Christmas Cookies One of the best smells in the world is the aroma of warm Christmas cookies baking in the oven. It fills the whole house with warmth and comfort—and the promise of sweet treats to come. The moment you begin scrolling through this list of Christmas desserts, you’ll want to rush to your kitchen, preheat the oven, and grab all the sugary ingredients you can. And even if it isn’t quite Christmas cookie season yet, you may want to get started taste-testing, because there are dozens of must-make recipes offered on this roundup. No matter what type of Christmas sugar cookies you’re in the mood for, trust us—you’ll find it on this list.
Some of our favorites of these Christmas treats are the double chocolate peppermint cookie, peppermint mocha cookie, and thumbprint cookie recipes. For those who love eggnog—aka the official drink of the holiday season—there are a handful of eggnog recipes for you, such as the eggnog snickerdoodles, eggnog gooey butter cookies, and eggnog frosted chai snickerdoodle snowmen. There are also plenty of holiday desserts for the chocoholics out there. You’ll absolutely love the triple chocolate cookies, hot chocolate melt-away cookies, and chocolate crinkle cookies.
Don’t forget to pair these Christmas sweets with a batch of Christmas cocktails, or festive non-alcoholic Christmas drinks for the little ones. It doesn’t matter which batch of Christmas cookies you decide to bake first—every single recipe on this list is amazing
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and sugar until blended. Increase speed to high, beat until light and creamy. At low speed, beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour and baking powder just until blended.
- Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Wrap each piece with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.
- On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough 1/8 inch thick. With floured 2- to 3-inch assorted cookie cutters, cut dough into as many cookies as possible, wrap and refrigerate trimmings. Place cookies, 1 inch apart, on large ungreased cookie sheet, sprinkle cookies with colored sugar now if you like, or frost with Ornamental Frosting after baking.
- Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. If you like, brush colored sugar remaining on cookie sheets onto piece of waxed paper to use again. Repeat with remaining dough and trimmings.
- When cookies are cool, prepare Ornamental Frosting if you like, use to decorate cookies as desired. Sprinkle colored sugars as desired on frosting before it dries. Allow frosting to dry completely, about 1 hour. Store cookies in tightly covered container up to 2 weeks.
