46 Easy Christmas Treats the Whole Family Can Help Make
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…which means you have approximately 2,896 batches of holiday cookies to bake before the new year. Instead of shooing everyone out of the kitchen, try these 46 easy Christmas treats—from cutout cookies to festive Chex mix—that the whole family will be thrilled to help you make (yup, even your “please don’t speak to me in public” middle schooler).
RELATED: 45 Christmas Dessert Recipes That Can Get Anyone in the Holiday Spirit
1. Brown Sugar Cookies with Dulce de Leche
You’re cool with gold sprinkles getting all over your kitchen, right? (It’s *technically* still decorating.
2. The Easiest Sugar Cookie Recipe Ever
The best part? The decorating opportunities are endless.
3. 4-Ingredient Lemon Cookies
These cookies are so simple, they practically bake themselves.
4. Cake Batter Cookies
For kids (and adults) who love sprinkles. (Psst: It starts with boxed cake mix.)
5. Ina Garten’s Black & White Cookies
Yes, even an Ina Garten recipe can be kid-friendly. You do the baking and they can handle the frosting.
6. Heart Thumbprint Cookies
How much do we love Christmas? A whole batch of thumbprint cookies’ worth.
7. Peppermint Patties
These require a measly six ingredients to make, don’t require the oven and will be ready in the amount of time it takes to watch A Christmas Story.
8. Chocolate Peppermint Icebox Cookies
Designate a cookie assembly line—baking, dipping, dusting—and they’ll be ready to eat in record time.
9. Oatmeal Cookie Cream Pies
There’s nothing more satisfying than smooshing these sandwich cookies together (other than eating them, you know).
10. Butterscotch Icebox Cookies
Set out a batch and let your kid play Jackson Pollock with a pastry bag of melted butterscotch chips.
11. Mini Caramel Pecan Pies with Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust
The crusts have a secret: They’re made from store-bought cinnamon rolls, so even budding bakers can handle this project.
12. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cookies
Our prediction: Your little cookie monsters will devour these.
13. No-Bake Sugar Cookie Truffles
Everyone will fight over the fun part, aka showering these babies in the festive sprinkles of your choice.
14. Glazed Doughnut Cookies
SO much easier than whipping up a batch of homemade doughnuts.
15. Christmas Tree Cookies
What’s more fun, the decorating or the eating?
16. Holly Jolly Santa Cookies
No two Santas are alike (and when you’re baking with little kids, that’s kind of the theme).
17. Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
They’re a Kris Kringle-approved version of the classic peanut butter blossom, and so easy to make.
18. Gingerbread Cookies
Idea: Make a batch, then hold a decorating contest to see who can make the most elaborate (or eccentric) gingerbread brood.
19. Snowball Cookies
Let your kids make a (contained) mess by dipping these cute little guys into a bowl of powdered sugar.
20. Eggnog Scented Sugar Cookies with Easy Vanilla Icing
Tip: Best if you’re sipping actual eggnog while you’re making them.
21. Mint Snowman Marshmallows
They’re almost too cute to eat. (Keyword: almost.)
22. Loaded Christmas Bark
Gather up everyone’s favorite red and green treats and let them go to town.
23. Christmas M&M Cookies
These take all of 20 minutes to make, so you can bake a batch to eat now and batch to eat later.
24. Soft Cinnamon Cut-Out Cookies with White Chocolate Peppermint
The crushed peppermint topping is as easy as can be, but it still manages to look pretty darn fancy.
25. 3-Ingredient White Chocolate Peppermint Pretzels
The key to holiday baking success is to start with something store-bought and simply dress it up a bit.
26. Chex Christmas Mix
Case in point: This is just a mix of cereal and salty snacks coated in white chocolate, but you won’t be able to put it down. Trust us.
27. Easy Chocolate Peppermint Truffles
How easy, you ask? There are six ingredients, no baking and you can go as wild as you want with the decor.
28. Mini Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Some of the sprinkles will end up on the cookies, some in your mouth and some on the floor…but that’s part of the fun.
29. Homemade Peppermint Bark
It’s so much better than the overpriced stuff you can buy at the store.
30. Easy Oreo Balls
You can do a lot with a box of Oreos and a block of cream cheese, it turns out.
31. Chai Spiced Santa Cookies with White Chocolate Frosting
It’s all fun and games until Santa’s beard gets eaten mid-frost.
32. Peppermint Mocha Blossoms
We can’t guarantee your kids will love the taste of mocha cookies, but they’ll have a blast pressing the peppermint candies into the soft dough.
33. Thumbprint Cookies
If you don’t eat red and green food dye at least once this holiday season, we suggest you reprioritize.
34. Chocolate Covered Pretzels
There’s really nothing to these salty-sweet cuties, but they’ll disappear by the handful. Just watch.
35. Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
These happen to be gluten- and grain-free, in case you have food allergies in your family.
36. Easy Chocolate Fudge
Would you believe this comes together entirely in your microwave? A Christmas miracle.
37. Crinkle Cookies with Peppermint Cream
Assign your kitchen elves the tasks of smooshing the sandwiches together and dipping them in peppermint dust.
38. Crock-Pot Candy
This chocolate-peanut recipe is so simple, ever you don’t have to do any of the work. Thank you, slow cooker.
39. Easy Peanut Butter Fudge
Emergency sugar cravings call for ten-minute peanut butter fudge.
40. Christmas Tree Brownies
They’re like those pre-wrapped brownies you used to eat as a kid (you know, the ones with the sprinkles) but so much tastier.
41. Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
Your kids aren’t “helpers.” They’re cookie couturiers.
42. Hot Chocolate Spoons
Buh-bye powdered hot cocoa mix. These chocolate spoons make the richest, creamiest cocoa this side of the North Pole.
43. Christmas Sugar Cookies
There’s nothing wrong with going the classic route at Christmastime. (And yeah, you can use store-bought frosting if you want.)
44. Reindeer Chow
Dasher and Dancer called, and they’re tired of that glittery oatmeal stuff you’ve been leaving out on Christmas Eve.
45. Hot Cocoa Cookies
To be eaten with a piping hot mug of cocoa, of course.
46. Eggnog Frosted Chai Snickerdoodle Snowmen
The peanut butter cup hats are just too cute.
RELATED: 30 Easy Icebox Cookies That Will Make All Your Holiday Dreams Come True
