80 christmas cookie recipes

Traditional German lebkuchen: honey-and-molasses spice cookies studded with citron and nuts, finished with a brushed sugar glaze. A heritage Christmas cookie that gets better as it ages.

Italian Christmas cookies (Patina di Natale) studded with toasted pine nuts and brightened by lemon zest. A buttery, golden-glazed cookie-cutter classic from the holiday tables of southern Italy.

Norwegian sandbakkels are delicate almond shortbread tarts pressed into fluted tins. Traditional Scandinavian Christmas cookies with buttery, sand-textured crumbs.

Bizcochos are traditional New Mexican holiday cookies creamed with lard, scented with orange zest, baked golden, then rolled in cinnamon sugar. The state cookie of New Mexico for Christmas and weddings.

Secret kiss cookies hide a whole chocolate kiss inside a buttery, walnut-flecked shortbread, baked until just set and rolled in powdered sugar. Bite in and the soft chocolate center is the surprise. A Christmas cookie tin favorite.

Honey-dipped cookies, the Greek melomakarona, are oval spiced cookies fragrant with orange, cognac, and cinnamon, soaked in honey syrup and showered with walnuts. An irresistible Christmas tradition from the Aegean kitchen.

Bizcochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico: lard-based shortbread perfumed with anise and sweet wine, dusted in cinnamon sugar, and baked into delicate flaky rounds. The traditional Christmas and wedding cookie of the Southwest.

Mandel-Halbmonde are German almond crescents: buttery shortbread cookies shaped like half-moons, baked pale, then rolled twice in powdered sugar. The kind of melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie every German bakery puts on the holiday plate.

Holiday almond wreath cookies piped from a star tip and decorated with red and green candied cherries. Buttery almond shortbread in a festive Christmas-tin shape.

Holiday harlequin fudge stacks dark chocolate-walnut over white chocolate-cherry in one loaf pan. A two-toned, brandy-laced Christmas fudge for cookie trays and tins.

Lebkuchen German Christmas cookies blend honey, molasses, cardamom, and clove into a dense spiced dough rolled and cut into shapes. Family tradition, ages and keeps for months.

Cornmeal cookies blend stone-ground cornmeal with flour for a sandy, slightly crunchy crumb. Studded with dried cherries or raisins and warmed with nutmeg. An Italian-American Christmas tin staple.

No-bake date and nut balls combine simmered dates, candied cherries and butter with rice cereal and walnuts, rolled in coconut. A retro Christmas cookie tray classic from the 1950s.

Pepparkakor, the thin and snappy Swedish spice cookies layered with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg over deep molasses. Sliced from chilled logs and baked crisp. A classic Scandinavian Christmas treat.

Cucidati, the traditional Sicilian Christmas fig cookies, with a rich filling of figs, raisins, nuts, chocolate and rum wrapped in tender pastry, shaped into slashed horseshoes and dusted with sugar.

Spells & Bells are festive Christmas cookies cut into holiday shapes and deep fried until golden and puffed, then served plain, sugared or glazed. A cream-rich fried dough that's crisp outside and tender within.