220 holiday cookie recipes

Pfeffernuesse German pepper cookies with molasses, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper, rolled in powdered sugar. Small, spicy, and deeply aromatic holiday cookies from the old country.

Mexican mocha balls: shortbread-style chocolate-coffee cookies with chopped walnuts and maraschino cherries, rolled in extra-fine sugar. Perfect for the holiday cookie tray.

Chocolate hazelnut raspberry thumbprints: chocolate-cocoa cookies rolled with ground toasted hazelnuts, indented and filled with raspberry jam. Three dozen elegant holiday cookies.

Traditional German Spekulatius Christmas cookies spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves, made with ground almonds and butter. Thin, crisp, and warmly spiced, these are a holiday cookie tin essential.

Tender sour cream pastry rolled with apricot jam, walnuts, and raisins into elegant strudel cookies. These make-ahead sweets are perfect for holiday cookie trays.

Snowball cookies made with butter, ground nuts, vanilla, and flour, then rolled in powdered sugar while warm. A classic melt-in-your-mouth holiday cookie.

Checkerboard cookies, a visually striking shortbread-style cookie with alternating vanilla and chocolate squares. An impressive icebox cookie for holiday tins.

Crisp Italian pizzelle cookies with cocoa and cinnamon pressed into lacy, wafer-thin rounds. A chocolate twist on the classic holiday wafer cookie.

Delicate butter cookies studded with ground pistachios, shaped into little fingers, and dusted with powdered sugar for melt-in-your-mouth holiday treats.

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.

Kolacky cookies made with a tender cream cheese pastry dough filled with fruit spread, pinched into tri-cornered shapes, and baked golden. A Czech holiday cookie tradition.

Christmas chocolate cookies with unsweetened chocolate, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and chopped nuts. A flourless-light, brownie-textured holiday drop cookie spiced for the season.

Get into the holiday spirit with this decorative cookie that is sure to have the kids hungry for more.

Pumpkin squares blend canned pumpkin with mincemeat, nutmeg, and allspice in a tender bar cookie, then frost with cream cheese icing. A holiday cookie tray showstopper.

Fortune Christmas Cookies, tiny marble-sized dough balls baked into bite-sized holiday treats. A simple, quick-baking variation of the Mysticandy cookie dough for the Christmas tin.

Russian tea cakes (also called Mexican wedding cookies): buttery nut-studded shortbread balls rolled twice in powdered sugar. A classic holiday cookie tin staple in 30 minutes.