422 christmas cookie recipes

Mother's Christmas cheese cakes: cream cheese pastry tartlets with two fillings, one pecan-brown sugar and one coconut-vanilla. A classic holiday cookie tin stalwart.

Mandel-Halbmonde are German almond crescents: buttery shortbread cookies shaped like half-moons, baked pale, then rolled twice in powdered sugar. The kind of melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie every German bakery puts on the holiday plate.

No-bake Christmas wreath cookies made with melted marshmallows, butter, and cornflakes tinted green. A classic 30-minute holiday treat kids love to shape and decorate.

Holiday almond wreath cookies piped from a star tip and decorated with red and green candied cherries. Buttery almond shortbread in a festive Christmas-tin shape.

Finnish fingers (sokerikakkusormet) are short, buttery shortbread sticks brushed with egg white and rolled in pearl sugar for a crunchy, sparkling exterior. Classic Scandinavian Christmas cookie.

Old-fashioned Christmas drop cakes with currants, lemon zest, and butter pressed thin and baked crispy. A heritage holiday cookie recipe with a delicate, lace-like texture.

Holiday fruit bars: a brown sugar shortbread crust topped with a chewy raisin, candied cherry, and lemon-zest filling. Cookie-tin classic for Christmas and gift trays.

Holiday harlequin fudge stacks dark chocolate-walnut over white chocolate-cherry in one loaf pan. A two-toned, brandy-laced Christmas fudge for cookie trays and tins.

Lebkuchen German Christmas cookies blend honey, molasses, cardamom, and clove into a dense spiced dough rolled and cut into shapes. Family tradition, ages and keeps for months.

Holiday decorating icing whisks powdered sugar with a splash of milk and a drop of flavor extract into a smooth, pipe-able glaze for outlining, flooding, and drizzling Christmas cookies.

Cornmeal cookies blend stone-ground cornmeal with flour for a sandy, slightly crunchy crumb. Studded with dried cherries or raisins and warmed with nutmeg. An Italian-American Christmas tin staple.

Finikia are Greek torpedo-shaped semolina cookies scented with orange and cinnamon, baked golden then dipped in a honey-cinnamon syrup and rolled in sesame or walnuts. Traditional Christmas melomakarona.

Fattigmann is a Norwegian fried pastry cookie flavored with cardamom or cinnamon, twisted into slit diamonds and crisped in lard. A traditional Scandinavian Christmas treat with powdered sugar.

Belgian spice crisps are paper-thin, shatteringly crisp cookies scented with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, lemon, and rum. A European Christmas classic rolled ultra-thin for maximum crunch.

Rugelach roll flaky cream cheese dough around apricot preserves, cinnamon-brown-sugar, walnuts, and raisins into bite-sized crescents. A classic Jewish bakery cookie for Hanukkah and Christmas alike.

Jam kolaches fold a cream cheese pastry dough around a dot of strawberry jam, then bake into tender pillows dusted with powdered sugar. The Czech-American Christmas cookie with a four-ingredient base.