Our Editors Tried All The Little Debbie Christmas Snacks And This Was Our Favorite

'Tis the season for Little Debbies.

The holidays bring much excitement. From family gatherings to cozy sweaters and delicious meals, it's no surprise that the Christmas season is a magical time of year. For Southerners, there's a certain little package of joy that embodies the holiday spirit and doesn't have to wait until December 25th to be enjoyed: Little Debbie Christmas cakes.

People across the South look forward to the Little Debbie Christmas cakes hitting the shelves every year. Though classic white Christmas Tree Cakes are the most iconic, there are six other Christmas-themed snack cakes available for purchase this season. We bought all seven Little Debbie Christmas treats and had our editors rank them from favorite to least favorite—the results may shock you.

How We Tested

We purchased the seven Christmas-themed Little Debbie snack cakes from a variety of grocery store chains. All of the snack cakes were placed onto separate plates for our editors to taste. After trying all of the snack cakes, the editors ranked them in order of preference from 1 to 7, with 1 being the favorite and 7 being the least favorite. The results were then gathered and combined to produce the overall score of each.

The Contenders

• White Christmas Tree Cake

• Chocolate Christmas Tree Cake

• Christmas Tree Brownie

• Snowflake Brownie

• Gingerbread Cookie

• North Pole Nutty Buddy

• Christmas Cherry Cordial

How Each Snack Scored

Snowflake Brownie

The ultra-fudgy brownie and thick coating of icing on this dessert wasn't the editors' favorite for most of our team. Many mentioned the dense texture of the brownie with the amount of icing as the chief complaint. "The frosting is stiff and there is too much of it on the brownie," mentioned one editor. Another noted that it's "similar to the Christmas tree brownie but missing the nice crunch from the ornament sprinkles."

Christmas Cherry Cordial

The Christmas Cherry Cordial received mixed reviews. While most editors enjoyed the two cookies coated in chocolate, the cherry-flavored creme was not a crowd hit; the strong maraschino taste had one editor noting that it was almost "perfume-ish." Even though it wasn't a top contender for most of the team, one of them actually found it to be the best. "The textures and flavors align well," they note.

Gingerbread Cookie

Although gingerbread isn't a first-choice flavor for a few of our editors, the spice in The Christmas Gingerbread Cookies wasn't quite strong enough for many of them. The texture of the cookie, however, was well received. "I was expecting this to be hard, but I like the softness," noted one editor.

Christmas Tree Brownie

Though similar to the Snowflake Brownie in composition, not decoration, many editors felt that the texture of this brownie was more pleasant and the chocolate ornament bites added a great crunch. Even still, the green icing held this treat back from reaching a higher score. One editor said that there "wasn't as much flavor in the icing as expected," while another editor just didn't love it as much as a Cosmic Brownie.

Chocolate Christmas Tree Cake

While a few editors ranked the Chocolate Christmas Tree Cake more in the middle, a few of them placed this treat at the top. The fluffy texture and light icing were a hit among the team, and this chocolatey treat reminds one editor of a Mississippi Mud Pie and another of a classic Swiss Roll Cake. "Everyone is sleeping on the chocolate version. While they fight for the regular Christmas Tree Cake, I'm snatching these up!" said one editor.

White Christmas Tree Cake

Though it may be blasphemous, the fan-favorite White Christmas Tree Cake did not take the top spot with our editors. While many ranked this first for the fluffy texture, light sweetness, and pure nostalgia, the layer of icing was just too sweet for some of the editors. "The filling is almost marshmallow-like," noted one editor.

The Winner

North Pole Nutty Buddy

Much to our surprise, the North Pole Nutty Buddy was the favorite Christmas Little Debbie snack. The lightness of the wafer, the strong peanut butter flavor, and the satisfying crunch were a combination made from heaven for our editors. The winner of this ranking was "by far the Nutty Buddy" for one editor, and another editor even prefers it to the original Nutty Buddy due to the smaller layers and crunch. If the North Pole Nutty Buddy Wafers weren't on your radar this season, try them for yourself and see if you agree with the Southern Living editors!

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.