422 christmas cookie recipes

Award-winning thumbprint cookies with buttery dough rolled in finely chopped nuts, pressed with your thumb, and filled with ruby raspberry jam: elegant holiday baking that won first place.

Orange molasses cookies, soft and puffy with cracked tops, spiced with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and a hit of black pepper, then rolled in orange sugar. Whole wheat flour and oats make them a wholesome holiday bake.

Cranberries and pistachios are the complementary flavors of this cookie recipe submitted by Jane Bortz of Beaver Dam.

Bonnie Graber of Oak Creek sent this recipe for an old-fashioned kitchen sink cookie that would be good any time of the year.

Jalapeño, raspberry and pecans blend beautifully in this thumbprint cookie from Anna Marie Bleich of California, Mo.

Try this unique recipe that creates a bread bowl that can be used to hold and eat dip. Perfect for dinner parties!

Decorated sugar cookies use powdered sugar and a touch of almond extract for tender, rollable dough that holds intricate cookie cutter shapes. The classic Christmas cookie recipe.

German pfeffernusse: spiced honey cookies with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mace, and a touch of black pepper, dipped in vanilla glaze. Traditional Christmas cookie recipe.

Classic roll-out gingerbread cookies with ginger, nutmeg, and molasses, perfect for cookie cutters and holiday decorating. The traditional Christmas cookie kids and grown-ups both love to ice.

Old-fashioned sugar cookies made with sour milk, nutmeg, and shortening. A versatile dough that can be dropped soft or rolled and cut into shapes for Valentine's, Christmas, or birthday cookies.

Italian Queen's biscuits (biscotti di regina) coated in toasted sesame seeds. Sicilian Christmas and wedding cookies with a tender, crumbly texture under the nutty sesame crust.

Make these nutty and chocolaty bars for a change from classic Christmas cookies. They are easy to make and come out addictively delicious. Be sure to make enough, not only kids love them, grown-ups also can't stop reaching more.

Mincemeat oatmeal cookies: chewy spiced drop cookies that pack the entire flavor of a Christmas mince pie into a hand-held bite. Brown sugar, molasses, oats, and a generous spoonful of mincemeat per cookie.

Light and fluffy Christmas snowball cookies. Lighter and lower fat than most Christmas cookies and faster to make (no need to refrigerate overnight).

Annie's butter cookies: one buttery, rich dough that shapes into candy canes, pinwheels, spritzes, cutouts, or drop cookies. The Christmas-cookie foundation worth memorizing.

Norwegian krumkake cookies pressed in a decorative iron, then rolled into delicate cones around a wooden form. A traditional Scandinavian Christmas cookie ready to fill with whipped cream, jam, or sprinkles.