I am not a “one cookie and done” kind of person. Never have been. Never will be.
Come December, my kitchen turns into a full-blown cookie factory. Flour on the counters. Flour on the floor. Flour, somehow, in my hair three days later. The oven runs so often it basically doubles as a space heater, and my stand mixer has started giving me looks.
And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Because Christmas cookies aren’t just cookies. They’re tradition. They’re the tin your grandma always brought to the party. They’re sneaking dough off the spoon when you think nobody’s watching (everybody’s watching). They’re the plate you leave for Santa and “accidentally” eat half of before morning.
Over the years, I’ve baked a lot of recipes. Some were showstoppers. Some were… learning experiences. (We don’t talk about the Great Gingerbread Collapse of 2019.) But a handful have earned a permanent spot in my holiday rotation, the ones I come back to year after year, the ones people actually request by name.
So grab a glass of milk (or eggnog, I’m not judging), loosen that belt a notch, and let’s dive into my five all-time favorite Christmas cookies. Fair warning: you’re going to want to preheat your oven before you finish reading.
Let’s do this.
5 Cookies I Bake Every December
Each cookie below is a different kind of Christmas cookie. With each one you get what I learned baking it, the full ingredient list and the video.
One-Dough Christmas Cookie Box
My one-dough Christmas cookie box is what I make when I want five kinds of cookies without making five doughs. One big batch of butter cookie dough, made with powdered sugar and egg whites, gets split into five bowls, and each bowl gets its own add-ins. One batch makes about 100 cookies, enough for three or four boxes, and the dough keeps in the fridge up to ten days.
The almond bowl turns into Linzer cookies: two cookies with jam in between and a little window cut in the top. The other bowls become a gingerbread style cookie, plain cut-out sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies filled with melted chocolate, and piped butter cookies. The gingerbread style one has ginger, cinnamon and cocoa but no molasses, so it tastes milder than classic gingerbread, closer to a snickerdoodle with ginger. For a truer gingerbread taste, some bakers swap the cocoa in that bowl for a spoon of molasses and a pinch of cloves. Others add a little orange zest.
The piped cookies are the hard part, so I chill the other doughs overnight and finish them on day two. People I gave these to asked for them again at Easter, and they really do melt in your mouth.
Ingredients
- 750 g soft room temperature butter (6 2/3 sticks)
- 300 g powdered sugar (2 1/2 cups)
- 3 room temperature extra large egg whites
- 900 g all-purpose flour (6 1/2 cups)
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Linzer cookies: 60 g almond flour (1/2 cup)
- Linzer cookies: 40 g all-purpose flour (4 tbsp)
- Linzer cookies: 1/2 tsp almond extract
- Linzer cookies: jam of your choice
- Gingerbread style cookies: 2 3/4 tsp ginger
- Gingerbread style cookies: 3 tsp cinnamon
- Gingerbread style cookies: 2 or 3 tsp cocoa powder
- Gingerbread style cookies: 40 g flour (4 tbsp)
- Sugar cookies: 50 g all-purpose flour (5 tbsp)
- Sugar cookies: 1/2 tsp vanilla
- Chocolate sugar cookies: 60 g sweetened cocoa powder (7 1/2 tbsp), bloomed with 5 tbsp hot milk
- Chocolate sugar cookies: 20 g all-purpose flour (2 tbsp)
- Chocolate sugar cookies: melted good quality chocolate to fill
- Vanilla butter cookies: the fifth portion of dough as it is, piped with a star tip
SavePecan Snowball Cookies
Pecan snowball cookies are little buttery balls of toasted pecans rolled in powdered sugar, the cookie some people call Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies. For a lot of bakers, this is the cookie their grandma made every Christmas. I picked the snowballs because they take six ingredients, one bowl and no mixer: you mix the dough with your hands.
The dough needs a 30-minute chill, and the batch makes about two dozen. They get rolled in powdered sugar twice, once warm and again once cool, and that second coat is what makes them look like snow. Toasting the pecans first is the step you can’t skip. You can toast the pecans days ahead and keep them in the fridge. I sometimes use almond extract instead of vanilla.
Two things go wrong with snowballs. Skip the chill and they crumble. Overbake them and they turn dry.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces/113 grams) butter, softened (unsalted)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar for rolling
SaveNo-Spread Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
No-spread cut-out sugar cookies are the plain vanilla kind you cut into stars, trees and snowflakes, then decorate or leave simple. I keep this recipe because the cookies hold their shape in the oven, and that makes or breaks a Christmas cut-out.
The dough has seven ingredients and comes together in a stand mixer, though a hand mixer works too if the dough gets its fridge time. The dough needs at least two hours in the fridge before you roll it a quarter inch thick. The recipe makes a big batch, and half the dough can wait in the freezer for a second round. Putting the cut shapes in the fridge or freezer overnight keeps the edges even sharper.
If you do not want icing at all, brush the cookies with melted butter and press them into colored sanding sugar. Some bakers find them a little less sweet than they like and add more sugar, or swap a little of the flour for cornstarch. With an adult nearby, kids can help roll and cut.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (480 g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
SaveMolasses Gingerbread Cookies
Molasses gingerbread cookies are the classic gingerbread people, made with molasses, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. If you don’t overbake them, they come out crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. I wanted the plain classic, and this recipe comes with an icing of just three ingredients.
The soft dough needs at least an hour in the fridge and can wait there up to a day. The icing is powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. The icing sets hard on the cookie but stays soft in the piping bag for a while, so I split it into a few bags and let everyone decorate their own. Because of that icing, this gingerbread is my pick for a decorating afternoon with kids, with an adult at the oven.
Once the icing sets, the cookies are firm enough to stack in a tin. One person who baked these called them the best gingerbread they have had, and a few others bake them every year.
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (12 Tbsp)
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- Icing: 2 cups powdered sugar
- Icing: 2-3 Tbsp milk
- Icing: 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Sprinkles, to decorate
SaveSlice-and-Bake Santa Cookies
The slice-and-bake Santa cookies are the showpiece of my cookie tray. A slice-and-bake cookie starts as a chilled log of dough that you cut into rounds. In this recipe, every slice is a little picture: a Santa face, a Santa boot or a green wreath.
The butter dough uses cake flour and almond flour. You color it red, green, orange and brown, shape three logs and freeze them, then cut slices about 5 mm thick. Frozen logs slice cleanly without squashing the faces, and they can wait in the freezer until baking day. One batch makes about 50 to 55 cookies.
The Santa cookies are the most work on this list, and they take patience. Start with the wreath, then the boots, and leave Santa for last. For a shortcut, some bakers skip the logs and roll the colored dough flat, then press cut shapes together. The dough has almond flour all through it, so these cookies do not belong in a nut-free tin.
Ingredients
- 226 g (8 oz, 2 US sticks) unsalted butter
- 160 g (5.6 oz) powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk (save the egg white for egg wash)
- 350 g (12.3 oz) cake flour
- 70 g (2.5 oz) almond flour
- Colorings: red, green, orange and brown
- Sprinkles of your choice
- Egg wash: 1 egg white
- Egg wash: about the same amount of water as egg white
SaveChristmas Cookie FAQ
Here are the questions that come up once Christmas cookie baking starts.
How Far Ahead Can I Make Christmas Cookies?
I make and freeze dough in late November and bake in December. Freeze drop cookie dough as balls and bake them straight from frozen, adding a couple of minutes to the bake time. Wrap slice-and-bake logs and flat slabs of roll-out dough well, then thaw them in the fridge overnight. Keep frozen dough well wrapped and use it within about two months. Two months is my kitchen rule of thumb, not a hard date.
How Long Do Baked Christmas Cookies Keep?
In an airtight tin at room temperature, I keep baked cookies about a week. A week is my rule of thumb, and for longer I freeze them. Let cookies cool all the way before they go in the tin. Powdered sugar cookies packed warm turn soggy.
How Do I Pack a Cookie Tin or a Box to Give?
Firm cookies travel best, and so do iced cookies once the icing has fully set. Pack spiced cookies like gingerbread apart from the others, or wrap them, because flavors and moisture move between cookies in a mixed box. For fillings, jam and chocolate keep better than buttercream in a tin you are giving away.
Some of These Have Nuts. What Can I Swap?
Three of these cookies use nuts, so label any tin that goes to a cookie exchange. In the one-dough box, the almond flour is only in the Linzer bowl. For the snowballs, walnuts work in place of pecans. The cut-out sugar cookies and the molasses gingerbread have no nuts as written. I have not tried a swap for the almond flour in the Santa slice-and-bake dough, so I do not suggest one.
Why Do My Cookies Spread Flat?
When my cookies spread, I check three things. Weigh the flour if you have a scale, because a cup can hold more or less than you think. Check the oven with a cheap oven thermometer, since the dial is not always right. Then chill the shaped dough before it bakes, because cold dough holds its edges better.
Start with the cookie that fits your December. If you have a weekend, make the one-dough box for gifts. If you have an afternoon, make the snowballs or the sugar cut-outs, and save the Santa slice-and-bake for when you want a project. With an adult at the oven, kids can help with any of them.
