The 2023 Christmas Cookie List
Ohhhh the Christmas Cookie List! This is always such a fun post to write – it’s a little outside of what you might normally see here on the blog, but every year I take a minute to sit down and write out a list of all of the Christmas cookies we plan to bake that year. It’s become such a tradition over on Instagram to share what we’re baking, and many of you like to bake along with us, so it’s just a thing now.
I realized this year as I was preparing to write the post that I’ve never done a real post specifically about Cookie Day and what it is. So today, let’s talk a little about my favorite Christmas tradition (I know I say that a lot, but truly it’s my favorite!).
What is Cookie Day?
For my entire childhood, Christmas cookies were always a huge part of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I don’t know when it all started, but every year when we’d gather at my grandparents’ house, every family coming would make a few different types of cookies and bring them.
There was a bar at my grandma’s house where we would put the cookies, and every year it would be overflowing with cookie tins. Like, stacked two or three deep. You had to dig to actually see them all. As a kid, it was like the most magical buffet I had ever seen.
Last year’s cookie buffet – this is about half of what we used to have when I was a kid!
Each year, as we got close to Christmas, my sister would come over and me, her, and my mom would pile into my mom’s kitchen and spend hours and hours baking together. We all came in with a list of cookies we wanted to make and I remember feeling so special that I was allowed to be making my own cookies. I was always so proud of whatever I had helped with, and the memories of those baking days are some of my most cherished Christmastime memories.
As I got older and started my own family (and my sister’s kids started to bake as well), things shifted a little. We no longer gather at my grandparents’ house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but cookies are still a deeply important part of our traditions! We don’t even discuss any other dessert because we all know it’s gonna be cookies!
So now, every year on December 23rd, the boys and I get started bright and early baking tons and tons (and tons and tons) of cookies. We call it cookie day, and Jackson talks about it all the time as we get closer to the big day. We blast Christmas music and let the kitchen get insanely messy and spend quite literally the entire day baking. It’s the best.
We don’t have as many people at our Christmas gatherings anymore, so these days we end up packing up about 3/4 of the cookies we make and dropping them off with neighbors. It’s always so fun to have the boys run up and drop a box of treats off on the porches of some of the people in our ‘hood that we love, and it’s the perfect way to cap off a day full of cookie baking.
And that’s the history of Cookie Day. Of course, Cookie Day isn’t the only day in December that we bake – I typically include one day each week in our activity advent where we bake cookies and watch a movie. So, it ends up being a lot of cookies throughout the month.
But that’s half the fun of December, right? Way too much sugar, but it’s worth it for all that cozy family time.
Our 2023 Christmas Cookie List
So now, let’s talk about what we’re baking this year! I keep a private board on Pinterest with all of the recipes we’ve loved over the years, and each year I sit down with the kids to pick out the ones we want to make that year.
We always aim for some tried and true favorites (I’ve marked those with a * below, so you know they have our official stamp of approval), along with trying a few new cookies.
Our list consists of four “pre-cookie-day” cookies (all tied to our activity advent calendar), and then 5 or 6 different types for Cookie Day!
Weeks Before Christmas:
- Decorated Sugar Cookies *
- Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies *
- Pretzel Treats (Pretzels with Hershey Kisses and M&Ms) *
- Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Cookie Day Cookies:
- Holly Jolly Santa Cookies *
- Reindeer Rice Krispies *
- Double Fudge Oreo Crunch Cookies *
- White Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Cookies
- Lemon Snowball Cookie
- Ritz S’more Cookies