220 holiday cookie recipes

Traditional New Mexican biscochitos made with lard, egg yolks, anise, and vanilla. Rolled, cut into shapes, and baked until tender. New Mexico's official state cookie and a holiday staple.

Orange sugar-crusted meltaway cookies with chocolate chips and chopped nuts, dipped in fresh orange juice and rolled in sugar to form a delicate citrus-sugar shell. A bright, buttery shortbread-style holiday cookie.

Surprise-center butter cookies with 4 hidden fillings: Andes mints, cherries, chocolate chips, and pecans. Each batch gets its own color-coded icing. A fun holiday baking project.

Miniature cream cheese tassies filled with apricot fruit filling, nuts, and vanilla in a buttery pastry cup. Bite-sized holiday cookies baked in mini muffin tins.

Baked fig and raisin pudding with crumbled waffle cookies, cocoa, walnuts, and warm spices, cooked in a water bath. A rich, old-fashioned holiday dessert served warm with hard sauce.

Irish cream balls combine crushed vanilla wafers, toasted pecans, cocoa, and Irish cream liqueur into no-bake boozy bites rolled in powdered sugar. The grown-up holiday cookie tray staple.

Patty Ann's cheese cake tarts: bite-size cream cheese pastry shells with two fillings, pecan and coconut. Muffin-tin desserts for holiday cookie trays.

Firm, creamy finger Jello made with whipping cream for an opaque, sliceable texture. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters for holidays, parties, and kid-friendly snacks.

Buttery German almond crescents dusted with powdered sugar, made with ground almonds and double extracts for a melt-in-your-mouth holiday cookie.

Haselnussmakronen, traditional German hazelnut macaroons: a cocoa meringue folded with crushed hazelnuts and lemon zest, baked low into chewy, flourless cookies. A naturally gluten-free holiday treat.

Rocky road dessert pizza with a brown sugar cookie crust, melted chocolate, puffed marshmallows, and chopped peanuts drizzled with more chocolate. A fun holiday treat.

Light, crispy meringue cookies studded with colorful M&Ms. Only 4 ingredients and they practically float off the baking sheet. Great for holidays and parties.

Cherry pinwheel slices with a flaky sour cream pastry rolled around cherry pie filling, coconut, and pecans, dusted with powdered sugar. An elegant holiday cookie.

Mother's Christmas cheese cakes: cream cheese pastry tartlets with two fillings, one pecan-brown sugar and one coconut-vanilla. A classic holiday cookie tin stalwart.

Old-world Czech kolachky yeast dough rolled in powdered sugar, filled with jam or cheese, and baked into delicate folded pastries. The classic Slavic holiday cookie.

Holiday ice cream cake: a triple-layer freezer cake with three flavors of ice cream stacked between chopped candy bars, Oreo cookies, and homemade chocolate ganache.