I have been searching online for easy Christmas cookie recipes to try with my kids this year. They are finally at the ages (6 & 9) where I feel like making cookies may not be too much of a disaster. Haha. I have never been a baker. My mom wasn’t a baker. So this is new to me. I spent the other day making Christmas treats with a friend of mine all day. We made the Reindeer Patties and the Peanut Butter Delights. I haven’t tried the other ones yet but I wanted to go ahead and share them since we are less than 2 weeks from Christmas. 

I found lots of recipes online in my research but have narrowed it down to 2 from online and 2 from my treat making day this week. Hopefully my search will help someone else out there like me. Someone who has no “family recipes”, no experience, no clue. 

If you do bake with your kids, I’d love to know what your favorite recipes are. Please share in the comments or email me. Put RECIPE in the subject line. 

Reindeer Cookies

These cookies are so adorable. I actually had these on my list to make last year but ended up spending the month of December in bed with Covid. There are alternate recipes without peanut butter if you have allergy issues in your home. Or if you want to bake them for a party at school. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 72 small pretzel twists, or as needed
• ½ cup chocolate chips, or as needed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Beat butter, sugar, peanut butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Stir flour and baking soda into creamed butter mixture until well incorporated.
3. Roll dough into 36 balls. Flatten each ball and shape into an upside-down triangle. Press two pretzels into the two top corners of each triangle for the antlers. Press two chocolate chips into the center of each triangle for the eyes, and one chocolate chip or M&M on the bottom of the triangle for the nose. Arrange cookies on baking sheets.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.

Cut-out Cookies

These cookies are super fun for kids to make. You will want to use 3 inch or smaller cookie cutters. For the icing, you can make some or buy the premade stuff. I also got these cute rolling pins for my kids so they could each roll out their own dough. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Easy Icing (optional)

• 1-2 tsp milk
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 drops food coloring (optional)

Directions

1. Place the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir together.
2. Add the remaining dough ingredients and use your hand to mix together to form a dough. (You can also use a food processor If you prefer. If the dough is a little crumbly, be sure that it’s throughly combined and then if it’s still crumbly, add 1/2-1 tablespoon additional milk until it comes together.)
3. Make two flattened disc of dough and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate while the oven preheats. 
4. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Working with one ball of dough at a time, roll about ¼-inch thick between Cut out the dough with a cookie cutter and transfer to the prepared baking sheets. Re-roll the scraps of dough and continue cutting out. (If you have any difficulty moving the cut outs, lightly flour the parchment paper.)
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. (If you have some smaller shapes than others or some thinner cookies than others, you may need to remove them from the baking pan first, and allow larger or thicker ones to bake for an additional few minutes.)
7. Remove from the oven, let cool on the baking sheet for a minute, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Meanwhile, repeat with the remaining dough.
9. Ice the cookies (see below)

Easy Icing (optional)

1. Stir the ingredients together in a small bowl. You want it to be able to spread easily on the cookies and not be too thick. If you place some on the cookies and it runs right off, add a little more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick to spread, add a drop or two of milk. You can color the icing with a drop of food coloring if desired.
2. Use a small butter knife or paintbrush to spread on the icing or pipe on as desired. If adding sprinkles or other decorations, add them to the iced cookies right away before it dries.

Reindeer Patties

These treats are so easy to make and they are not baked. They are basically melty  smores. Most recipes call for melting the marshmallows, which can be super sticky and messy. My friend Sheri came up with this version that has less mess. You melt the chocolate instead. When we made these treats this week we just “eye-balled” the measurements; so it may take some trial and error to get it right. Depending on how big you make the patties, this recipe can make up to 40 treats.

Ingredients

• 6-8 Cups of Golden Graham cereal
• 6-8 Cups of milk chocolate chips 
• ½-1 bag of mini marshmallows (or more if you love marshmallows!)

Directions

1. Put cereal and marshmallows in a large mixing bowl
2. Put wax paper on the counter (or large baking sheets)
3. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave 1 minute at a time. Check and stir. (It usually takes about 3 minutes)
4. Pour melted chocolate into cereal mix
5. Stir and fold until every bit is covered in chocolate
6. Use a spoon and drop spoonfuls of the mixture on the wax paper
7. Let chocolate harden
8. ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Delights

These no-bake treats are easy to make and super delicious. Of the cookies on the list, this is my favorite. You only need 3 ingredients.  If you have extra chocolate in the bowl, make a few more PB crackers. The “recipe” is not exact…

Ingredients

• 3 sleeves of Ritz Crackers
• 3 bars of white chocolate
• Jar of Peanut Butter
• Red/Green Sugar Sprinkles (Optional)

Directions

1. Make Peanut butter sandwiches with the crackers until gone. (Just a dab of peanut butter goes a long way- you don’t want it coming out the sides of the crackers)
2. Put wax paper on the counter (or large baking sheets)
3. Break up 3 chocolate bars and microwave 1 minute at a time. Check and stir. (It usually takes about 3 minutes)
4. Put PB cracker in chocolate, cover both sides and drop on wax paper. (I usually drop 4 cracker sandwiches in the chocolate at a time– speeds up the process)
5. Optional: dash red and/or green sugar sprinkles on top of the chocolate covered crackers. 
6. Let the chocolate harden. 
7. ENJOY!!

Do you have a favorite Christmas treat that you make every year? I’d love to hear about it!!

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.