50+ Christmas Cookie Ideas for Kids to Bake This Holiday Season

Christmas Cookie Ideas for Kids: Simple If your holiday baking is to feel like a memory rather than a meltdown, keep it simple. Kids are suckers for bright colors, shapes they can identify and recipes in which they do the “fun” parts adding toppings or sprinklings, icing or shaping. What follows packages it all up in one place.

Delicious Christmas Cookie Ideas for Kids to Bake This Holiday Season

Let’s break it down.

Classic Christmas Cookies Kids Always Love

These are the easy wins. You can’t miss with these because the flavors are friendly, everything low-risk and the steps easy enough for any age.

• Classic Sugar Cookies – A simple dough little ones can roll out and cut into stars, trees and snowmen. Let them run riot with sprinkles and frosted colors.

• Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies – with a chewy interior and soft on the edges, these cookies are always winners! Toss in red and green M&Ms to give them a holiday appearance.

• Gingerbread Men – Kids love doing their faces. Keep icing bags small, so kids can easily use them.

• Snickerdoodles – A foolproof cinnamon-sugar coating. Perfect for younger kids.

• Soft Molasses Cookies – Holiday spicing and the texture that gives a Christmas hug.

  

• Peanut Butter Blossoms – Smashing the chocolate kiss in it’s center is what little helper hands enjoy most.

• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – These are warm and chewy, plus a good way to mix in something that’s semi-healthy.

• Vanilla Shortbread – Butterifed and crumbly. Children can press festive stamps or patterns into the top.

• Chocolate Crinkle Cookies – The process of rolling balls of dough in powdered sugar is messy and fun. I love the cracked look after baking.

• M&M Christmas Cookies – Bright, Colorful Add some variety to your holidays with these vibrant cookies that are ready to decorate out of the cup!

Adorable Christmas Cookies That Kids Can Decorate

These cookies make kids feel like pint-size artists. They’re all about color, shapes and hands-on fun.

• Reindeer Cookies – Antlers with pretzels, and noses with M&Ms. Kids instantly recognize Rudolph.

• Snowman Marshmallow Cookies – Place a marshmallow head on a sugar cookie and allow kids to draw faces with edible pens.

• Christmas Tree Swirl Cookies – Brighter the better, right? rolled red dough sliced spirals reads festive.

• Santa Hat Cookies – Triangles of dough colored red with white chocolate for the fur. Cute and simple.

  

• Elf Hat Cookies – Similar to the Santa hats but green with red sprinkles. Perfect for elf-themed parties.

• Candy cane Cookies – Twist ropes of red and white dough. Kids love shaping these.

• Ornament Ball Cookies – Circle sugar cookies that look like tree ornaments with icing and candy dots.

• Polar Bear Paw Cookies – Giant chocolate cookies with white chocolate for the paw pads.

• Christmas Light Cookies – “lights” are mini M&Ms and draw on the strings with black icing.

• Penguin Cookies – Chocolate cookies with marshmallows or icing.

• Snowflake Iced Cookies – Have children create their own unique snowflake designs. They can’t mess it up.

• Wreath Cookies – Green colored dough rolled in a circle then red sprinkles for the berries.

• Leaf Cookies – Basic leaf shapes with icing, great for older kids who can learn to pipe with these.

  

• Mitten Cookies – Adorable mitten shapes for kids to use and decorate with lines or polka dots.

• Ugly Sweater Cookies – The more mismatched, the better! Allow children to layer on decorations and colors.

• Grinch Cookies – These are green cookies with just one red heart sprinkle. Easy and instantly recognizable.

• Snowball Cookies – So simple they need no icing only rolling in powdered sugar. Low effort, high joy.

• Christmas Emoji Cookies – Have kids draw emoji faces with icing on round cookies for sure-fire, giggly fun.

No-Bake and Low-Mess Christmas Cookies for Stress-Free Baking

These thoughts keep the kitchen civil. Ideal for smaller kids or days when you don’t feel like shaking flour onto your floor.

• No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls – Combine peanut butter with oats and honey then roll into balls. Dip in chocolate if you want.

• Rice Krispies Christmas Trees – Mold green crispy mixture into trees and have the children decorate with sprinkles as ornaments.

• Chocolate Dip Pretzel Rods – Ok, so this isn’t really a cookie… sort of. Kids love dipping and decorating.

• Oreo Snowmen – Drape white chocolate-covered Oreos with snowman features.

• Oreo Reindeer – Quick reindeer treats when pretzels and candy noses are added.

• Nutella No Bake Cookie – Fast, chocolate and gooey. They are easily picked up and dropped by children.

• Coconut Snowballs – Combine condensed milk with coconut and roll into festive snowball-like form.

• Frosty the Snowman – Add icing to stack marshmallows using toothpicks.

• Peanut Butter Cornflake Wreaths – Mold wreaths out of green cornflake mixture and add red candies.

• No-Bake Chocolate Haystacks – A mixture of chocolate and chow mein noodles for a crunchy snack.

  

• White Chocolate Peppermint Clusters – Melt, mix, spoon and cool. Barely any cleanup.

• Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses – Not a cookie, but super kid friendly! With slightly less mess than full gingerbread houses.

Christmas Cookies with Color, Sprinkles, and Holiday Flair

These are those bright, brash cookies that immediately appeal on a plate and get kids jumping up and down before they’ve even tasted one.

• Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies – Soft and chewy on the inside and snow-kissed on the outside with powdered sugar. Beautiful and festive.

  

• Green Velvet Cookies – Same concept, but a new color! White Chocolate dipped or drizzled for a neat appearance.

• Christmas Funfetti Cookies – Soft sugar cookies filled with festive sprinkles. Kids love the pop of color.

• Peppermint Chocolate Cookies – Dark chocolate with crushed candy cane layered on top.

• Confetti Sprinkle Balls – Sugar cookie mix rolled into balls then sprinkles, and baked.

• Hot Cocoa Cookies – Soft chocolate cookies with marshmallow on top. Warm and cozy.

• Red and Green Pinwheel Cookies – Red and green spirals they’ll observe intently before taking a bite.

• Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies – Dough is colored with green food coloring and chocolate chips added. It looks festive without effort.

• Fudge Thumbprint Cookies – Push middle in & fill with chocolate! Kids love the “thumb” part.

• Strawberry Jam Thumbprints – Form into balls and let kids make the indentation for these jam-filled cookies.

• S’mores Cookies – Graham taste, with big chunks of chocolate and gooey marshmallow. Big crowd-pleaser.

• Caramel Filled Cookies – Soft cookies with hidden centres of caramel.

• Dipped Edges – Dip edges of cookies into icing and then the sprinkles. The easiest way to fancy them up.

Special Holiday Cookies Kids Will Remember

These are the treats that feel especially magical. Save them for family nights.

• Hot Chocolate Bomb Cookies – Cookie outside, mini cocoa bomb inside. Kids freak out over these.

• North Pole Cookies – Cookies with candy cane sticks and a drizzle of white chocolate.

• Santa Belly Cookies – Red frosted cookies with a center “belt”. Children adore drawing the belt buckle.

• Cinnamon Roll Cookies – These are swirled like cinnamon rolls and taste very sweet.

• Marshmallow Stuffed Cookies – Melty marshmallow on the inside makes them a gooey surprise.

• Peppermint Bark Cookies – Cookie crust topped with melted chocolate and sprinkled crushed peppermint.

• Chocolate-dipped Shortbreads – Old-school buttery shortbread dipped in chocolate and sprinkles for a festive touch!

  

• Coconut Macaroon Trees – Mini tree shaped green tinted macaroons.

• Fruity Jam Snowflake Cookies – So pretty, but simple enough that kids can join in to fill with the jam!

• S’mores Reindeer Cookies – Adorable reindeer faces and smore flavors.

• Cinnamon Star Cookies – Spiced, soft and in a pretty cut-out star shape.

• Raspberry Linzer Cookies – A less childish version, but children will love cutting out the little shapes.