419 christmas cookie recipes

Soft pumpkin cookies loaded with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, raisins, and walnuts. A big-batch holiday cookie with warm spice flavor in every cakey bite.

Santa Claus cookies are soft drop cookies with bright lemon zest, baked then frosted and decorated into jolly Santa faces. A Christmas cookie tray classic for kids.

Green-and-white peppermint pinwheel cookies, sliced from a swirled frozen log. A classic Christmas icebox cookie with spiraled layers of vanilla and mint dough.

Big-batch Christmas hermit cookies loaded with raisins, currants, chopped nuts, and orange zest, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. A chewy, old-fashioned holiday drop cookie that makes 10 dozen.

Almond crescent cookies with toasted ground almonds and a tender shortbread base, finished with a chocolate drizzle or powdered sugar dusting. A Christmas cookie tin classic that holds for a week or more.

Maple meltaway shortbread crisps blend butter, cake flour, and chopped pecans with maple flavoring into delicate, snowy cookies. Five ingredients, 7-minute bake, classic Christmas tin staple.

Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth piped shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate. Only 5 ingredients and no eggs needed for these classic Viennese Fingers.

Danish chocolate shortbread cookies shaped into finger-thick ropes, filled with raspberry preserves, and drizzled with melted chocolate. An elegant holiday cookie with a buttery cocoa base.

This co-winner in the filled-cookie category from Dorothy O'Neill of Whitefish Bay makes a delicate, crispy cookie. Dipping in chocolate and nuts adds flavor and texture.

Virginia Lane of Cudahy secured this recipe, with its nice complexity of flavors, in the late '50s or '60s when she lived in Iran.

Pistachio and white chocolate cookies with brown sugar, butter-flavored shortening, and toasted pistachios. Chewy or crisp by choice, the classic holiday cookie tin upgrade.

Chocolate thumbprint cookies rolled in powdered sugar with a rich chocolate ganache filling. Brown sugar shortbread base with chopped chocolate chips baked into the dough.

Soft, cake-style pumpkin spice cookies built on egg whites and pumpkin puree with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, baked tender for a lighter holiday cookie tin.

Peanut butter cookie dough wrapped around mini Snickers or Mars bars on a stick. Golden, chewy, and loaded with candy bar surprise in every bite. A total showstopper for bake sales and holiday parties.

Lighter cranberry apple cookies made with egg whites and skim milk, loaded with fresh fruit, cinnamon, and orange zest. A guilt-free holiday cookie that yields 2 dozen.

Christmas Lizzies are boozy Southern fruitcake cookies loaded with candied cherries, raisins, dates, pecans, and citrus zest, soaked in whiskey. Make them weeks ahead and drizzle with spirits to age.