Every year around Christmas, my husband and I try to spend a day making cookies. It usually ends up on December 23rd or 24th, but last year we were actually home on Christmas so we made them then and it was really special. Since we like to make a lot of different kinds, we end up with like 100+ cookies so we give them out to all of the friends and family we see over the next week. It’s become a really fun tradition and it’s something we look forward to each holiday season.

We’ve tried a lot of cookie recipes, but these are the ones that have stood out the most.

Our Go-To Site: Sally’s Baking Addiction

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband tried this recipe on a whim years ago and we’ve never tried another chocolate chip cookie recipe since. They’re absolutely delicious, they always get compliments, and they are perfect for improving a bad day. Find the recipe on Sally’s site here – the only thing we change is that we usually do half regular sized chocolate chips, have mini chocolate chips.

Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies

These inside out chocolate chip cookies are really similar to the chocolate chip cookie recipe above, just… inside out, as the name implies. They’re chocolate cookie dough with white chocolate chips inside. We made these for the first time last year because they sounded good to me after I saw a similar recipe on the back of the white chocolate chip bag, and now they’re one I’m probably going to want to make most years. We made a small adjustment to this recipe – I think we ended up doing half white chocolate chips and half mini chocolate chips.

Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

These are really easy and delicious sugar cookies; I’ve tried a few cut-out cookie recipes over the last few years but none have been good as these. Note that these are best if the dough is chilled overnight – it really kept them from spreading compared to when we just chilled them for a few hours. Find this recipe on Sally’s site here.

You can pair these with a Royal Icing recipe, but personally I loved Sally’s Easy Cookie Icing recipe – it was really simple and delicious.

Oatmeal Raisin / Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently made a batch of Sally’s Oatmeal Raisin cookies, but I split them into two bowls before adding the raisins so I could do half with raisins, and half with chocolate chips. They were absolutely perfect and I already can’t wait to make them again.

I got the exact recipe from the Sally’s Baking Addiction cookbook, but you can see another one of her other oatmeal cookie recipes here on her site.

Taste of Home: Raspberry Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies

We’ve made these pistachio thumbprints for years – they’re pretty easy to make, have a good salty & sweet thing going on, and I personally convince myself they are healthy because they have pistachios and fruit (jam) in them. We usually use strawberry jam instead of raspberry jam, but that’s just personal preference. Note the picture below is from the Taste of Home site.

Short Girl Tall Order: Vegan Pecan Pie Cookies

I’ve made these vegan pecan pie cookies half a dozen times in the past year, but somehow when I made them this past time I messed them up? I did two things wrong – first, I didn’t have vegan butter so I used salted (when I should have used unsalted – they tasted very salty) and second, I forgot to roll them in sugar. All of the other times I’ve made them, they’ve been amazing, though – so I need to make them again soon. Note the photo below is from Short Girl Tall Order’s site.

Pinch of Yum: Soft Gingerbread Cookies

I made these soft gingerbread cookies last weekend before hanging out with friends and they were super quick and easy. Gingerbread cookies probably aren’t my favorite, even though I always want to make them since it feels like it’s required in December, but this is the best recipe I’ve tried. The maple icing was really good, too – it would be good to use on other desserts, like maybe some kind of pecan shortbread cookie? One thing to note is that if you chill the dough like I did, they’ll need probably 2-3 extra minutes in the oven since the recipe doesn’t call for chilling – I didn’t think about that and my first pan was pretty doughy.

Let me know what cookie recipes you look forward to making around the holidays! I need a few new ones to try.