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    Home » Blog » Christmas Recipes » Christmas Cookies

    10 Easy Christmas Cookies for Kids

    Published: Dec 5, 2016 · Modified: Jul 29, 2022 by Tiffany Dahle · This post may contain affiliate links.

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    A photo collage shows several of the cookie recipes for kids.

    These easy Christmas cookies for kids are so fun to bake. Keep the emphasis on decorating and fun by choosing sweet semi-homemade cookie recipes or big batch from scratch cookies you can do in easy stages.

    A Christmas cookie platter has frosted gingerbread men and peanut blossom cookies on a red plate.

    Turn on that Hallmark Christmas movie, grab your kids, and head to the kitchen for some fun Christmas cookie baking together!

    These easy Christmas cookies for kids are a great way to make festive Christmas memories in the kitchen.

    Learn how to keep the focus on the fun while still baking up delicious treats your whole family will enjoy eating together during the holiday season.

    From make-ahead cookies you can freeze and bake later to delicious easy cut out cookies you can use for a cookie decorating party, all the best cookie recipes are right here!

    Jump to:
    • Most Important Tip for Holiday Baking with Kids
    • Supplies You Need
    • 10 Easy Christmas Cookies Recipes
    • 1. Festive Oreo Truffles
    • 2. Peppermint Bark Cookies
    • 3. Christmas Crack
    • 4. Sugar Cookies
    • 5. Gingerbread Cookie Cut Outs
    • 6. Peanut Blossoms
    • 7. M&M Cookies
    • 8. Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
    • 9. Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
    • 10. Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
    • More Baking Recipes for Kids
    • 💬 Comments

    Most Important Tip for Holiday Baking with Kids

    Two young girls baking Christmas cookies in the kitchen.

    There's a lot of pressure during the holidays to have amazing baking experiences with your kids.

    The truth of the matter is that this is the busiest time of year. Finding time to bake anything can be a challenge, let alone something complicated.

    To ensure your baking session is loaded with fun memories and not a stressful disaster, I strongly encourage you to keep it easy!

    Even though I'm a from-scratch baker most of the year, my favorite holiday shortcut is to rely on easy semi-homemade recipes so our baking sessions are more relaxed and enjoyable.

    But if you really want to make things from scratch, I've got lots of tips for making that easy and do-able, too!

    Just remember, the most important ingredient to this baking session is YOUR KIDS. The cookies are just the frosting on the cake.

    Supplies You Need

    The first thing you need is prepared cookie dough.

    You have three options:

    1. Cookie Dough Packets: The kind that you add butter and an egg to and make the dough in a pinch. I've seen gingerbread, sugar, and peanut butter varieties.
    2. Refrigerated Cookie Dough: The kind that comes in tubes or tubs. I've seen sugar, gingerbread, and chocolate chip.
    3. Prepared From Scratch Cookie Dough: Some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes can be prepped in advance and the dough can be frozen for later. I love to prep the dough during our annual Christmas in July party and then just thaw it in the fridge the night before we plan to bake in December!
    A young girl decorates a gingerbread cookie with icing.

    To keep the focus on fun, it's good to be prepped with an assortment of cookie decorating elements.

    I always stock up on:

    • Assorted Festive Candies: colorful M&Ms, Hershey kisses, crushed candy canes, etc.
    • Holiday Sprinkles: various colors, both sparkly shimmer sprinkles and colorful jimmies
    • Prepared Frosting Gel: the kind that come in tubes. I'm not a huge fan of how they taste but my kids LOVE decorating with them.

    10 Easy Christmas Cookies Recipes

    These easy Christmas cookies for kids keep your baking session fun.

    Give the kids all the responsibility for sprinkling the cookies to their hearts' content!

    A young girl is about to decorate her cut out cookie.

    1. Festive Oreo Truffles

    These super easy Oreo truffles are fun for the kids to help roll with their hands. Making them is a little like playdoh for the cookie tray!

    Top them with assorted festive sprinkles and then chill.

    • Festive Minted Oreo Truffles

    2. Peppermint Bark Cookies

    My kids loved being in complete control of the baking of these adorable peppermint bark cookies.

    The white chocolate frosted top is the perfect glue for all the festive candies they want to use.

    • Easy Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

    3. Christmas Crack

    These saltine cracker cookies are so easy to make with almost no prep.

    They are better without sprinkles, so this would be one time you could convince your kids to leave the candies aside.

    • Chocolate Saltine Cracker Toffee

    4. Sugar Cookies

    Sugar cookies and Christmas go hand-in-hand. For many families, this is the one cookie they imagine when baking with kids.

    While sugar cookies can be a lot of work if you make them from scratch all in one day, I have so many easy shortcuts for baking sugar cookies with kids to make this a fun and memorable part of your holiday season.

    You could use prepared sugar cookie dough from the store or my from-scratch sugar cookie recipe made in advance.

    Roll, cut, and bake the cookies the day before so that your kids can have fun with a cookie decorating party!

    While my royal icing recipe is perfect for beginners, you have other even easier options for frosting sugar cookies, too! Check out my three frostings for sugar cookies right here.

    • Best Sugar Cookies Ever {For Kids!}
    • Easy Frosting Recipes for Sugar Cookies
    • Easy Royal Icing Recipe
    • 2-Color Christmas Cookie Designs

    5. Gingerbread Cookie Cut Outs

    Just like the sugar cookies, if your kids want to bake gingerbread cookies, you could use store bought cookie dough or my from-scratch gingerbread cookie recipe and one of these easy frosting recipes.

    • Easy Gingerbread Cookies for Kids

    6. Peanut Blossoms

    Use store bought dough mix or my from scratch peanut butter cookie and chocolate kisses candies.

    • BEST Peanut Butter Blossoms Ever

    7. M&M Cookies

    Fest M&M candies make the cutest cookie on a cookie tray without any decorating work.

    I mixed red, green, white, and pink M&Ms for these M&M cookies with cornflakes and oats.

    • M&M Cookies with Cornflakes & Oats

    8. Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

    These Mexican hot chocolate cookies are one of the most popular cookie recipes on my site.

    They start as chocolate cookie dough balls and then get rolled in a cinnamon sugar mix for a sweet and spicy crackle texture.

    • Foolproof Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

    9. Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

    Good old fashioned chocolate chip walnut cookies may not look super festive on the surface but are guaranteed to disappear from your cookie tray quickly.

    If your kids wanted to up the holiday factor, you could substitute festive chips for the chocolate chips or drizzle the cookies with melted chocolate and add sprinkles.

    The best part? This recipe can be prepped into cookie dough balls in advance and baked straight from the freezer!

    • Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

    10. Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

    Peanut butter sandwich cookies with crunch peanuts and a creamy peanut butter filling are a wonderful accent to all the chocolate you find on most Christmas cookie platters.

    You could bake large sandwich cookies or bite-sized ones if you plan to mix and match them with other Christmas cookies.

    • Crunchy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

    More Baking Recipes for Kids

    And if you want even more easy baking recipes for kids, don't miss The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book, it is filled with 60 fun and festive recipes for kids to bake all year long.

    From New Years and Valentine's Day to Easter and Halloween, your kids will enjoy festive baking every month of the year!

    • The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book
    A photo collage shows several of the cookie recipes for kids.

    More Easy Christmas Cookies Recipes

    • How to Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing
    • Homemade Black and White Cookies
    • Buddy the Elf's Chex Mix for Christmas
    • Wellie Wishers Themed Sugar Cookies

    Reader Interactions

    Trackbacks

    1. Easy make-ahead Christmas breakfast ideas for busy moms says:
      November 29, 2019 at 6:15 am

      […] 10 Christmas cookies for kids that will save your sanity on baking day […]

      Reply
    2. FREE fun for the whole family: Hallmark Christmas Movie bingo says:
      October 12, 2019 at 12:45 pm

      […] 10 semi homemade Christmas cookies that will save your sanity […]

      Reply
    3. How to bake the BEST peanut butter blossoms ever says:
      May 7, 2019 at 9:18 am

      […] Hershey kiss cookies are one of the best-ever semi-homemade cookies to bake with kids. We love using the Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie dough mix pouches that are sold at the grocery store every holiday season. You can see my girls having a blast making these fun semi-homemade Christmas cookies here. […]

      Reply
    4. Foolproof Mexican hot chocolate cookies are a perfect surprise says:
      May 5, 2019 at 4:05 pm

      […] hot chocolate cookies are a must-have Christmas cookie tray staple. These sweet and spicy cookies will clear your sinuses and satisfy your sweet tooth. Surprise your […]

      Reply

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    Hi, I'm Tiffany!
    I believe a great family recipe is one that makes everyone at the table happy, not just the kids. I'm the author of two bestselling cookbooks for kids that are chock full of recipes everyone in your family will love. I'm also the hostess of the best online book club for moms.

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