Are you excited for holiday baking? If you can’t wait to start, but you don’t know what to make, I’m here to give you some inspiration with my 2024 holiday baking list!
I bake so much in the month of December. I may bake more in the month of December than all other 11 months combined. And I like to bake year-round, so that’s saying something. I bake to give gifts, I bake for events, and I bake for my family to have festive goodies to gnaw on.
Gifts
Home-baked treats are my go-to gift for non-family members (and family members) at the holidays. They can look different from year to year, but I always gift baked goods to people in my life like my kids’ teachers, neighbors, the mailman, the sanitation engineers, etc.
Events
We all have extra events around the holidays, and they have to be sugar-fueled. If you’re hosting a holiday party or the holiday itself, baked goods are required.
Family goodies
I always remember being flush with baked goods at the holidays. At no other time of the year is there a constant supply of delicious treats on the kitchen counter. This is such a fun part of the holiday experience in my opinion, so the steady stream of baked goods tradition lives on in my house.
Of course, when you think of holiday baking, you probably immediately think of cookies. Although Christmas must include cookies in my opinion, it doesn’t have to be only about cookies. If you need holiday baking inspiration, for cookies and non-cookie treats alike, I’m sharing my holiday baking list for this year. These are all proven winners, and most of them are cranked out of my kitchen year after year. If you see something that piques your interest, give it a try – I’m linking all the recipes so you can easily replicate them. On your mark, get set, bake!
2024 Holiday Baking List
Cookies
The main focus of holiday baking is usually cookies. You need cookies for Santa, you need cookies to stash in cookie tins for your loved ones, you need cookies to gift your service providers, and you need cookies to munch on after a long day of wrapping presents. That’s a lot of cookies.
Good thing most cookies freeze really well. So, get started on your cookies now and shove them in your freezer until you need them. I will say that the cut-out sugar cookies are the exception here. They don’t freeze super well. I always save the cut-outs for last and make these on Christmas Eve (or a day or two earlier) so Santa gets fresh ones.
Chocolate crinkle cookies
My go-to recipe is from my girl Sally at Sally’s Baking Addiction (you’ll see that this is a theme). They are classic chocolate crinkles with the addition of chocolate chips, making them double chocolate crinkle cookies. These might be my favorite Christmas cookie (but I can’t commit) and they’re definitely one of the first items on the holiday baking list to disappear. We must have a visiting elf that likes them.
Lemon crinkle cookies
If chocolate isn’t your jam, have I got the crinkle cookie for you! How Sweet Eats’ lemon crinkles are delicious. So bright and zingy, a great foil to all the heavy food you’re likely eating at this time of the year.
Brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies
Everyone likes chocolate chip cookies, but at the holidays, I like to plus them up and make them a little extra special. Enter Sally’s Baking Addiction’s brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies. The perfect step up because they still taste like chocolate chip cookies with a little something extra. They’re phenomenal.
Iced oatmeal cookies
As you can see, I really like to fill my holiday baking list with traditional cookies. And you can’t get much more traditional than an oatmeal cookie. It just tastes like tradition. There are many different varieties of the humble oatmeal cookie. You can go the oatmeal raisin direction or the oatmeal chocolate chip direction. I prefer to go the iced oatmeal cookie direction. They’re just so cozy, which is exactly what I want at the holidays.
Peanut butter blossoms
Is a Christmas cookie tin complete without peanut butter blossoms? They are such a fan favorite. Obviously, leave these off your holiday baking list if you or a loved one have a peanut allergy. No emergency room visits this December please!
Brown butter sugar cookies
I may have a hard time deciding on my favorite Christmas cookie, but I know for a fact what my husband’s and son’s favorite cookie is. They both inhale brown butter sugar cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. I have to hide them in the garage freezer so they don’t eat them all before I can make cookie tins. They have good taste. These are so good. The brown butter gives them an incredible depth and the nonpareils give them a nice little crunch. If you’re looking for something new to add to your holiday baking list this year, make it these.
Soft ginger snap molasses cookies
Look, I love a soft ginger snap cookie, but part of the appeal of making these is the smells you get to experience as you’re making them. They smell like Christmas. Period. I’ve tried many different ginger cookie recipes over the year, but Sally’s Baking Addiction’s soft ginger snap molasses cookies because they smell the best. If you want that classic Christmas smell hanging in your house this month, whip up a batch of these cookies. Oh, and I don’t mix in any chips. I like them plain.
Snickerdoodles
Grab that bottle of cream of tartar that you haven’t used in a year and make some snickerdoodles. Why don’t we eat snickerdoodles year-round? They’re great. Soft, cinnamon, and easy. If you do only make them once a year, make it this month.
Cake
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is to bake (and eat!) Jesus’ birthday cake. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth after all, so he should have a cake. My family always sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and ate his birthday cake on Christmas Eve, but we now spend Christmas Eve with my husband’s family, which does not have this tradition. I love this tradition so much that we’ve shifted it to Christmas Day (which we largely spend just as a nuclear family). It’s a way to make an old tradition work in a new way.
My mom always made an applesauce cake for Jesus’ birthday when I was little, and my aunt always makes a strawberry cake every year. I like to mix things up and pick a different flavor every year, after consultation with my kids. This year we have landed on chocolate overload, per my son’s request. I’m planning to make Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Triple Chocolate Cake and eat a big piece!
Other treats
In addition to cookies and Jesus’ birthday cake, I make a few other miscellaneous treats during the holidays that deserve a place on my holiday baking list. Don’t sleep on these treats just because they’re “other.” They’re worth adding to your holiday baking list too!
Strawberry bread
When I was a child, it wasn’t Christmas until the blender came out and it was time to make strawberry bread. My mom made strawberry bread for everyone – neighbors, friends, coworkers. If you were in my mom’s life, you knew you were getting strawberry bread for Christmas.
I loved to help her make strawberry bread every year. I got to steal a frozen strawberry or five as a snack and I got to man the blender controls. Then, when it was time for the strawberry bread tins to go in the oven, I would take up residence in my spot in the corner of the counter and my mom and I would chat while she cleaned up. Gosh I hope that my kids will want to chat as I clean up the strawberry bread mess as they get older. For now, I follow my own advice and give them age-appropriate jobs and let them peace out to the basement when they get bored.
I recently shared my mom’s strawberry bread recipe in my Thanksgiving hostess gifts post, but I’ll repeat it here if you missed it.
Mom’s Strawberry Bread
What you need
- 3 Cups flour
- 2 Cups white sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 4 eggs
- 1 ¼ Cups vegetable oil
- 1 bag frozen strawberries, thawed
- Powdered sugar
How to make it
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease loaf pans (makes 3 medium loafs). Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Throw the thawed strawberries, eggs, and vegetable oil in the blender. Blend until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the blender concoction into the well. Stir until well combined. Bake for approximately 1 hour until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. While the bread is still warm, dust the top with some powdered sugar.
Fudge
The other random treat that’s on my 2024 holiday baking list is fudge. I don’t make fudge every year at the holidays, but it’s calling to me this year. I just need a little fudge in my life, and you probably do too. I usually just make a simple chocolate fudge, but this peppermint bark fudge is very intriguing, so I’ll probably try my hand at it this year.
Other posts
Need more Christmas inspiration?
Is your mouth watering? Mine sure is! Now it’s time to go get started on all this holiday baking! I’d love to know what’s on your holiday baking list this year. Please share below or on Instagram @sarainseason!