76 christmas sugar cookie recipes

Holiday sugar cookies rolled and cut into shapes, dusted with colored sprinkles, and baked tender with a quiet hint of cinnamon. The classic Christmas cookie tin staple.

Rosky's (Czech rohlíky): cream cheese pastry cookies filled with apricot, dusted with powdered sugar. The Old World holiday cookie your grandmother kept on the tin every Christmas.

Christmas hazelnut balls rolled in powdered sugar, a buttery shortbread-style cookie with ground hazelnuts and vanilla. No eggs needed, melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Festive slice-and-bake Christmas tree cookies kissed with almond extract, rolled in sparkly green sugar crystals. Shape, chill, slice, and bake for a show-stopping holiday cookie tray.

Traditional German lebkuchen: honey-and-molasses spice cookies studded with citron and nuts, finished with a brushed sugar glaze. A heritage Christmas cookie that gets better as it ages.

Rosettes are delicate Scandinavian fried cookies shaped on a decorative iron, crisp like a wafer and dusted with powdered sugar. A Christmas tradition in Nordic and Midwestern kitchens.

Bizcochos are traditional New Mexican holiday cookies creamed with lard, scented with orange zest, baked golden, then rolled in cinnamon sugar. The state cookie of New Mexico for Christmas and weddings.

Secret kiss cookies hide a whole chocolate kiss inside a buttery, walnut-flecked shortbread, baked until just set and rolled in powdered sugar. Bite in and the soft chocolate center is the surprise. A Christmas cookie tin favorite.

Christmas ornament cookies are sturdy rolled sugar cookies cut into large bauble shapes and pierced with a hanging hole. Bake, decorate, and hang on the tree as edible ornaments or gift tags.

Scotch shortbread is a 5-ingredient buttery Christmas cookie cut into festive shapes. Powdered sugar gives a melt-in-the-mouth crumb; tender, sandy, and made for sprinkling with colored sugar.

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.

Traditional German Christmas butter cookies (Weihnachtsplätzchen) with vanilla and almond extract, rolled and cut into festive shapes. Decorated with colored sugar, nuts, and candied cherries.

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.

Bizcochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico: lard-based shortbread perfumed with anise and sweet wine, dusted in cinnamon sugar, and baked into delicate flaky rounds. The traditional Christmas and wedding cookie of the Southwest.

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.

Christmas cream wafers sandwich tinted buttercream between sugar-coated, fork-pricked butter wafers. A retro holiday cookie that comes together with just five ingredients in the dough.