The 16 Best Holiday Cookies to Make This Month

Holiday cookies don't get any cuter than these mini gingerbread houses that kids and adults alike will love. Use a mini gingerbread house cookie cutter to cut out all the parts (the kids will love helping with this part), then build the houses and let the kids go to town decorating. Line up your finished creations to make a gingerbread house village, eat them up or prop them up on mugs of cocoa for dipping and munching.

It's time to break out your spritz cookie press for these festive Christmas spritz cookies! These easy Christmas cookies can be decorated with sprinkles or flavored with citrus, spices or sweet sugar glaze. And if you're looking for healthy cookies, these fit the bill thanks to whole-wheat pastry flour that keeps their texture soft while giving them a boost of fiber. For ideas on how to dress up these spritz cookies even more with different flavorings or a glaze, see Tips below.

These flourless chocolate treats look like tiny snow-capped mountains. Made with a blend of almonds, coconut and chocolate, they are gluten-free and have a rich, decadent flavor.

Adding matcha, a powdered green tea with a grassy flavor, balances the sweetness of these little tea cakes and adds gorgeous color too. You can add more matcha to the glaze for a festive green tint or sprinkle some on top. Alternatively, use dehydrated raspberry powder for a pink hue.

These double-chocolate thumbprints are filled with chocolate ganache and topped with toasted coconut. The ganache will set as it sits, but won't harden completely, so if you're going to pack the cookies up, layer them between pieces of wax paper to prevent them from sticking.

These soft Italian lemon drop cookies feature both sweet and tangy flavors thanks to plenty of fresh lemon juice and a powdered sugar glaze. These easy cookies are perfect with tea and coffee and will make a great addition to your holiday cookie platter.

You can fill these thumbprint cookies with jam or ruby chocolate, a naturally pink chocolate that has a tart, fruity flavor. You can find ruby chocolate (also called ruby cacao or ruby couverture) at some specialty grocery stores, including Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and online.

Cookie recipes usually require you to combine the liquid ingredients in one bowl and dry ingredients in another, but for this gluten-free cookie recipe the dry ingredients are sprinkled right on top of the liquids so there's just one bowl to clean. Don't skip the step of refrigerating the dough. The oat flour needs time to hydrate or the cookies will be too dry and crumbly. Regular rolled oats work if you're not gluten-sensitive.

These tiny puffs are made from choux pastry, the same dough that's used to make cream puffs and eclairs. For a festive look, decorate with various colors of pearl or sanding sugars—both have larger granules that won't melt when baked.

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies take regular chocolate chip cookies to a whole new level. The browned butter add nuttiness to each cookie, while a sprinkle of sea salt takes these easy treats over the top.

Spelt flour's earthy flavor is a good companion to the warm spices and molasses in these cheerful cookies. Play around with the glaze and decorations to vary the look of the batch.

These soft and moist cookies are spiked with ginger, cinnamon, and a hint of clove, and they crackle on top when they bake. Rolling them in powdered sugar gives them a lightly sweet coating on the outside that looks like a dusting of fresh fallen snow.

This recipe takes oatmeal cookies up a notch with its cinnamony, buttery, delicious take on a much-loved classic dessert.

Look to these meringue cookies if you want a new, simple, no-fuss holiday cookie recipe. They're ready to eat after drying in the oven for an hour, but you can leave them in there longer–even overnight.

Slice-and-bake icebox cookies are the ultimate make-ahead treat. You can make a batch and bake as many as you like, saving the rest of the dough in the freezer. These simple swirled cookies are rolled in finely chopped pecans. They're mildly sweet—perfect for after dinner or paired with coffee.

These flourless cookies get their volume from whipped egg whites (like a meringue) instead of grains, making them gluten-free and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. A chocolate chip in each bite adds to the rich chocolate flavor.