40 christmas baking recipes

Classic Christmas cut-out cookies that hold their shape, with cornstarch in the dough for a tender bite and crisp edges. Roll, cut into festive shapes, bake golden, and decorate with icing.

Grandma's mincemeat cookies are a Christmas tradition: spiced dried-fruit filling folded into a tender shortening dough, dropped by the spoonful and baked golden in about 12 minutes.

No-bake Rudolph's Antlers Christmas cookies made with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, chow mein noodles, and maraschino cherries. A fun holiday treat kids love to shape.

Frozen Christmas pudding made by folding brandy-soaked dried fruit with cocoa and orange zest into softened vanilla ice cream. A no-bake, make-ahead holiday dessert.

Polish baked apples in red wine, jablka na winie czerwonym, fills cored apples with jam and bakes them in spiced wine syrup. A classic Polish Christmas dessert served chilled.

Tiny green sugar cookie balls arranged in rings with candied cherry "berries" to make festive Christmas wreath cookies. A fun, easy holiday baking project for kids.

Spiced Christmas ornaments mix cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves with applesauce into a fragrant no-bake dough rolled and cut into holiday shapes. A homemade craft that scents the tree for years.

Cinnamon, clove and nutmeg ornaments are fragrant homemade holiday decorations, not edible: a no-bake dough of warm spices and applesauce, cut into shapes, air-dried, and hung to scent your home with Christmas spice.