The Christmas Cookies I’m Making This Year (2025)
I have a dear friend who once told me some great advice she’d heard: “If you’re feeling behind on life, at least get ahead on Christmas!” This statement makes you smile, but it also has a ton of truth behind it. And as someone who’s always looking for ways to make Future Hannah grateful for the work Current Hannah did…I decided to apply this advice deeply this year.
I actually just shared about this over on my YouTube channel, but there are at least 13 specific ways I’m working hard to get ahead on the holidays this year! (You can watch that video below.)
Besides the fact that this is my third trimester with Baby #4 (and I’m feeling pretty tired these days but I know that’ll only increase), my husband is currently deployed. He’s slated to return home mid-December and I’m extremely determined to take things off of December’s “plate” as much as I can, so that normally hectic month of hustle and bustle is toned down, quieter, cozier…allotting us more time to spend just sitting, soaking in the season, and spending time together as a family.
One of the 13 ways I wanted to get ahead on the holidays this year had to do with my Christmas baking – specifically, Christmas cookies!
Now, I don’t usually mind all of the holiday baking – because the delicious smells and special treats make the mess and all the flour-covered surfaces worth it. However, I recently heard that a YouTube friend of mine made lots of her Christmas cookie dough ahead of time, shaped them into balls, and froze them – and it stopped me in my tracks. Brilliant!!
With my goal of creating a much more “easy” and peaceful December, I knew I had to try this. A strategy that minimizes December kitchen mess, while still allowing for warm, freshly-baked cookies whenever we want them? It’s exactly what we need this year. So I set to work picking out the cookies I wanted us to have prepped and ready to go! Our family has a good number of favorite Christmas cookie recipes (I keep them all in one place in my hefty recipe binder), so I’m sticking with a lot of tried-and-true varieties this year, but I did add in a couple new types to try!
I spent an entire mid-November Saturday covered in flour, with children filtering in and out of the kitchen helping me. The day concluded with a very exhausted Hannah and countless Andes Mints wrappers and candy cane pieces on the floor, but it also resulted in 8(!!) different varieties of cookies stashed away in our basement freezer!
Since I’d much, much rather be worn out from standing in the kitchen at 30 weeks pregnant than at 35 weeks pregnant, I’d consider this year’s crazy cookie prep session a huge success! And don’t worry – we did throw a few cookies in the oven. You know, for taste testing purposes. 🙂
The overall strategy: mix up the cookie dough as usual, scoop or shape the cookies out into balls, but then place them (very close together is fine!) onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and flash-freeze them for about 1 hour. Then remove them from the cookie sheet and place the cookie dough balls into a freezer-safe container or bag! Label the cookies, and hold onto the recipes so you can refer to baking times later on in December.
Want to “bake with me” over on YouTube? Here’s the video of the day I made all these cookies!
Without further adieu, here’s the master list of all the cookies I’ve prepped for December 2025!
Christmas Cookies to Prep Ahead of Time For a More Peaceful December:
1 // Confetti Cookies
I doubled this one. I rolled about half of them in multi-colored sprinkles, and the other half, in Christmas-colored sprinkles. This was one of our new recipes to try this year, and spoiler alert: we popped a few in the oven and they were so cute and delicious!
2 // Andes Mints Cookies
I doubled this one as well. (I’ll keep noting this for each cookie type, but know that I at least doubled every single recipe. I wanted enough to give away.) This was our other new recipe for this year. You can purchase Andes Mints pieces, but my friend Hilary said she much prefers chopping up fresh Andes Mints, so that’s what I did, too!
3 // Sugar Cookie Dough
While I make and decorate sugar cookies every year with the kids (and have since my 8 year old was a baby!), this recipe is one I tried for the first time in 2024 and we all loved it! Here are my notes on the recipe from 2024: “So good! No chilling necessary. Rolled dough to 1/4″ or less. Baked at 350 for 8 minutes, then cooled a couple minutes on pan – top oven rack was best. Tripled the recipe – made lots but it made the perfect amount for eating and sharing and saving! Definitely want to make again.”
I tripled this recipe this year as well. But since these are cut-out sugar cookies that I still want to decorate with my children, I just split the dough up into thirds, flattened each third into a disk, and wrapped it up in plastic wrap. (Then I’ll thaw the disks in the fridge before bringing them to room temp for about an hour and rolling the dough out. Should work just fine!)
The simple, delicious frosting recipe I always make: powdered sugar with a splash of milk, some vanilla extract, and a little bit of almond extract!
4 // Snowball Cookies
Tripled this recipe. We LOVE these every year! They’re like a mini shortbread ball, buttery and full of pecan pieces, and delicious! Since these cookies can be baked and frozen for up to 3 months (like all of the cookie dough I’m talking about in this list), I went ahead and baked them. Snowball cookies get rolled in a coating of powdered sugar, and you do one coat of that before freezing. I’m making sure I have a little extra powdered sugar on hand for when I want to thaw them out, because I’ll roll them in one more coat before serving!
5 // Buttery Jam Thumbprint Cookies
Doubled this one. For this recipe, you make a little “well” in the cookie dough ball (hence the term “thumbprint”) and fill it with jam before baking, so I simply shaped and froze the balls of dough. I picked up and set aside some nice fruit preserves that will be used for these cookies!
6 // Gingerdoodle Cookies
Doubled this recipe. We love these every year because you get the classic gingerbread flavors without having to roll out gingerbread dough. I figured, since we’ll already be rolling out and decorating sugar cookies, I might as well stick to our tried-and-true gingerdoodle recipe! (They’re called gingerdoodles, similar to snickerdoodles, because you roll them in a cinnamon sugar mixture!)
7 // White Chocolate Peppermint Pudding Cookies
I doubled this one, too. I’ve been making these for the past few years at least, and they’ve become a favorite of ours! I love getting a white hot chocolate with peppermint from coffee shops this time of year, and these cookies have all of those perfect flavors, plus some amazing chewiness.
Doubled this one as well. This is another favorite, classic recipe to make year after year. I formed all the dough into balls and got them frozen, and I’m storing a couple bags of Hershey’s Kisses nearby to pull out when it’s time to bake!
BONUS: Pretzel Hug Treats
We LOVED making these for the holidays when I was a kid! You can make them with Hershey’s Kisses, too, but know that the Kisses will melt faster than Hugs. I prefer the flavor of the Hugs but both are amazing. Just keep a close eye on them in the oven – they tend to go from not melty at all to too melty! This is not something I wanted to freeze ahead of time, but I do have all of the ingredients stashed in our basement pantry and ready to go! These are great treats to give away this time of year.
I hope that was helpful! I’m so thrilled to have all of this done already.
I’d love to hear in the comments what YOUR family’s favorite Christmas cookie recipes are! And have you ever tried prepping and freezing your Christmas cookies in advance?
