Everyone loves a sweet treat, and that’s never more true than around the holidays. Use this list of desserts and sugary treats as inspiration for your seasonal baking this year.
Published: October 21, 2024
Let’s be clear: One of the best things about the holiday season is the desserts. But it can be overwhelming to figure out what sweets to make each year. And what do you do if you’re not a big baker or tired of the same old desserts you make every year? Check out these 12 holiday treats for inspiration on what to make for your family or to bring to all of the Christmas parties this year. Consider it your “Twelve Days of Christmas” baking list… without the partridge in the pear tree.
Chocolate Fudge
Decadently rich and sugary sweet, chocolate fudge is a must for Christmastime. Throw in some pecans to add a crunch to your fudge.
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
These cookies are layered, rolled, and baked to perfection. You arguably can’t find a cookie that looks more festive with their bright red, green, and sugar cookie white. You can even add Christmas-colored sprinkles to the edges to make them the stars of the party! (And if you’re not a “from-scratch” kind of person, you can easily use store bought cookie dough.)
Rice Krispie Snowballs
These crispy, bite-sized variations of the traditional Rice Krispies Treat are a step above the rest. Think buttery melted marshmallows, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and Rice Krispies all rolled in white chocolate with a mini Reese’s in the middle.
Peppermint Bark
This one is for all the mint lovers out there. There’s all kinds of different recipes out there, but for the most part, the basics are the same: layer upon layer of hardened white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate with peppermint flavoring and crushed candy canes decorating the top.
Thumbprint Hershey’s Kiss Cookies
These might just be one of the easiest holiday treats, but that does nothing to negate their deliciousness. These soft peanut butter cookies are small but pack a big punch with the Hershey’s Kiss pressed into the middle, leaving you with an almost even combination of chocolate and cookie with each bite.
Oreo Truffles
Oreo truffles, also known as Oreo balls, are no-bake chocolate-coated balls filled with a creamy, soft inside made of crushed Oreo cookies and cream cheese. If desired, you can spice their appearance up with crushed Oreos, sprinkles, or a chocolate drizzle.
Christmas-shaped Sugar Cookies
Cut, bake, ice, action! This holiday season, whip up some sugar cookie dough and crank out Christmas shapes of all sizes: wreaths, Santas, snowflakes, Christmas trees, stockings, and candy canes galore. Then don’t be afraid to go wild on the icing–after all, who doesn’t appreciate a generous portion of icing loaded on their cookie? Sugar cookies are simple but decorating them can be such a fun and memorable (not to mention delicious!) holiday activity.
Gingerbread cookies
While the Gingerbread Man is a famous Christmas character we all know and love and gingerbread house competitions happen at Christmas events every year, homemade gingerbread itself can be an often-forgotten baked good. There’s nothing like the smell of freshly-baked gingerbread cookies, the aroma of cinnamon spreading throughout the whole house. Whether you make gingerbread men or snowflakes or plain, circular cookies, the taste will leave you craving more.
Saltine Cracker Toffee
Warning: this sugary delicacy is extremely addicting. Saltine cracker toffee is a holiday recipe you’ll wish people made all year long. It’s the perfect sweet and salty duo: a layer of saltine crackers on the bottom, a toffee made of brown sugar and butter in the middle, and a top coat of melted chocolate.
Peanut Brittle
If you’re more of a hard candy kind of person, this dessert–or dare I say holiday snack?–is for you. Peanut brittle is a caramel-like crunchy brittle with peanuts embedded all throughout. Needless to say, you’ll go nuts for it.
Date balls
While the base of this dessert is dates and nuts, the other add-in options are endless: coconut, oats, crispy rice cereal, cocoa powder, or even cinnamon. Plus, date balls are no-bake. Just mix & roll them into bite-sized balls and you’ll find yourself popping them into your mouth all day long this Christmas season.
Ginger Spice Cookies
Spice it up and make some ginger spice cookies this holiday. If you’ve never had one, you’re missing out on molasses, ginger, and cinnamon goodness. The cookies are soft and the recipe is pretty straightforward–what’s not to like? You can even plan ahead of time and freeze the cookie dough to bake them at a later date.
More?
Other holiday goodies that are easy to whip up and don’t involve much prep time or baking include Crock-Pot candy, holiday reindeer chow, Christmas Chex mix, Christmas turtles, and Rolo pretzels.