51 Christmas Baking Ideas for Cookies, Cakes, and Festive Desserts

51 Christmas Baking Ideas

This collection brings together 51 Christmas baking ideas for cookies, cakes, and festive desserts, whether you are baking for a Christmas party, planning a Christmas Day dessert, or putting together edible gifts. You will find classic recipes with a twist, flavor combinations you may not have considered before, fun bakes to make with children, and more elegant options for parties.

The roundup was published in October 2024 and updated in March 2025. Each idea below explains what the main ingredients do, so you can match a bake to your table and your timetable.

• Cookies and bars for a holiday cookie plate
• Cakes and rolls for the Christmas dessert table
• Tarts, cheesecakes, and puddings for a party finish
• Breads, muffins, and fudge for gifting and Christmas morning

If you are building a full spread, start with these Easy Christmas Desserts Anyone Can Make and keep a few make ahead Christmas dessert ideas in mind so the final days stay calm. This article is adapted from the original collection of Christmas baking ideas.

A practical note: the gingerbread bread pudding needs its gingerbread baked the day before, and the cookie fudge sets overnight, so both are good candidates to start early.

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Coconut Macaroons

Soft and chewy inside, golden and crisp outside, these macaroons need only four ingredients.

Shredded coconut gives the nutty, chewy texture, egg whites bind the mixture and add moisture, and honey brings natural sweetness. Dip the cooled macaroons in dark chocolate for the perfect finish.

Christmas Tree Brownies

These fudgy chocolate brownies are decorated to look like Christmas trees.

Light brown sugar adds a caramelized taste, and bittersweet chocolate chips give the richest chocolate flavor. Once the brownies cool, cut them into triangles, decorate with green frosting and sprinkles, and poke a candy cane into the bottom for the trunk.

Vegan Gingerbread House

A fun holiday project for the whole family, with eggless royal icing included.

A flaxseed egg and vegan butter hold the gingerbread together, coconut sugar adds a light caramel taste, and molasses give deep color and flavor. Ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg build the seasonal taste, and vegan royal icing flavored with tangy orange juice acts as the glue.

Cranberry Curd Tart

This tart stands out with its vibrant red color and holiday decoration. The smooth curd filling sits on a crunchy oat and nut base, while brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom add subtle seasonal warmth.

Fresh cranberries, lemon zest, and lemon juice bring the tart citrus flavor, and egg yolks and butter are vital for the silky texture. Finish with sugared cranberries, candied lemon, and fresh rosemary sprigs.

Classic Cinnamon Star Cookies

Classic German cinnamon stars suit any holiday treat plate and need only four ingredients.

Beaten egg whites and powdered sugar form the binding agent, ground hazelnuts build the structure, and ground cinnamon gives the signature taste. Coat the tops with a meringue glaze made from the remaining egg white mixture so they look like snow.

Candy Cane Cookies

Double chocolate candy cane cookies bring festive flavor to a holiday cookie plate.

This is a regular cookie recipe with brown sugar for a slight caramelized note, and crushed candy canes add crunch. Peppermint pairs beautifully with gooey white and semisweet chocolate chips.

Mini Christmas Tarts

Individual chocolate tarts make the perfect ending to a Christmas meal, and single servings mean nobody fights over the best bite.

Dark cocoa gives the buttery tart crust its decadent chocolate taste, while the custard is spiced with ground cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, plus a welcome spoonful of brandy. Once the custard is set, add whipped cream and garnish with pomegranate arils and a mint leaf.

Eggnog Pound Cake with Eggnog Glaze

This festive pound cake is moist yet dense, with a texture close to a classic pound cake, and the eggnog glaze carries the flavor right through.

Vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and eggnog season the batter. Pour the glaze over the cake, then finish with rum and nutmeg spiced whipped cream.

Vegan Gingerbread Chocolate Tart

A gingerbread spiced pastry crust contrasts with a creamy chocolate filling in this vegan tart. Molasses, ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger create the gingerbread taste, with orange zest for a citrus note.

The filling blends coconut milk, dark chocolate, molasses, and maple syrup with ground ginger for a lightly spiced flavor. Decorate with vegan gingerbread cookies, pomegranate arils, and fresh rosemary sprigs.

Almond Flour Banana Muffins

These muffins are moist and naturally sweet, making them a lighter holiday treat.

Almond flour gives a light, nutty taste, coconut sugar adds deep caramel flavor, and sweet ripe bananas work best. Ground cinnamon and nutmeg bring warming festive flavor, while chocolate chips add pockets of gooey sweetness.

Red Velvet Christmas Cake Roll

This cake roll looks like a red and white candy cane inside and can be the showstopper of a Christmas dessert table.

It starts with a regular chocolate cake batter baked in a sheet pan so it rolls easily, with red food gel for the signature color. Peppermint extract flavors the buttercream, and crushed candy canes add crunch on top.

Christmas Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies

These butter cookies melt in your mouth and are full of festive holiday sprinkles. The ooey, gooey texture comes from powdered sugar, which keeps them moist and chewy alongside the cream cheese in the batter.

Vanilla extract adds flavor, red, white, and green sprinkles add the festive feel, and rolling the dough balls in powdered sugar before baking gives a soft exterior.

Peppermint Mocha Cookies

Chocolate, coffee, and peppermint come together in a gooey, chewy, fudgy cookie.

Cocoa powder, chocolate chips, peppermint extract, and espresso powder build rich flavor in a regular cookie batter. Dip the cooled cookies in vanilla candy melts for a snowy look, then add crushed candy canes for extra peppermint taste.

Eggnog Coffee Cake

This moist coffee cake brings a favorite holiday drink into baking, topped with cinnamon crumb.

A regular cake batter works here, with the spices in the eggnog adding warming festive flavor. Cinnamon and nutmeg in the crumb give a slight crunch against the soft cake, and a glaze of powdered sugar, eggnog, cinnamon, and nutmeg goes over the cooled cake.

Vegan Cranberry Almond Shortbread Cookies

These vegan shortbread cookies are nutty, buttery, and tart with a touch of sweetness.

Almond extract and chopped almonds provide the nutty taste, and the recipe follows a regular eggless cookie method with vegan butter. Chopped fresh cranberries offer pockets of tart flavor and make the cookies look vibrant and festive.

Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Biscotti

These crunchy cookies are baked twice and are perfect with a strong coffee.

For a Southern twist, yellow cornmeal is mixed with the flour to make them dense and robust, with ground ginger adding warmth. Orange zest, pistachios, and cranberries go into the dough, and melted chocolate, dried cranberries, and chopped nuts make them look festive.

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

These whipped shortbread cookies melt in your mouth with a light, airy texture from just four simple ingredients.

Because the list is short, use the best quality you can. Vanilla or almond extract can add flavor, and a fork pattern with festive sprinkles can go on before baking.

Mini Gingerbread Houses

Cute mini gingerbread houses work as gifts, mug toppers, or an edible village. The spiced gingerbread has crisp edges and a soft center, with brown sugar and molasses for deep caramel taste and ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves for the signature flavor.

Orange zest adds a hint of citrus. Build and decorate with royal icing, mini candies, and sprinkles.

Christmas Cookie Fudge

Easy, sweet fudge that suits gifting and a Christmas treat plate. Condensed milk gives the creamy consistency, mixed with butter and white chocolate chips, while a packet of sugar cookie mix provides a unique taste.

Stir in Christmas sprinkles, let the fudge set in a pan overnight, then cut it into squares. It also fits neatly into edible Christmas gift baking ideas.

Coconut Flour Muffins

These muffins are moist, nutty, and fruity, and they make a healthier gluten free and dairy free Christmas treat.

Coconut flour, almond milk, and coconut oil provide nutty depth, raw honey sweetens, and vanilla extract adds a delicate background note. Fold fresh blueberries through the batter and sprinkle shredded coconut on top before baking for a slight crunch.

Eggnog Poke Cake

Eggnog goes into both the cake batter and the pudding mixture here, and whipped cream pairs beautifully with the moist cake. A box of white cake mix makes prep quick and easy, with eggnog mixed into the batter.

Combine vanilla pudding mix and eggnog, pour it over the cooled cake so it soaks into the holes, spread Cool Whip over the pudding layer, and sprinkle with ground nutmeg before slicing.

Vegan Spiced Gingerbread Loaf

This vegan loaf is moist, rich, and tasty, and it is a perfect treat alongside a hot cup of coffee.

Flax eggs bind the ingredients and ripe bananas add moisture. Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves bring warming flavor, while molasses add deep color and a rich caramelized taste.

Cranberry Bliss Bars

These sweet yet tart bars copy the coffee chain version. The bottom layer is a soft, chewy blondie made with regular blondie ingredients plus ground cinnamon and dried cranberries for holiday flavor. Frost with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and melted white chocolate, sprinkle orange flavored dried cranberries on the frosted bars, and cut them into triangles.

Small Batch Gingerbread Cookies

Slightly chewy yet firm, these gingerbread cookies are buttery, lightly spiced, and festively decorated.

Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger flavor a regular cookie dough, and molasses give the signature color and caramelized flavor. Cut them into trees, candy canes, and people before baking, then pipe royal icing on the cooled cookies for a snowy look.

Peppermint Brownie Bites

These indulgent peppermint brownie bites have rich chocolate flavor and a soft, fudgy texture, with candy canes adding contrast. A packet of brownie mix is fine here, with peppermint extract and crushed candy canes stirred into the batter.

Bake in a mini muffin tin to create bite sized brownies, until they are soft in the middle and slightly crisp on top.

Gingerbread Brownies

These fudgy brownies are filled with a buttery gingerbread swirl and topped with festive sprinkles. Start with a packet of brownie mix or make them from scratch. The swirl combines molasses and butter with ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla extract.

Pour the batter into a pan, add the gingerbread mix, swirl gently with a knife so it appears in each square, add sprinkles, and bake until soft but firm.

Ginger Orange Vegan Cheesecake with Poached Pears

This citrusy, ginger vegan cheesecake is rich and creamy, with the elegance of poached pears on top. The crunchy base blitzes gingersnap cookies, crushed pecans, and coconut oil in a food processor, then presses into the bottom and sides of a pan.

Vegan cream cheese, soaked cashews, and coconut cream give the filling a thick texture, with crystallized and fresh ginger for robust ginger taste. Add the poached pears to the baked cheesecake and drizzle the poaching syrup over both.

Nutella Stuffed Gingerbread Muffins

These moist and fluffy gingerbread muffins are spiced with warm festive flavors, and a gooey Nutella center is a welcome hidden surprise.

The muffins are a basic mixture using regular muffin ingredients, with buttermilk and vegetable oil keeping them extra moist. Ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and vanilla add warmth, and molasses give deep caramelized flavor and golden color.

Bundt Cake Christmas Wreath

A spiced eggnog bundt cake becomes a stunning centerpiece for a Christmas dessert table.

Cool Whip is the perfect base so the decorations stand out against bright white, and fresh tarragon leaves help make the wreath shape. Mint leaves, cranberries, dried oranges, star anise, cinnamon sticks, and pomegranate arils complete it, with powdered sugar for a snowy effect.

5 Ingredient Brownies

These chocolate brownies are indulgent and fudgy, with a texture that melts in your mouth.

Overripe bananas add moisture and just the right amount of sweetness, and almond butter provides a mild, nutty taste. Unsweetened cocoa powder balances the sweetness of the bananas, and apple pie spice offers a warm, comforting, festive flavor.

Crescent Roll Christmas Tree Dessert

Crescent rolls are filled with tart cranberry jam and held in a tree shape with creamy Nutella, making an excellent centerpiece for a Christmas table. Make 32 balls from the dough, bake until golden brown, and let them cool before filling.

Pipe cranberry jam into each ball, arrange them into a three dimensional tree, glue with Nutella, and dust with powdered sugar.

Cranberry Cheesecake Brownies

These cheesecake brownies combine fudgy chocolate brownie with creamy, tangy cranberry cheesecake. The brownie layer uses a regular brownie batter with dark chocolate and cacao powder for depth of flavor.

Vanilla extract adds a delicate background note to the cheesecake batter, and tart cranberry sauce is swirled in. Bake until the sides are slightly browned, then leave the pan in the oven to cool a little so the top does not crack.

Eggnog Pull Apart Bread

This sweet and festive eggnog pull apart bread is perfect for a cozy Christmas morning, and with an eggnog glaze on top it is hard to stop at one piece.

A regular bread dough works well, with sugar, vanilla, and eggnog adding sweetness and cinnamon and nutmeg in the filling bringing festive flavor. Bake until golden brown, cool, then mix powdered sugar and eggnog for the glaze.

Christmas Cranberry Bread

This sweet and tart white chocolate cranberry bread suits holiday parties or a slice with a hot cup of coffee. The base crosses a pound cake with a quick bread, soft and dense, and ground cinnamon adds a festive spiced taste.

Fold white chocolate chips and fresh cranberries into the batter, then drizzle the cooled bread with melted white chocolate, dried cranberries, and sprinkles.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These chocolate crinkle cookies are soft and rich, with the fudgy texture of a brownie.

Essential cookie ingredients are used alongside cocoa powder for full bodied flavor, and semisweet and white chocolate chips offer gooey pockets of melted chocolate. Roll the dough balls in powdered sugar before baking to help create that crinkled look.

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

These indulgent chocolate thumbprint cookies are filled with smooth ganache and finished with festive sprinkles.

Cocoa powder and coffee extract add a rich chocolate taste to regular cookie ingredients. Press an indent into each dough ball before baking to create a vessel for the rich, creamy ganache, then add the sprinkles as a final touch.

Cranberry Christmas Cake

This wholesome cranberry Christmas cake is tasty and fruity, made without dairy, refined sugar, or gluten, using whole ingredients such as coconut oil, coconut sugar, coconut flour, maple syrup, and eggs.

Orange juice and lemon zest work well with fresh tart cranberries, and vanilla extract adds a delicate background flavor. It is an upside down cake, so turn it over once cooled to reveal the cranberries, then drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze.

Gingerbread Bread Pudding with Eggnog Sauce

This moist bread pudding is packed with juicy raisins and warming spices, topped with a warm, creamy eggnog sauce. Prep and bake the gingerbread the day before so it can dry out and soak up the sweet custard.

Ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and ginger season the gingerbread, with molasses for deep color and flavor. Pour the vanilla flavored custard over gingerbread cubes, sprinkle with raisins, bake until set, and serve warm.

Gluten Free Eggnog Cake

This moist, fluffy, buttery gluten free cake packs the holiday drink into every slice. It follows an almost regular recipe with gluten free flour, sweetened naturally with coconut sugar and maple syrup, and seasoned with ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

A cup of eggnog and a little brandy go into the batter, and a glaze of coconut milk, maple syrup, and ground nutmeg goes over the top.

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Blueberry oatmeal muffins have a nutty yet sweet, mildly caramelized taste and a moist texture.

Oat flour adds a slightly nutty flavor, almond milk deepens the nuttiness, and vanilla extract adds delicate flavor. Coconut sugar provides caramelized sweetness, and fresh blueberries in the batter offer juicy sweetness in every bite.

Cranberry Pecan Bread

Bake this nutty cranberry pecan bread in a Dutch oven for a crispy crust and soft center.

It is an easy recipe using only essential bread ingredients, with honey adding a touch of sweetness and helping the yeast activate. Toasted pecans add bites of crunch to the soft bread, and dried cranberries deliver pops of tart, festive flavor.

Cranberry Christmas Cake

Tart cranberries stand out against the bright white crumb of this moist, flavorful cake.

Sour cream, orange zest, and fresh cranberries give the batter a sharp, tangy flavor, while sour cream and milk keep the texture light and airy. A cream cheese frosting covers the cake, and sugared cranberries make a beautiful garnish around the edges.

Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

Vibrant pinwheel cookies are a sure showstopper on a Christmas cookie plate.

Make them with regular cookie ingredients and add flavor with vanilla extract, or use peppermint extract for a more festive taste. Red and green sheets of cookie dough are rolled and cut into pinwheels, then baked until the edges are golden.

Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies

These rich, buttery snowball cookies have a hint of chocolate in the center and a powdered sugar coating.

Mini chocolate chips added to the dough create gooey pockets of sweetness, with vanilla extract providing a delicate background flavor. Roll the warm cookie balls in powdered sugar for a festive, snowy effect.

Peppermint Hershey Christmas Cookies

Thumbprint cookies can be the star of a cookie plate, and topped with a peppermint Hershey’s Kiss they are festive and fun. The cookies come from an easy sugar cookie dough, with peppermint extract added for double holiday flavor.

Roll them in colorful festive sprinkles before baking, then press a peppermint Hershey’s Kiss into each cookie as it comes out of the oven.

Cheesecake Stuffed Gingerbread Cake

This moist gingerbread cake hides a rich, creamy cheesecake layer in the middle for an impressive dessert. Cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and ginger warm the gingerbread, with molasses providing its signature caramelized flavor and color.

Ground nutmeg flavors the cheesecake layer and complements the spiced cake. Cover it with sweet whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Cranberry Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

These lightly spiced oatmeal cookies are stuffed with tart cranberries and rich dark chocolate.

This is a regular cookie recipe with chewy oatmeal added, plus vanilla extract and cinnamon for a subtle festive taste. Dried cranberries and dark chocolate chips balance the sweet flavor of the cookies.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Tray Bake

This cozy, warming sticky date cake is smothered in a delicious toffee sauce for the most comforting dessert. Medjool dates are essential here, blended to a puree for sweetness and depth of flavor, with dark brown sugar and black treacle providing a rich, caramelized taste.

Make the toffee sauce with butter, dark brown sugar, treacle, and heavy cream, then pour it over the date cake once it is baked.

Gingerbread Cake

This moist and fluffy gingerbread cake has the taste of Christmas in every bite, with warming spice and a tangy cream cheese frosting on top. Ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves flavor the cake, and molasses provide rich color and caramelized taste.

The frosting is made with butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract, a perfect contrast to the spiced cake.

Eggless Fruitcake Cookies

Christmas fruitcake cookies without eggs are nutty, fruity, and soft in every bite.

Chopped dates, mixed candied fruit, and chopped mixed nuts such as almonds, pistachios, and cashews provide the delicious flavors. Milk replaces the egg in this recipe, adding moisture and keeping the cookies soft.

Christmas Morning Muffins

These Christmas morning muffins are moist and tender from the addition of Greek yogurt, with a lovely combination of herb, spice, and tart fruit flavors.

Cinnamon and nutmeg add festive spice, fresh rosemary offers an herbal taste, and tart dried cranberries provide pockets of chewy texture. A cinnamon and nutmeg crumble adds a slight crunch, and a vanilla and nutmeg powdered sugar glaze finishes them. For more holiday baking, browse these Christmas Baking Treats Recipes.