31 Freezer-Friendly Christmas Cookies To Make Before Things Get Really Crazy

The holiday season brings out the best and worst in us. Are we stressed and twitchy beyond all get-out? Yes. Do we love every minute of it? Also, yes. From attending Christmas sweater-themed parties to watching all the Hallmark Channel movies to baking countless dozens of holiday cookies, we're maximizing that Christmas cheer at all times. 

As for the cookies—made for cookie swaps, church potlucks, household snacking, and Santa's plate—there is one little cheat: make now, freeze for later. You'll find that most of your favorite Christmas cookie recipes can be made anywhere from a month to six months before the 25th of December. (Consult this handy how-to guide to the matter.) 

Generally, most recipes will be best if baked and then frozen. When baking recipes that require royal icing or other accouterments, leave the cookie decorating until after you've defrosted the batch. And as a rule, slice-and-bake cookies do well when freezing the dough logs for later use. Those are the rough guidelines to live by during the cookie-baking season. Here are 32 of our best-ever make-ahead Christmas cookie recipes that freeze well.

Start Your Christmas Baking Early With These Freezable Cookies

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Nothing says Christmas like a batch of iced snowflake cookies. It's best to bake these cookies, then freeze them. Leave the icing until after thawing these snowflake sugar cookies.

Cranberry-Orange Butter Cookies

Add an extra festive note to classic butter cookies with cranberry and orange. Freeze the rectangular roll of the dough before thawing it to slice and bake later. For an extra festive touch, use sparkling sugar on top of the cookies.

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

Four ingredients? Even more of a reason to whip up and freeze a batch on any autumn afternoon. This recipe is the perfect cookie to have on hand for any unexpected guests or drop-bys.

Pecan Snowball Cookies

Snowballs are a cheerful holiday classic. This recipe makes four dozen, which makes it perfect for make-ahead food gifts. After defrosting, you might need to re-roll in powdered sugar.

Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

These cookies are airy and crisp on the outside and gooey on the inside. This recipe creates a brownie in cookie form. The flourless cookies are gluten-free and filled with chopped pecans and melted chocolate.

Grandma's Chocolate Drop Cookies

These drop cookies are a classic. Customize the dough to your preferences, such as extra chocolate or nuts. These cookies are soft, cake-like, and flavorful.

No-Bake Dark Chocolate-Peppermint Sandwich Cookies

What's better than a no-bake chocolate and peppermint cookie for the holidays? Freeze now and decorate with peppermint candies later. These cookies radiate festive charm.

Toasted Oatmeal Cookies

Make a case for oatmeal over chocolate chips with this toasty recipe. It's a game-changer. Raisins, brown sugar, and cinnamon add the flavors of traditional oatmeal cookies.

Salted Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

This cookie is the combination you never knew you needed. Keep the slice and bake dough frozen until you are ready. After slicing the dough, you need to place the pecans before baking.

Fudgy Pecan Bourbon Balls

You'll never regret making a batch or two of these boozy confections before the holiday season starts. Bourbon balls are perfect for gift-giving or cookie swaps, and this recipe makes two dozen. You can't beat a recipe with only four ingredients.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Browning the butter is key to making the most gift-worthy chocolate chip cookies this Christmas. Before removing it from the stovetop, wait until the butter turns a creamy golden hue. This tip will give your chocolate chip cookies the chewy, crisp texture you want.

Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies

Cake mix cookies are here to make your life even easier leading up to the holidays, especially this festive red-and-white batch. They'll look merry and bright in your cookie tin or on a cake stand. Because of the high oil content, these cookies keep well.

Dark Chocolate-Ginger-Molasses Cookies

These tasty cookies check off all the boxes for a winning holiday treat. The cookies are a mix of rich, dark chocolate flavor, a slight hint of heat from crystallized and ground ginger, and molasses' deep, smoky sweetness. Let cookies firm up after removing them from the oven for a crunchy exterior and soft interior.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

These white chocolate and cranberry cookies are perfect for the holidays. Chopped chocolate chunks hold their shape better than chips when baked. Chilling the dough before scooping it will help the dough to be less sticky.

Spritz Cookies

It doesn't get much more nostalgic than spritz cookies. Grab your best helpers to form the dough shape with a cookie press, and leave the sprinkling until after defrosted later. This recipe is a perfect activity to keep busy because you can make various shapes, and the dough comes together in about five minutes.

Pecan-Cranberry Shortbread

These shortbread triangles—also cute when shaped with holiday cookie cutters!—are packed with the season's flavors: cranberry and pecan. Feel free to drizzle with chocolate before or after freezing. Just let them cool completely before placing them in the freezer.

Brown Sugar Cookie Stars

Have you ever seen a batch of Christmas cookies so sparkly? We thought not. Prep the pretty star-shaped sugar cookies in advance and leave the decorating until after removing them from the freezer.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

Don't let the black pepper scare you off. These chewy cookies (with even more kick from fresh ginger and molasses!) look and taste wonderfully nostalgic. Gold sanding sugar gives these cookies a modern flair.

Toasted Oatmeal Cookies

We're partial to butterscotch chips, but you can substitute chocolate chips or cranberries (or go half-and-half) as you'd like. It's your Christmas cookie batch, after all! Either way, this recipe comes together in about 20 minutes and makes three dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Peanut butter and chocolate are the foolproof duos we rely on every Christmas. Many remember making these simple and delicious cookies with Grandma. These cookies are classic for a reason—they're delicious.

Sprinkle Sandwich Cookies

The other thing better than sprinkles on the outside of cookies is sprinkles on the outside—and inside—of cookies. Have fun decorating these sugar sandwich cookies in your favorite holiday sprinkles. When adding sprinkles to the dough, let it chill for at least eight hours.

Molasses Crinkles

These cookies are loaded with classic Christmas spices, like ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, with holiday flair. This recipe makes four and a half dozen cookies, so there is plenty to share at cookie swaps. Allow cookies to cool on a wire rack.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Want a cookie that packs all sorts of sweet, salty, and indulgent goodness into every bite? That's something we can get behind. Prepare to wow the crowd.

Pecan Sandies

Vanilla and cinnamon help enhance the pecan flavoring in this recipe. Toasting the pecans before adding them to the cookie dough mixture also helps bring out more nutty quality in this cookie. Most importantly, pack twice as many pecans as flour in this recipe for truly exceptional treats.

Painted Shortbread Cookies

With a slightly crunchier base than traditional sugar cookies, this shortbread recipe is a great way to practice your artistic skills this holiday season. Make the cookie dough in advance to focus on your decorations. Chill anywhere from two hours to two days.

No-Bake Fudgy Toffee Bars

"No-Bake, "Fudgy," and "Toffee?" Sounds like a Christmas miracle to us. While these are just as easy to make the night before your Christmas occasion, feel free to make and freeze the delicious bars.

Cranberry-Orange Shortbread Cookies

Orange zest and dried cranberries make this cookie recipe a no-brainer come December. Freeze the dough logs for up to a month before baking. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool and store them in an airtight container.

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

Cinnamon and sugar make a tasty pair, and no holiday cookie swap is complete without a plate of these all-time favorites. The key to this recipe is browning the butter. After assembling, remember to chill the dough before scooping out dough balls to bake.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies

This drop cookie recipe has all of your holiday gift-giving needs covered—it makes five dozen! This classic duo shines in this straightforward recipe. You can have wonderful cookies to share with family and friends in under an hour.

Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookies

Dried tart cherries add a surprising note to classic chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Chef Damaris Phillips shared this sweet recipe with us (the first she ever wrote!). This recipe makes about 30 cookies.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Rugelach

This old-school recipe is oozing with holiday cheer. While it may seem fancy, this rugelach is a slice-and-bake cookie in disguise. Add sugar, spice, nuts, and chocolate into flakey and buttery dough layers for this classic treat.

For more freezer-friendly meals, check out our easy freezer recipes that reheat beautifully.

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