Best Christmas Cookie Recipes 2022

With the festive season in full swing, there’s no better time to get creative in the kitchen! You don’t need a fancy Christmas cookie recipe to bake show-stopping treats – with our roundup of top Christmas cookie decorating ideas, you’re sure to impress whatever your skill level.

Wonderful Christmas wreath cookies

These beautifully ornate miniature Christmas wreaths make perfect place settings for your festive feast! Decorated with buttercream and royal icing using a variety of different nozzles and piping techniques, this is a great project for beginners to get to grips with. With bright red rosettes, luscious green leaves and cute little bows, these cookies are almost too pretty to eat!

Melting snowman cookies

Kids are sure to adore this super fun and extra easy Christmas cookie decorating idea! You don’t need a fancy Christmas cookie recipe to use as the base – any basic cookie recipe will do the trick. Decorate a circular cookie base with a puddle of royal icing, broken pretzels and a fluffy marshmallow to create this marvellous melted snowman.

The coolest Christmas trees

Practice your piping techniques with these beautiful Christmas tree cookies, decorated with royal icing. Grab a piping bag with a thin nozzle and get creative with stripes, dots and zig-zag shapes to give your mini trees heaps of texture.

Pretty Christmas present cookies

You don’t need any special Christmas baking supplies to decorate these gorgeous gift cookies! Use a simple cookie cutter to stamp out your design and top with colored buttercream and sprinkles to decorate these festive cookies.

Holly leaf cookies

If you’re looking for a quick fix, this Christmas cookie idea is the one for you! It might look impressive, but this creative idea is easy to execute and takes no time at all. This wet-on-wet technique uses watered-down royal icing to ‘flood’ the top of the cookie before piping ‘B’ shapes on top and dragging out the holly leaves with a cocktail stick. You could even decorate shop-bought cookies – the decoration is so impressive that no one

Learn About Flooding and More in Our Guide to Icing

Perfect poinsettia cookies

We love the definition and texture of these pretty poinsettia cookies. Use watered-down royal icing to cover the cookie and pipe on the center of the flowers. Once the icing has set, you can use a slightly thicker icing in the same color as the base to pipe around the edge, giving an instant 3D effect.

Giant Christmas tree cookie cake

If you’re searching for a bigger bake that the whole family can have fun making, this Christmas cookie cake ticks all the boxes! Bake a huge triangle cookie, cover with green buttercream or royal icing and then let kids get creative with decorating with candies and sprinkles.

‘Broken’ gingerbread men

Kids will love these funny little gingerbread men, complete with missing limbs and shocked expressions as if someone has already taken a bite! These cookies have been covered with a layer of watered-down royal icing, but if you were in a hurry you could easily pipe directly onto the cookie.

An army of Nutcracker cookies

This is one for all the piping pros out there! Make a troop of uniformed Nutcracker soldiers with ornate, colorful royal icing. If you've not got time to get your hands on a Nutcracker soldier cookie cutter, get creative and use a standard gingerbread man cutter instead.

Festive flower cookie platter

This fabulous Christmas cookie idea turns your sweet bakes into a stunning centerpiece for a festive feast! You only need a couple of Christmas cookie cutters in different sizes to create this cool design. We love how royal icing has been used to add extra definition.

The prettiest peppermint meringues

They might not have a cookie base, but these perfect peppermint meringues definitely deserve a place on the best Christmas cookie recipes list! These little peppermint bites are melt-in-your-mouth delicious and packed with mint choc flavor, and the red and white swirls make them fabulously festive!

Elegant winter wreath cookies

Pipe a plethora of beautiful winter blooms onto a base of fluffy meringue cookies to create these simply stunning winter wreath cookies. All you need is your cookie decorating supplies a little patience and a steady hand and these delicious morsels will be the talk of any party!

Simple Christmas tree cookies

If you’ve not got a massive stash of cookie cutters, this is a beautiful bake to improvise! The shape of this cookie base can easily be cut by hand using a ruler and a template. Decorated using royal icing, you create the fun pattern on these cookies by dragging icing with a cocktail stick – a super easy way of giving your cookies a professional finish.

Snowflake cookie wreath

We can’t get enough of this stylish Christmas cookie wreath! Grab a bundle of snowflake-shaped cutters in different sizes and have fun decorating the cookies with snowy white royal icing. Finished with edible glitter and silver pearls, these cookies are almost too beautiful to eat!

Christmas cookie dunkers

These dunker cookies couldn’t be easier to make. Roll out a basic cookie dough and cut into rectangular squares, before baking and topping with rustic royal icing in festive colors. Add sprinkles and wrap them up and these cookies will make the perfect homemade Christmas present for teachers, neighbors and friends!

The cutest gingerbread men

These Christmas cookies are almost too cute to eat! Fill your home with the festive fragrance of freshly-baked gingerbread men and carefully bend their arms into a hug when they’re just out the oven. Pipe simple features and add an icing snowflake for the full effect!