
Margaret says
They all look good, am definitely going to make the white chocolate peppermint gingerbread cookies! They look so delicious and also very attractive!
Sam Hu | Ahead of Thyme says
Thank you Margaret!
Nicole says
How many times did u say “melt in your mouth”
Sam Hu | Ahead of Thyme says
Haha it's hard not to when they all melt in your mouth! 😛
Tara says
Oh my! All of these look so amazing. I definitely know where to go to find the perfect Christmas cookie. Thanks!
Sam Hu | Ahead of Thyme says
Aw thank you so much! Let me know if you try any.
Debbie says
This is a one stop shop for any Christmas cookie you can imagine , thank you for such a wonderful collection. All of these look amazing and it will be so hard to narrow it down to 1 , 2 , or 3 recipes lol.
Sam Hu | Ahead of Thyme says
Yup, I got you covered with all the cookies you will need! Thank you so much!
Beth says
I love looking through roundups of cookie recipes at any time, and these are all great-looking, but what I will have to try first are the Persian rice cookies which are at the top of my list being gluten-free!
Sam Hu | Ahead of Thyme says
Yes! I think they are the only gluten-free cookies on this list. Let me know if you try it!