17 Easy Holiday Cookie Recipes

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Holidays are a time to gather with family and friends. It’s a time where food and cheer are plentiful, as are the cookies and deserts!

Holiday cookies are a must have at festive gatherings, but who wants to spend hours in the kitchen mixing ingredients, preparing, and baking holiday cookies?

Instead, try one of these easy holiday cookie recipes. We’ll lay out simple recipes that don’t take hours to make, but are still delicious to eat.

Contents

17 Easy Holiday Cookie Recipes

Here are 17 easy holiday cookie recipes to try at your next festive gathering!

1. Sugar Cutout Cookies

Cut-out sugar cookies are one of the oldest holiday traditions. You can decorate them however you like, making them versatile enough for any holiday gathering.

You can use store-bought icing to decorate or make your own homemade icing. Sprinkles are a great topping as well. Here’s a great recipe.

2. Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread cookies are great for fall and winter holidays. Their sweet spice is sure to put a smile on your face, even if it’s snowing.

The only downside to this wonderful cookie is that you need quite a bit of spices. This is what gives these cookies flavor! Here’s the recipe.

3. Snickerdoodle Cookies

This cookie combines delicious cinnamon with sweet sugar to give you a softy, chewy sugar cookie that has plenty of flavor. Plus, it’s easy to make!

One of the only ingredients you may not have sitting around is cream of tartar, which is needed for the recipe. Otherwise, the average pantry has everything needed.

4. Holiday Thumbprint Cookies

Thumbprint cookies are easy to make, using ingredients that you can probably find in your pantry right now. They only take about 30 minutes to bake.

These are sweet treats filled with jams, or sometimes icing. You can choose whatever flavor is your favorite for the filling. Here’s an easy recipe.

5. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate crinkle cookies are basically a brownie disguised as a cookie. They’re super fudgy, chocolatey, and coated in delicious powdered sugar. Warning, these cookies are addictive!

These cookies are easy to make, but do take some time as the dough has to be chilled for 3 hours, so be prepared. Here’s the recipe.

6. Chocolate Coconut Balls

This easy holiday cookie comes in the shape of a ball and doesn’t actually require any cooking. It’s a no-bake desert, which means no waiting.

This recipe uses only 5 ingredients, the only possible unusual one being desiccated coconut. Once dipped in chocolate, they just need to dry before eating.

7. Pecan Pie Cookies

Fall and winter are the best times for pecan pie, especially when warm and served with vanilla ice cream. So why not make it into a cookie?

This easy recipe uses prepared pie crust, which you can either make yourself or buy in the store to make the whole process even simpler.

8. Red Velvet Cookies

Whether you’re making red velvet cake, cupcakes, or cookies, it’s going to be a tasty treat once you’re done. These are soft, chewy, and perfect for holidays.

You can make them with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or with frosting. This recipe uses white chocolate chips, but feel free to switch them out.

9. German Chocolate Cookies

These delicious, chocolaty cookies are great for holiday cookie boxes, baskets, or just to eat around the house. They’re topped with German chocolate cake frosting.

If you’re having a big gathering, you can always double the batch to make more. Or, you can make them into mini cookies. Here’s an easy recipe.

10. Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut butter blossoms are an awesome take on peanut butter cookies. The dough is rolled in sugar before baking, giving the crust a crunchy texture.

Set in the middle is a chocolate kiss, or you can use any type of kiss. They are added at the end, after baking. Here’s the recipe.

11. Raspberry Lemon Cookies

If you’re looking for a cookie that goes better with warm weather holidays, try these raspberry lemon cookies. They’re full of summertime flavor and zest.

Of course, these can be eaten any time of year! They take about 30 minutes to make, and the ingredients are pretty typical. Here’s a great recipe.

12. Festive Rum Balls

Rum balls combine booze with desert, making an excellent combination. They are simple to make with just a few ingredients and don’t require any baking.

These make for excellent holiday gifts in cookie boxes or baskets, as this recipe yields about 40 rum balls. Or you can keep them all to yourself!

13. M&M Cookies

These festive cookies are perfect for any holiday of the year. You can match the holiday colors with the color of your M&Ms for maximum festiveness.

This particular recipe is meant for Christmas cookies, but you can make them anytime. They’re soft and chewy when done, and simple to make too.

14. Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookies are a classic that can be offered at any holiday get together. Creamy peanut butter flavor meets sweet sugar goodness in this cookie.

The signature crisscross pattern is created after the cookies come out of the oven, while they’re still warm and impressionable. Here’s a super easy recipe.

15. Butterscotch Blondie Cookies

The great thing about these butterscotch blondie cookies is that they combine sweet and salty all into a single delicious cookie. What more could you ask for?

This recipe is a simple one, with no special equipment or mixers needed. The ingredients are probably already in your pantry, just make sure you have butterscotch morsels.

16. Spiced Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves to give an otherwise somewhat plain cookie a big boost in flavor. They’re simple to make too!

While baking these cookies, the spices will give off an aroma to fill your home with holiday cheer. They’re especially good during cold weather. Here’s the recipe.

17. Santa’s Trash Cookies

These bizarre cookies are made with what seems to be bits of just about everything from sweet chocolate chips to salty pretzels and potato chips.

You heard right, I said potato chips. Give these ridiculously delicious cookies a try and you’ll be surprised how well the ingredients combine. Here’s the recipe.

Wrap Up

Holidays sometimes carry a certain pressure to them to provide the very best foods and desserts, and many times it’s for a large group of people.

This list can help you pick out some easy holiday cookie recipes that you can put together quick. For larger groups, you can always double the batch to make sure you have enough.

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