Christmas Treats and Cookies to Delight Your Loved Ones

The only thing more fun and festive than making Christmas treats for your loved ones during the holidays is Christmas baking with your loved ones. Either way, we’ve got you covered with Christmas baking ideas that range from sweet and simple to quite a bit more involved.

Making Christmas Treats With Little Ones

If you’re baking with younger children, you’ll want to keep things quick and easy so that everyone can join in the Christmas baking fun. That means just a few ingredients and no rolling, kneading, or elaborate decorating.

Christmas pretzel Hugs or Kisses check all of those boxes. All you need is an equal ratio of square pretzels, Hershey’s Kisses or Hugs, and M&Ms. Then, preheat your oven to 200 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, ask your little helpers to put pretzels on the sheet, topped with either a Kiss or Hug. Put the tray in the oven for about five minutes, just long enough to soften the chocolate. Remove the tray and immediately press an M&M into each Kiss or Hug. Allow to cool — and then enjoy!

Another easy, three-ingredient recipe is peppermint bark from the Pioneer Woman. Kids will love pouring the chocolate — and the finished bark can be put into small clear bags like these tied with a cheery ribbon and given as gifts to friends, teachers, or family. 

Christmas Treat Recipes Perfect for a Group

There’s no Christmas baking quite as festive as the classic frosted sugar cookie — and it’s the perfect project for a group — as anyone who has ever decorated two dozen cookies by themself certainly knows. We love the classic Betty Crocker recipe but feel free to use your favorite recipe, of course.

The key is to have all of the extras on hand that you need to make decorating fun, including cookie cutters, sprinkles, colored sugar, and food coloring. Once you make your icing, separate it into a few bowls and, if desired, mix a bit of food coloring into each bowl.

You can even find extra inspiration online and have it ready to show your group. Put on some holiday music or stream a favorite Christmas movie.

Just remember that, as the dough has to chill for a couple of hours before rolling, it’s a good idea to have it ready to go when your guests arrive so that you can get right to cookie cutting. Have extra storage containers on hand so that your helpers can take cookies home with them.

Christmas Baking to Impress

There are some Christmas treats best baked by those with both time and patience. This Redbird Cake is one of them. Made with warming spices, crushed pineapple, maraschino cherries, and banana, the cake is then topped with a cream cheese frosting and a dazzling frosted redbird cookie. The cake is delicious, but it also has a special meaning as the red bird symbolizes loved ones who are gone, but not forgotten. (“A Redbird Christmas” by Fannie Flagg tells the story beautifully.)

Even more ambitious? Tackle this Christmas Tree Cake, which has an impressive 17 layers. It’s made with three boxes of cake mix, so that’s not the hard part. But it is quite a project to assemble the layers, frost them, and then add all of the decorations.

Traditional Cinnamon Roll Christmas Treat Recipes

Nothing says Christmas morning like ooey, gooey cinnamon rolls. Whether you’re going to eat them at home or take them when visiting family or friends, cinnamon rolls are always a hit.

We love this recipe by Ina Garten because it incorporates dried cranberries, but Southern Living is also known for mastering the classic cinnamon roll. 

The best part is that, even if someone doesn’t indulge, these rolls smell as good as they taste, filling a home with the comforting notes of cinnamon and brown sugar. 

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