🍪🎄🧑‍🍳 Best Holiday Cookie Recipes (7 Crowd Favorites)

🍪🎄🧑‍🍳 Best Holiday Cookie Recipes (7 Crowd Favorites)

2025's BEST Holiday Cookie Recipes

Nothing makes a home feel cozier at Christmastime than the smell of holiday cookies baking in the oven. From classic sugar cookie cut-outs to chocolate-filled cowboy cookies, these festive recipes are a must for any Christmas celebration.

Planning a Cape Cod Christmas getaway? Stay at Frederick William House, where you can enjoy the best of New England’s holiday season. After a day exploring Christmas light displays and holiday shopping, return to the warmth of fresh-baked cookies, cocoa, and cozy traditions right here on Cape Cod.

1. Cowboy Cookies (Martha Stewart Inspired)

Stack of cowboy cookies with oats, coconut, and chocolate chips

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup brown sugar

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• 2 cups rolled oats

• 1 cup shredded coconut

• 1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

2. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.

3. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture.

4. Stir in oats, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips.

5. Scoop rounded tablespoons onto sheet.

6. Bake 10–12 minutes, until golden.

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Red & Green M&M’s

Christmas M&M chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup brown sugar

• ½ cup white sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips

• 1 cup red & green M&M’s

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

3. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir into dough.

4. Fold in chocolate chips and M&M’s.

5. Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheets.

6. Bake 9–11 minutes, until edges are golden.

3. Classic Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

Iced sugar cookie cut-outs shaped like trees, stars, snowflakes and reindeer

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

• 2 ½ cups flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

For Decorating: Royal icing, sprinkles, colored sugar.

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light. Add egg and vanilla.

2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture.

3. Chill dough 1 hour.

4. Roll out to ¼ inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters.

5. Bake at 350°F for 8–10 minutes. Cool completely.

6. Decorate with icing and sprinkles.

4. Christmas Bell and Tree Cookies

Bright Bells and Trees, Gold Medal Flour’s 1954 Refrigerator Cookies are Scrumptious Holiday Classics.

These vintage refrigerator cookies from Gold Medal Flour were made with love in my family home growing up every year. Three generations of ours have passed this recepie down. And when the time comes to bake them, they always bake up light, flaky and delicious, not too sweet and just enough butter in the dough make these vintage favorites my personal favorite. With bright red and green dough wrapped in a vanilla-scented crust, they bake up into cheerful little bells and trees that bring instant holiday spirit to any cookie tray.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soft shortening

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

• 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, beat together the shortening, sugar, egg, and vanilla until creamy.

2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until well blended.

3. Divide the dough: color 2/3 with red or green food coloring. Shape the colored dough into an 11 ½ x 10-inch roll. Chill until firm.

   
   

   • For bell shapes: pinch the top slightly and flare the bottom.

   • For tree shapes: press into a triangle.

4. 
   

5. Reserve 1/4 cup of plain dough for clappers (bells) or trunks (trees). Roll the remaining plain dough into a rectangle large enough to wrap around the colored roll. Wrap and chill again.

6. Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice the chilled dough into 1/8-inch slices. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Add small balls of plain dough to form clappers or trunks.

7. Bake for 8–10 minutes, or until lightly golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.

Yield: About 5 dozen cookies.

5. Gingerbread Men 🎅

Gingerbread men with white icing details

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter, softened

• ¾ cup brown sugar

• 2/3 cup molasses

• 1 large egg

• 3 ¼ cups flour

• 1 tbsp ground ginger

• 1 tbsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp cloves

• ½ tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and egg.

2. Mix dry ingredients separately, then stir into wet.

3. Chill dough 2 hours.

4. Roll out and cut into gingerbread men.

5. Bake at 350°F for 8–10 minutes. Cool and decorate with icing.

6. Peppermint Bark Cookies ❄️

Peppermint bark cookies with crushed candy canes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 cups flour

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 cup white chocolate chips

• ½ cup crushed peppermint candies or candy canes

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla.

3. Mix dry ingredients, then add to wet mixture.

4. Stir in white chocolate chips and crushed peppermint.

5. Scoop onto cookie sheets.

6. Bake 8–10 minutes.

7. Linzer Cookies (Jam-Filled Snowflakes) ✨

Linzer cookies with raspberry jam centers dusted with sugar

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 2 large egg yolks

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 cups flour

• 1 cup almond flour

• ½ tsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp salt

• Raspberry jam (or your favorite)

• Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add yolks and vanilla.

2. Mix in flours, cinnamon, and salt. Chill dough 1 hour.

3. Roll out dough, cut rounds, and cut a small shape from half of them for “windows.”

4. Bake at 350°F for 8–10 minutes. Cool.

5. Spread jam on solid cookies, top with window cookies, dust with powdered sugar.

Cape Cod Holiday Travel

Planning a Cape Cod holiday? Book your stay at Frederick William House to get into that holiday spirit, sip cocoa, eat some fresh holiday baked yummy treats, and enjoy local lights.

Looking for more festive fun? Check out our guides to Best Christmas Light Displays in New England and Cape Cod Holiday Shopping to plan the perfect winter trip.

• “See our guide to Best Christmas Light Displays in New England.”

• “Looking for winter events near Falmouth? Holiday things to do on Cape Cod.” Holiday’s by the Sea begins this year on December 5 and goes through the 7th ending with our annual Christmas parade. The itinerary for these 3 festive days is on Falmouth’s Chamber Of Commerce’s dedicate website…https://www.capecodchamber.org/event/falmouth-holidays-by-the-sea-weekend/26946/