Best Christmas Cookie Recipes – These recipes are my most popular Christmas cookies and perfect for gift giving or making holiday memories with your family.
Best Christmas Cookie Recipes
My sister and I spent a week baking some of my most popular Christmas Cookie recipes to create this epic cookie board. From cookie bars, my most popular Christmas Cookie recipe, to Old-Fashioned Candy Cane Cookies, we couldn’t even fit them all in! Wouldn’t this be fun for a Christmas Cookie exchange or a big Christmas party?
Christmas Cookies
- M&M’S Christmas Cookie Bars
- Candy Cane Cookies
- Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
- M&M’S Christmas Cookies for Santa
- Peppermint Snowball Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars
- Frosted Christmas Thumbprints
- Christmas Thumbprint Cookies
- Grinch Cookies
Most Popular Christmas Cookie Recipe
Last year, Pinterest released a list of the most popular Christmas recipes on their platform and my M&M’S Christmas Cookie Bars were the most popular Christmas Cookie on Pinterest. You can see the original viral pin here. It has lots of great comments and pictures!
- 2 sticks salted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup golden brown sugar firmly packed
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups Christmas M&M's plus more for topping
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips plus more for topping
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips for topping
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-
Line a 9×13 aluminum pan with foil. Leave some overhang to make removal easier.
-
Spray foil generously with nonstick cooking spray.
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until fluffy.
-
Add in eggs and vanilla extract and continue to beat.
-
Lower speed of mixer and add flour, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
-
Add M&M’s and mini chocolate chips and give a final stir, reserving some M&M’s, mini chocolate chips and white chocolate chips for topping cookie bars.
-
Transfer cookie dough to prepared baking dish.
-
Press additional M&M’S, mini chocolate chips and white chocolate chips into top of cookie dough.
-
Bake 35 minutes on middle rack of oven, or until cookie bars are light golden brown and just set. Do not over bake. Cookie bars will continue to bake as they cool.
-
Let cool completely and cut. Store tightly covered.
My Favorite Christmas Cookie
I just love these Old-Fashioned Candy Cane Cookies. They look so festive and are fun to make. For our cookie board, I shaped some of them into a wreath shape and they came out so cute!
Old-fashioned peppermint Candy Cane Cookies.
- 2 sticks of butter at room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon of red food coloring
- For the glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and powdered sugar until fluffy.
-
Add egg, vanilla and peppermint extract, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
-
Reduce mixer speed and add flour and salt, mixing until well combined.
-
Divide dough in half.
-
In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine 1/2 the cookie dough with red food coloring.
-
Shape cookie dough into disc and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
-
Refrigerate one hour or up to overnight.
-
Once dough has chilled, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
-
Measure one tablespoon of each color dough and gently roll into 6 inch long log shapes.
-
Twist cookie dough together and transfer to parchment paper or silpat lined baking sheet.
-
Chill shaped cookie dough for 15 minutes before baking.
-
Bake 10-12 minutes, or until bottoms of cookies are a very light golden brown.
-
While the cookies are baking, prepare peppermint glaze. Spoon over cookies after they have cooled slightly.
Fast Christmas Cookies
These Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars are a favorite time saver and totally addictive! The sugar cookie bars are based off of my popular M&M’S Cookie Bars, and I topped them with a homemade buttercream frosting. Add Christmas sprinkles and you have the best sugar cookie bars!
- 2 sticks of butter at room temperature
- 2 cups of granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup red and green sprinkles
- red and green nonpareils for topping
- 2 sticks of butter at room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-
Line a 9×13 baking dish with foil, leave some overhang to make removal easier.
-
Spray foil generously with nonstick cooking spray.
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy.
-
Add in eggs and vanilla extract and continue to beat.
-
Lower speed of mixer and add flour, baking soda and salt, and mix until combined.
-
Add sprinkles and give a final stir.
-
Transfer cookie dough to prepared baking dish.
-
Bake 35 to 40 minutes on oven rack in lower third of oven to prevent over browning.
-
Let cool completely.
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and powdered sugar.
-
Add vanilla and and salt and mix until well combined. Slowly mix in heavy cream, adjusting amount as needed.
Easy Christmas Cookies
This one is a tie between Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies and Peanut Butter Cup Cookies! Both cookie recipes are super simple and happen to be gluten free!
- 1 cup peanut butter, not natural or reduced-fat
- 1 cup sugar plus extra for rolling
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 20 Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups unwrapped
-
Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
-
Use a stand mixer with paddle attachment or a large bowl with a hand mixer to combine peanut butter and sugar. Beat until well combined and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until incorpated.
-
Measure 1.5 tablespoons of cookie dough or use a medium sized cookie scoop and roll into a ball. Bake for about 14 minutes or until you can see light cracks in the cookies start to form. Remove from oven and immediately press peanut butter cups into each cookie. Let cool and serve. Store tightly covered for up to three days
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, and I think it will be hard for you too! If you plan on making a big cookie board like we did, I recommend planning ahead. Start preparing the cookie doughs a few days ahead and bake the cookies the day you plan to serve them
5 Easy Dinner Ideas for Busy Weeknights
My five FAVORITE recipes for busy families!
- Quick to make
- Light on your budget
- Easy to clean-up
- and...most important...absolutely DELICIOUS
Cookies are one of the the best parts of the holidays!! I’m adding the twisted candy canes to our baking list this weekend. So very cute!
Great list! I love ALL these cookies! I especially love the candy cane cookies and the wreath cookies. So fun and delicious!
Such a great Christmas cookie collection.
All of these make me so excited for Christmas! Can’t wait to try all of them.
So many amazing recipes to try! Really love those candy cane cookies!
There are so many great choices here! I will have fun trying them all out!
This tasted so amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing this super easy to make cookies recipes! Fam really loves it! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!
This post ha me so excited! Such a great coolection!
So many delicious options to choose from! We LOVED the M&M cookie bars. They are so chewy and loaded with chocolate. The best!
OMG! I want to make them all. I think I’ll try the Christmas cookie bars first. Thanks for the other great ideas!
These all look so fun and delicious for the christmas season. I can’t wait to try some out!
this makes me so excited to make cookies for christmas time! The countdown is on!