List of Christmas Baking Ideas
This is the ULTIMATE LIST of Christmas baking ideas for Christmas cookies, candy, bar desserts, cakes, and bread. All of our favorites, all in one place. There are tons of can’t-miss December recipes, such as slow cooker peanut clusters, avalanche bark, eggnog bundt cake, nut roll, and the most popular recipe for the last few years – Danish butter cookies. No boring holiday cookie trays for you!
Have you started any holiday baking yet?
Thanksgiving is over and our house is decorated for Christmas, but we haven’t made any Christmas recipes yet. Usually, the first one to come out of our kitchen is peppermint bark – we keep it in the refrigerator and love to steal nibbles throughout the month :)
We compiled this list for all of us (myself included!) so we can narrow down what to bake in the upcoming weeks. We've included TONS of Christmas cookies, candy, some bar desserts, festive cakes, and bread. So many options!
We would love, love, love to hear which Christmas sweets are nostalgic for you, what you MUST have, what you plan on making this year… please share in the comments below!
Christmas Cookies
Nothing says holidays quite like Christmas cookies! The centerpiece of Christmas cookie trays, there are so many to choose from and so little time!
Growing up, our mom’s go-to cookies were mini cheesecake cookies, peanut butter blossoms, pecan tassies, peanut butter cookies, and, of course, decorated cut-out sugar cookies.
The Christmas cookie lineup on Yawzu:
- Almond Lace Cookies
- Anise Cookies
- Black and White Cookies
- Buckeye Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Biscotti
- Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cookies
- Chocolate Gobs (aka Whoopie Pies)
- Chocolate-Pistachio Biscotti
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Classic Meringue Cookies
- Classic No Bake Cookies
- Classic Thumbprint Cookies
- Coconut Macaroons
- Cranberry-White Chocolate Almond Biscotti
- Cucidati
- Danish Butter Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Chunk Eggnog Cookies
- Empire Cookies
- Filled Raisin Cookies
- Gingerbread Men Cookies
- Grandma’s Biscotti
- From-scratch Cannoli
- From-scratch Oreo Cookies
- Italian Sesame Seed Cookies (Giuggiulena)
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies
- Mini Cheesecake Cookies
- Nut Crescents
- Nutter Butter Snowmen
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Pecan Sandies
- Pecan Tassies
- Peppermint Whoopie Pies
- Pizzelle
- Rugelach
- Salted Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Biscotti
- Snickerdoodles
- Snowball Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Gingersnap Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
- Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Ultimate Ginger Cookies
Christmas Candy
Does Christmas scream CANDY to you? Do you churn out batch after batch of fudge, toffee, and brittle?
We could take an entire batch of peanut butter buckeyes, hide until New Year’s, and be a happy gal.
Our favorite Christmas candy:
- Baklava
- Chocolate Bourbon Balls
- Chocolate-Covered Potato Chips
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
- Cinnamon-Sugar Candied Pecans
- Slow cooker Peanut Clusters
- Date, Coconut & Walnut Balls
- Eggnog Fudge
- From-scratch Marshmallows
- From-scratch Peppermint Marshmallows
- From-scratch Torrone
- Nutella-Pretzel Truffles
- Oreo Balls
- Peanut Butter Buckeyes
- Peanut Butter Fudge
- Peppermint Bark
- From-scratch Peppermint Patties
- Peanut Brittle
- Pistachio & Cranberry White Chocolate Bark
- Reindeer Chow
- Saltine Toffee
- Snickerdoodle Fudge
Straightforward Bar Desserts
Bar desserts aren’t AS popular on holiday cookie trays, and we don’t know why! They’re usually straightforward to bake and you can cut them into small squares to get a lot of bang for your baking buck.
We love ALL of these bars and think they’d all make wonderful additions to your Christmas baking list.
Bars for Christmas cookie trays! …
- Avalanche Bark
- Decker Cake
- Eggnog Cheesecake Bars
- Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
- Lemon Bars
- Millionaire’s Shortbread
- Oatmeal Carmelita Bars
- Peanut Butter Cup Bars
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Scotcheroos
- Seven Layer Bars
- Snickerdoodle Blondies
- Zia Lena’s Date Bar Cookies
Christmas Cakes and Desserts
What is your go-to for Christmas dessert? Or Christmas Eve dessert? Truth be told, we are usually too full from both meals for a large dessert, so we typically graze on cookie trays. But if you’re looking for a fantastic holiday dessert, any of these cakes would make a wonderful choice!
Behold, Christmas celebration cakes:
- Buche de Noel with Espresso Mascarpone Filling
- Classic Gingerbread
- Cranberry-Eggnog Cheesecake
- Eggnog Bundt Cake with Rum Icing
- Gingerbread Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
- Gingerbread Pound Cake
- From-scratch Rum Cake
- Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Tiramisu
Christmas Bread
And finally, festive Christmas bread! Just a few, but we couldn’t have a Christmas baking list without them. Babka is the ULTIMATE in sweet breads and we could eat a ridiculous amount of it. We've also included both Italian and Greek traditional Christmas bread, as well as nut roll, which is maybe technically a bread since it uses yeast? Or pastry? However you classify it, it’s not Christmas without it!
For our bread-baking buddies:
- Chocolate Babka
- Christopsomos (Greek Christmas Bread)
- Date Nut Spice Bread
- Nut Roll
- Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread)
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS RECIPES?
We would LOVE to hear about your family traditions, favorite recipes, and what you absolutely, positively cannot live without in December. Share in the comments section below!
