Get the whole family involved in these fun and festive Christmas cookie traditions! From cookies to candies, I’m sharing our family favorite recipes, passed down for generations. They’ll help make your kitchen the heart of Christmas magic!
Why Have Christmas Cookie Traditions?
Baking cookies together as a family is one of my most treasured Christmas traditions. I remember being in my mom’s kitchen helping her frost sugar cookies, then packing up special Christmas treats in boxes for people like the mailman and our teachers.
Once I became a mom, I wanted to include our boys in the Christmas cookie tradition, too. I’ll admit, baking with toddlers is quite an exciting adventure! ha ha!! It’s fun now to see our granddaughter helping make the cookies her dad used to make with me…
The recipes below are our personal family favorites, passed down to us from our mothers. Over the years they’ve become part of our holiday traditions, creating delicious memories with every batch, whether they’re packed up as gifts or enjoyed at home.
Family Favorite Recipes for Christmas Traditions
These recipes are so much fun to make as a group, whether you bake them together as a family or with friends. You can also turn Christmas cookie making into part of a gift exchange party or a holiday movie night!
Classic Rolled Sugar Cookies
Rolled sugar cookies are always a favorite Christmas cookie tradition! This never-fail recipe is an easy no-chill sugar cookie that turns out soft and chewy. (Just the way we like them.)
I made these with our boys, and now our granddaughter helps make them, too!
They can be made and frozen ahead of time, so you can get a head start on the holiday rush.
The recipe includes a video, too, and you can find nifty rolling-dough tools here.
Meltaway Chocolates
This recipe for meltaway chocolates with fondant filling is one my husband remembers making with his family at Christmas.
It makes a big batch, and our boys loved forming the fondant into different shapes for each flavor, then dipping them in chocolate.
No-Bake Coconut Balls
These creamy coconut balls come from my mother-in-law’s recipe box. They’re so fun to shape into miniature “snowballs” and dip or drizzle with chocolate.
They’re a wonderful addition to a Christmas cookie charcuterie board and make a delicious gift, too.
Easy Sugar Cookie Frosting!
My mother-in-law taught me this super easy sugar cookie frosting. You can make it spreadable or pipeable, whatever you like!
Mix up a big batch and have fun decorating those sugar cookies together.
Sugar & Spice: Crazy for Christmas Cookies!
I’m not going to lie: baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite things, and I’ve built up quite a collection of recipes here! If you’re looking for more memory-making recipes that double as great gifts, here are a few more favorites:
- Church window cookies are an old-fashioned favorite. They’re also no-bake, and sometimes called a chocolate marshmallow log.
- Christmas brownie cookies can be turned into the cutest Rudolph cookies!
- Get my Christmas Cookie Recipes e-book!
- Never Fail Fudge
- Make this condensed milk fudge recipe in the microwave in 5 minutes!
- Cranberry Lemon Bars
- Jam Sandwich Cookies (a shortcut recipe!)
- 75+ Christmas cookie recipes with pictures
More Christmas Cookie Traditions Ideas + Free “Gifts from the Kitchen” Baking Tag Printables
There are so many inexpensive wrapping ideas if you want to gift Christmas cookies to friends, teachers, coworkers, or neighbors. I was recently at a craft store and couldn’t believe the assortment of pretty bags, boxes, and papers that make gifting baked goods from our kitchen easy!
To make gifting your baking even easier, I’ve created a set of printable gift tags just for that. You can find them now in my Free Printables Library, which is available to all my VIP newsletter subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed yet, just fill out the form and click the button below. Enjoy!
What are your favorite Christmas cookie traditions?
Do you have Christmas cookie traditions you love, too? If so, what are they? Do you make any of the same cookies from my list? I’d love to know! Share your answers in the comments below. I can’t wait to see what fun you’re baking up with Christmas cookies! ;)
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