If you've ever stood in the baking aisle doing math on how many bags of chocolate chips one cookie swap really needs, this list is for you. These easy Christmas cookies are the kind you can bake on a weeknight, pack into tins, and hand out without blowing your whole December budget.
Some are classics that show up on every holiday tray for a reason. Others are fun little twists, like a Crumbl copycat you can make at home for a fraction of the price, and a no bake cookie built on a sleeve of Ritz crackers.
I mixed in a little of everything for 2026: soft and chewy, buttery and crisp, rich and chocolatey, and a few that are just plain cute. There's something here for the person who bakes once a year and the person who starts planning cookie tins in October.
Save this post to your Christmas board now so it's ready when baking season hits.
What You'll Find:
1. Peppermint Kiss Cookies
Every cookie tray has one cookie that vanishes before anyone's even taken off their coat, and it's almost always the one with a Hershey's Kiss in the middle. The peanut butter in the dough is what makes these special. It keeps them soft for days, which matters when you're baking a week ahead.
Press the Kisses in as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, while they're still puffy. Wait too long and the edges crack around the candy.
2. Butter Pecan Cookies
Not every cookie needs a costume. These skip the icing and sprinkles and still end up being the ones people ask about. Thick, chewy, and a little crunchy, they taste like the holidays smell.
Pecans can get pricey, so I buy a bag of pecan pieces for the dough and save just a few whole halves for the tops. Same flavor for a lot less money.
3. Mini Christmas Cookies
Tiny cookies are a cheat code for a cookie swap. One batch makes a mountain of them, so you can fill a lot of tins without doubling the recipe. The dough holds its shape in the oven too, so your little stars and trees come out looking like stars and trees instead of blobs.
4. Melting Snowman Cookies
I'll admit these made me laugh out loud the first time I saw them. A snowman who's given up on winter might be the most relatable Christmas character there is.
They're also way easier than they look. The "melting" part is just icing you let run wherever it wants, so there's no wrong way to do it. Messy is kind of the point.
If cookie piping has ever scared you off, start here. A bag of big marshmallows, a handful of chocolate chips, and a basic sugar cookie get you most of the way there.
5. White Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Here's my favorite use for the broken candy canes at the bottom of the box. Crush them up, fold them into a soft cookie with white chocolate chips, and nobody will ever know they came from the reject pile.
Grab a few boxes of candy canes the week after Christmas when they're marked down. They keep well, and next year's baking is already covered.
6. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
If a brownie and a cookie had a baby, it would taste like this. They're fudgy in the middle with a sweet, crackly crust, and the dough comes together with pantry basics like cocoa powder, sugar, and eggs.
Chill the dough before rolling it in powdered sugar. Warm dough soaks up the sugar and you lose those big white cracks.
7. Iced Cherry Almond Linzer Cookies
These look like they came out of a fancy bakery box, which is exactly why I love them. The hard part is done by a cookie cutter. You cut a little window in the top cookie, spread jam on the bottom one, and stack them. No steady hand needed.
Cherry jam keeps them festive, but whatever jar is already in your fridge works fine.
8. Christmas Cake Batter Cookies
I'm not going to tell you how much money I've spent at Crumbl, but I'll say this. At four or five dollars a cookie, a copycat recipe pays for itself before the first batch even cools.
These taste like a birthday cake that showed up to a Christmas party. The frosting on top is thick enough that one cookie feels like dessert and a half.
Cut them into quarters for a cookie tray and one batch stretches even further.
9. Bakery Style Gingerbread White Chocolate Cookies
Gingerbread people are cute, but I'll take the big, chewy, bakery style version every time. You get all that warm spice without rolling out dough or cutting a single shape.
The white chocolate softens the spice just enough that even people who swear they don't like gingerbread come back for seconds.
10. Santa's Cookies (Red Velvet Christmas Cookies)
Some cookies are subtle. These aren't, and I love that about them. Red velvet dough gets loaded with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, then piled high with icing and crushed candy canes.
They're rich, so bake them a little smaller than the recipe says. A tablespoon scoop gets you more cookies from the same batch, and nobody needs a cookie the size of their face.
11. Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
By mid December my sweet tooth needs a break, and these are what save me. The orange and cranberry taste bright and a little tart, which is a nice change after a week of peppermint and chocolate.
Shortbread also keeps longer than most cookies, so they're a smart pick for gifting or mailing.
12. No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Ritz Stacks
The no bake cookie on this list might be my favorite, and not only because it skips the oven. Ritz crackers, peanut butter, marshmallow, and melted chocolate turn into something that tastes like a candy bar.
The salty cracker is the secret. It keeps the whole thing from tasting too sweet.
These are a lifesaver when your oven is full of other cookies, or when you need a batch for an office swap and don't want to spend more than a few dollars. One box of Ritz goes a long way.
Quick poll while we're halfway through: are you a soft cookie person or a crunchy cookie person? Tell me in the comments, I'm keeping score.
13. Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
Slice and bake cookies don't get nearly enough credit. You make the dough log on a slow weekend, stash it in the freezer, and slice off a dozen cookies whenever you need them.
The swirl looks tricky, but it's just two colors of dough rolled up together like a cinnamon roll.
14. Italian Christmas Cookies
These are the cookies I think of when someone says "old school Christmas tray." Soft, cakey, and bright with lemon, they're a welcome break from all the chocolate.
A sugar glaze like this one usually comes down to powdered sugar and a splash of liquid, so you're not buying anything special to make them shine.
15. Peppermint Dipped Chocolate Cookies
Half dipping is the easiest way I know to make a plain cookie look bakery worthy. Melt a bag of white chocolate chips, dip half of each cookie, and press crushed peppermint into the wet chocolate.
It takes about ten minutes, and it makes a basic chocolate cookie look like you tried a lot harder than you did.
16. Grinch Crinkle Cookies
Every tray needs at least one cookie that's just plain fun, and these green guys are it. They're soft, chewy, and simple enough to make with little helpers in the kitchen.
That red candy in the middle is the Grinch's heart, obviously. Pressing it into each cookie is the best job in the kitchen, so save it for whoever's helping.
Pin this post before you go shopping so your list is ready at the store.
17. Rosemary Shortbread Christmas Tree Cookies
I didn't expect to like rosemary in a cookie, and now I'm a little obsessed. It doesn't taste like dinner, I promise. It just adds a fresh, almost piney note that makes sense on a Christmas tree.
You can find the full recipe at Taste of Home.
If the piping feels like too much, a simple white glaze with a few red sprinkles gets you most of the look. And if you've got a rosemary plant on the windowsill, these cost you almost nothing extra.
18. Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies
Cake mix cookies are my secret weapon every December. A box of cake mix and a block of cream cheese do most of the work, and you end up with something soft, rich, and a little gooey in the center.
Stock up when cake mix goes on sale in the fall. A batch of these costs less than a single fancy bakery cookie.
19. Reindeer Sugar Cookies
I've got a soft spot for any cookie with a face, and these reindeer win me over every time. The face is just a few dots, a smile, and a candy nose, so they're friendly for beginners.
Pipe the antlers first, then add the eyes and nose while the icing is still wet so everything sticks.
20. White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Soft, thick, chewy cookies are my weakness, and these hit all three. The white chocolate keeps the peppermint from tasting too sharp.
Drop cookies like these are about as easy as Christmas baking gets. Scoop, bake, cool, and you're done.
21. Traditional German Butter Cookies
My first try with a cookie press didn't go well, and I almost gave up on spritz cookies for good. Every cookie stayed stuck in the press instead of on the pan.
Then I learned the trick. The baking sheet needs to be cool and ungreased, or the dough has nothing to grab onto when you press it out.
Once that clicked, I could make dozens in the time it takes to roll out one batch of sugar cookies. A cookie press runs around $30, which sounds like a lot until you realize it'll cover years of Christmas trays.
22. Frosted Red Velvet Cookies
If there's a red velvet fan in your life, make these and watch them light up. The cookie is cakey and fudgy at the same time, and the frosting makes every bite feel like a mini cupcake.
A tub of store bought frosting works fine here if you're short on time.
23. Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Classic chocolate chip cookies don't need fixing, but a handful of crushed candy canes sure doesn't hurt. It's the easiest way to make the cookie everyone already loves taste a little more like Christmas.
Use your favorite chocolate chip recipe and fold in the candy cane bits right at the end. That's it.
24. Ornament Cookies
Fair warning: these are the fanciest cookies on this list, and I won't pretend the piping is easy. The good news is the dough is a no spread sugar cookie, so the shapes stay crisp.
If fine lines feel like too much, cover each cookie in one solid color of icing and add a few dots on top. Tie on a loop of baker's twine and they still look like real ornaments. They make a sweet gift, too.
25. Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies
Ending with a buttery shortbread just feels right. These melt in your mouth, and the sprinkle coating adds a little crunch to every bite.
Buy the candy cane Kisses early. They tend to vanish from store shelves once December hits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Drop cookies and no bake cookies are the easiest. The Ritz stacks, gooey butter cookies, and peppermint chocolate chip cookies on this list need zero rolling or cutting.
Slice and bake cookies, shortbread, and most drop cookies freeze really well. Food Network recommends freezing scooped dough on a sheet pan until it's solid, then moving it to a bag. You can bake it straight from frozen with just a couple extra minutes in the oven.
Store them in an airtight container at room temp, and keep soft cookies and crisp cookies in separate containers. Soft cookies make crisp ones go limp if they share a tin.
Sugar cookies and cake mix cookies are the most budget friendly. The no bake Ritz stacks are cheap too, since one box of crackers makes a big batch.
Ask the host how many people are coming and plan on enough for each guest to take some home. The Kitchn suggests packaging your cookies in small bundles ahead of time, so everyone can grab one on the way out.
Yes, once the icing has set all the way. Freeze them in a single layer first, then stack them with parchment in between. Let them thaw in the container so condensation doesn't ruin the icing.
Shortbread uses more butter and usually no egg, so it's crumbly and melts in your mouth. Sugar cookies are softer and hold cut shapes better for icing.
Save this post so your Christmas cookie list is ready next time you bake.
Related Ideas You’ll Love
Simple holiday desserts that look like you spent hours on them.
Slow cooker dinners to get you through the busy season.
Pies, bars, and easy sweets for the Thanksgiving table.
Final Thoughts
Christmas baking doesn't have to mean a huge grocery bill or a whole weekend in the kitchen. Pick three or four of these, mix one fancy cookie with a couple of easy ones, and your tray will look like you went all out.
I'd start with the Ritz stacks and the gooey butter cookies, since they're cheap and nearly impossible to mess up.
Which one are you baking first this year? Tell me in the comments!