Christmas Cookie Recipes

Need a little help making the nice list this year? Get Santa on your side with one or all of these top-rated cookie recipes.

This recipe makes three rolls of dough, which can be frozen until ready to bake.

These Swedish butter cookies are flavored with cardamom.

This recipe calls for a batter-like dough and is baked on a pizzelle iron. Powdered sugar adds an elegant touch. In the Italian version, vanilla is replaced by anise. Chocolate may also be used.

A beautiful Christmas cookie!

Having lived in Wisconsin all my life, I have come to love the different products produced here. This recipe combines two Wisconsin favorites: cranberries and cornmeal. These deliciously different cookies with their tangy cranberry filling are hard to resist!

These take a bit of work and time, but are spectacular. They are highly prized for Christmas gift-giving! As with other meringue recipes, these should only be made on a dry day. You will need a pastry bag with a plain tip. If you can save some green plastic berry baskets from the summertime, these mushrooms look totally realistic placed in them.

Spicy gingerbread men. This is the only recipe we have ever used. For best flavor, do NOT use blackstrap molasses.

I make a basic chocolate chip cookie dough, but use white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and brandy (instead of vanilla). Great for Christmas time!

A delicious fig-filled pastry. You may substitute the figs with dried apricots or dates. Hazelnuts can also be used in place of the walnuts.

A very Victorian recipe! Some people are put off by the notion of herb cookies, but you'll be pleasantly surprised. The flavor improves with age (best 2 days after), keeping for about a week.

We have made these very traditional German cookies every year since I was a child. My mother remembers her grandmother making them with this recipe that has been in our family for generations. The molds can be hard to find, but check specialty cookware stores and antique shops.

This traditional Dutch cookie recipe came with a mold I got 20 years ago. Speculaas is a corruption of the Latin speculum (mirror). The dough is pressed into carved molds that can be used for wall decorations. When turned out onto the cookie sheet, the picture appears as its mirror image, hence the name. In the Sinterklass season they are available in 2/3 cookie size to huge thick men and women up to 1 pound known as lovers. If molds are not available, roll dough to desired thickness and use gingerbread man cutter or other cutter shapes. They are great to make ahead around Christmas because they last a long time.

After falling in love with a local bakery's coconut macaroon, I attempted to create a duplicate version at home. This is what I came up with.

Chocolate cookie dough is wrapped around caramel filled chocolate candies. We have these at Christmas time each year. They are delicious! Hope you enjoy them too.

This recipe is my own adaptation of a recipe that came from my husband's grandmother. I made a few changes to suit my own family's tastes. These cookies are a big hit with kids as well as adults.

I received this recipe through a cookie exchange years ago, and it has become a favorite of family and friends.

Thumbprint cookies with a delicious filling, these are perfect for Christmas. Does not use eggnog, but they have an eggnog taste. You can substitute 1/4 teaspoon rum extract and 1 tablespoon milk for the rum.

An ice box cookie, these were one of the two Christmas cookie recipes my German grandmother made every year until her death at age 92. While they may not be fancy like other Christmas cookies recipes, they are easy to make and taste very nutty. They make me think of Christmas and my grandmother every time I enjoy one.

Looking to sweeten your holiday season? These timeless Christmas cookies will take your tastebuds back to a simpler time.

This cookie is incredible. It's so rich and tasty. I cannot tell how many times I get asked for this recipe. Everyone loves it and it's easy to make. These keep very well. You can make dough ahead time and freeze it. Defrost when ready to use and follow baking instructions. Great cookie for the holidays.

Fudge filled deliciousness!

Make your cookie gifts extra special with these fun packaging ideas.

Can't make it home this Christmas? Bake up some nostalgia with our collection of cookies inspired by every U.S. state! We've rounded up festive cookies from every state in the Union - whether they're a local specialty, a copycat from a local bakery, submitted by a local home cook, or pay homage to famous state ingredients. If you're wishing you were home or just want to show some state pride, get inspired with our United States of Christmas Cookies list!

Nicole McLaughlin, aka NicoleMcmom, shares tips for baking Christmas cookies so they turn out just the way you like them, plus tips for mailing them to loved ones far away.

Christmas baking just got a whole lot easier.