Traditional Holiday Cookies

The holiday season is all about tradition. Be sure to include these classic cookie recipes on your holiday baking list.

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Photo By: Tara Donne ©Tara Donne

Photo By: Marcus Tullis

Photo By: Tara Donne ©Tara Donne

Photo By: Tara Donne

Spritz Cookies

Spritz are perhaps the most versatile holiday cookies — endlessly shapeable and in a clean palette for decorating. This recipe uses almond paste (instead of ground almonds) which gives them incredibly rich flavor, but also means the dough is perfectly smooth for using in a spritz press.

Get the Recipe: Spritz Cookies

Peppermint Twist Candy Cookies

A dash of peppermint extract in both the cookies and the icing imbues sugar cookies with candy cane-like flavor. Set aside some of the icing and tint it red; paint the stripes on top of the solid white icing layer to prevent the red color from bleeding into the cookie. Sprinkle with crushed candy canes once the icing has dried completely.

Get the Recipe: Peppermint Twist Candy Cookies

Viennese Crescents

These buttery pecan cookies are an easy-to-make classic and a great make-ahead dessert since the dough freezes well. Cover them in confectioners' sugar or dip them in dark chocolate — or make a mix of both.

Get the Recipe: Viennese Crescents

Honey-Almond Lace Cookies

Aida's delicate lace cookies have the thin, crunchy consistency of a buttery brittle, and the way they melt in your mouth will make you melt.

Get the Recipe: Honey-Almond Lace Cookies

Festive Jam Cookie Sandwiches

Vanilla- and lemon-scented cookies form unusually zesty sandwich halves for jam cookies. Use tiny cookie cutters to stamp out windows in the dough, and top the finished cookies with a snowy scattering of powdered sugar.

Get the Recipe: Festive Jam Cookie Sandwiches

Gingerbread House and People

Why make an empty 'ol gingerbread house when you can fill it with a whole gingerbread family and decorate it to the nines? Get the recipe and a step-by-step gallery on how to make the house and its inhabitants.

Get the Recipe: Gingerbread House and People

The Thin

The key to a thin, crunchy chocolate chip cookie? Increase the amount of baking soda by half.

Get the Recipe: The Thin

Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Shortbread

Dip Dave's shortbread into melted chocolate and let harden before eating.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Hazelnut Shortbread

Spicy Ginger Snap Cookies

Champions in the chewy department, these little cookies pack a powerful punch of ginger and spice.

Get the Recipe: Spicy Ginger Snap Cookies

Black and White Cookies

Do you save the white side for last or do you prefer to linger over the chocolatey dark side? Either way, it's hard to resist this deliciously cake-y cookie with a distinct New York attitude.

Get the Recipe: Black and Whites (Deli! Deli! Deli!)

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Though they lack the typical oblong shape of most biscotti, these hazelnut-studded cookies definitely contain that characteristic crunch.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Florentines

Orange and chocolate are a classic holiday pairing, and they've never been more suited for one another than in Giada's caramelized Florentines.

Get the Recipe: Florentines

Snickerdoodle Snowflakes

A pinch of nutmeg and a couple teaspoons of cinnamon can transform very vanilla cookies into sweetly spiced snickerdoodles. Get creative with your snickerdoodle snowflakes by mixing and matching different-shaped and -sized cutters with patterns drawn on using royal icing.

Get the Recipe: Snickerdoodle Snowflakes

Striped Christmas Sugar Cookies

With a little extra effort, transform regular sugar cookies into red-, white- and green-striped cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and other fun holiday shapes.

Get the Recipe: Striped Christmas Sugar Cookies

Holiday Spice Cookies

If you're a fan of gingerbread, you'll love these ginger cookies, made even spicier with nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. Molasses and jam provide extra flavor and make the cookies delightfully chewy.

Get the Recipe: Holiday Spice Cookies

Holiday Biscotti

Giada dresses her biscotti for the holidays by dipping them in white chocolate and sprinkling them with colored sugar.

Get the Recipe: Holiday Biscotti

Alton's Sugar Cookies

Alton's favorite sugar cookies can be stored for up to one week, making them a great make-ahead option for your holiday party.

Get the Recipe: Sugar Cookies

Pecan Sandies

Giant toasted pecan halves top these nutty, buttery shortbread cookies along with a blizzard of granulated sugar.

Get the Recipe: Pecan Sandies with Beautiful Toasted Pecans

Crisp, Chewy Meringues

You only need six ingredients to make Laura Calder's chewy-on-the-inside, crispy-on-the-outside meringues.

Get the Recipe: Crisp Chewy Meringues

Cocoa Brownies

Trying to resist cutting into Alton's chewy cocoa brownies until they cool will be the biggest challenge this holiday season.

Get the Recipe: Cocoa Brownies

Brown Sugar Shortbread

Brown sugar adds its slight molasses flavor and new dimension to this shortbread recipe. While your guests probably won't notice the switch, they will notice it's the best shortbread they've ever tasted.

Get the Recipe: Brown Sugar Shortbread

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Crushed candy canes add peppermint flavor to Alton's traditional pinwheel cookies. Make the dough in advance and keep it in the freezer so you'll be prepared for last-minute holiday visitors.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Butter Cookies

Emeril's simple butter cookies provide the base for endless creativity. And who doesn't love a challenge? See who can come up with the most fun and festively decorated cookie at your holiday party.

Get the Recipe: Emeril's Butter Cookies

Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches

Giada's sugar-studded chocolate-hazelnut cookies are topped with a chocolate kiss: perfect for your favorite cocoa lover.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches

Mini Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread houses are as fun to make as they are to eat — but sometimes, assembling cookie castles is as difficult as building their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Assemble this village of mini houses for a quick-and-easy version of the classic.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

The ricotta cheese in this recipe makes these cookies incredibly moist and slightly cake-like in texture. Both sweet and tangy, they're something different for the holiday cookie table.

Get the Recipe: Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Peppermint Fudge Crinkle Cookies

The snowy-white tops of chocolate crinkle cookies are always a welcome site on a holiday cookie plate.

Get the Recipe: Peppermint Fudge Crinkle Cookies

Cut-Out Cookies

Reindeers, Santas, Christmas trees and more: Bust out your best holiday cookie cutters for Nigella's easy Cut-Out Cookies.

Get the Recipe: Cut-Out Cookies

Dried Cherry, Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies develop a lot of their flavor while the dough is chilling. Fruity, nutty and chocolatey, they are a classic holiday combo.

Get the Recipe: Dried Cherry, Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Orange Clove Spiced Biscotti

Jeffrey Saad adds holiday flavor to his biscotti with cloves, orange zest and candied almonds.

Get the Recipe: Orange Clove Spiced Biscotti

Chewy Sugar Cookies

Roll the cookies in colored sugar sprinkles before baking for a festive dessert.

Get the Recipe: Chewy Sugar Cookies

Cream Cheese Shortbread with Toasted Walnuts

The crumb of this cookie — a nutty, cream cheese-spiked shortbread — is so fine and light that it literally melts in your mouth.

Get the Recipe: Cream Cheese Shortbread with Toasted Walnuts

Meyer Lemon Cardamom Crinkle Cookies

Aromatic cardamom gives these cookies unique and exotic flavor, and you can't beat the texture: gently crispy on the outside with a soft, cakey interior.

Get the Recipe: Meyer Lemon Cardamom Crinkle Cookies

One Dough, Three Holiday Cookies

Dave's basic dough recipe can be customized to the flavors you like best. He offers three twists to try, including chocolate, walnut and almond-orange.

Get the Recipe: Holiday Cookies: One Dough, Three Holiday Cookies

Macarons

Leave it to the French to create a sweet that's at once decadant and amazingly light. One taste and you'll understand why these petite Parisian pastries have become so popular.

Get the Recipe: Macarons

Sables

These crunchy cookies are the French version of the sugar cookie — salty, zested and studded with large sugar crystals.

Get the Recipe: Sables

Peanut Butter Cookies

The key to a soft and chewy peanut butter cookie? Vegetable shortening or coconut oil, both of which are soft at room temperature, lend their perfect texture. This recipe calls for chocolate chips, but for true peanut butter friends, choose the peanut chip variety.

Get the Recipe: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies