8 Kid-Friendly Christmas Cookie Recipes for a Joyfully Messy Kitchen

Brace yourself for sprinkles everywhere.

By
Leah Colins
A studio portrait of editor Leah Colins.
Leah Colins
Senior Culinary Editor

Leah is the Senior Culinary Editor at Serious Eats, and was previously a recipe developer and editor with America's Test Kitchen for almost 9 years. She has developed recipes for and edited over 20 cookbooks ranging in topic from bread baking to plant-based eating to outdoor grilling and so much more. While there, she also developed recipes and articles for Cooks Illustrated Magazine, Cooks Country Magazine, and ATK's digital platform.Before her life as a recipe developer, she cooked in 5-star and Michelin-starred fine dining establishments from coast to coast such as The Herbfarm and Aubergine Restaurant at L'Auberge Carmel; she also treasures her time flipping burgers on flattops in her teenage years, and baking and boxing cookies and pies at a wonderful family-owned German bakery in her early professional life.

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Published December 06, 2025
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Photographs: Vicky Wasik. Video: Serious Eats Team

The words “holiday baking” conjure visions of serene kitchens dusted with a tasteful snowfall of powdered sugar—but anyone who’s ever baked with kids knows the truth: It’s chaos in an apron. December is already packed with shopping, school concerts, and the annual scramble to locate the one ornament that definitely wasn’t broken last year. Add a few enthusiastic junior sous-chefs, and suddenly your countertops are a Jackson Pollock of frosting, your cookie cutters are in the heating vent, and someone is definitely eating raw dough.

But that’s also the magic of it. Baking Christmas cookies with kids turns even the busiest weekend into a sugar-coated memory factory. These recipes are forgiving, festive, and built for joy more than perfection—ideal for little hands, short attention spans, and big creative swings. Whether you’re rolling, cutting, sprinkling, or strategically redirecting the cinnamon shaker, these eight cookie recipes make holiday baking fun, delicious, and delightfully unruly.

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