25 Favorite Christmas Treats {Candy + Cookies + Fabulous Food Gifts}
If you are still looking for Christmas baking/treat-making inspiration, here are 25+ of my favorite, FAVORITE holiday treats for gift-giving.
There are some Christmas cookies, favorite candy recipe (most of them super simple!), and a couple fabulous non-baking food gifts (like that homemade hot chocolate mix, hot chocolate truffles, and the brilliant cookie dough tins).
I didn’t include this on the official list below, but one of my go-to holiday food gifts every year is making a batch or two of gourmet caramel apples (sounds fancier and harder than they really are) and giving them out right and left.
Such a fun, unique, and festive gift! There’s a free how-to printable on that caramel apple post, BTW.
Every other year or so, we make an epic number of cheeseballs and give those out to neighbors and friends as a nice change to all the sweetness floating around. {So if you’re wondering why a cheeseball appears on the list below, that’s why!}
Anyway, if you have a second, I’d LOVE to know what you are cooking and baking and candying up this holiday month! Comment below and let me know!
I love making your cinnamon caramel popcorn at Christmas time. My family requests it every year!
Which one do you think would hold up the best in the mail?
Probably the butter toffee popcorn or the caramels. 🙂
I have made 9 batches of the Maple-spice Cashew Brittle for neighbor gifts (not all of it made it out of the house), the homemade hot chocolate for my missionary granddaughter who loves all things hot chocolate, and a batch of the cranberry white chocolate bliss bars for book club cookie exchange (huge success). I’d say a pretty good dent in my holiday baking list. What’s next – maybe the fudge and molasses cookies? Great list!
Thanks, Rebecca!! Always love hearing from you. That’s quite a lot of holiday baking already!
Can I just say… I wish you were my neighbor! Are you sure you don’t want to move to Mesa, AZ 🙂 It’s sunny and 73 degrees right now! (OK, yes, it did get over 120 degrees last summer, but it’s a “dry heat” 🙂 )
Haha, I AM freezing, so the offer is tempting. 🙂 It hasn’t even snowed here yet, but I’ve become a wimp, and the 30 degree temps are freezing me out (don’t tell my Minnesota friends, they’ll laugh at me).
The Twixster cookies are at the top of my baking list this year! And I’m also making Turtle cookies and Double Chocolate Chip Peppermint cookies! Yum!
Love that list of cookies!
I’ll be making your twixster cookies and some sugar cookies AND steering clear of the cheeseball…I ate almost half of one the other day. I told my husband they should be called shameballs!
Hahahahaha. That made me laugh out loud. Seriously. I’m going to be giggling all day.
The cinnamon caramels are on my list to make for gifts this year- so excited to try them. I made your twixster cookies last year for gifts and they. were. incredible. I had to give them away quickly or I would have eaten them all!! I LOVE your site, Mel- everything I have ever made has been amazing. Merry Christmas!!
Thank you so much, Mary! Merry Christmas to you, too!
Hi Mel!
Our holidays are not complete without frosted sugar cookies (ourbestbites.com), molasses crinkles (my Grandma), peanut brittle (family friend) and fudge. I may have to add your toffee caramel corn. That looks wonderful!
Thank you for all of the wonderful recipes. Your website has been my go-to for years!
Thanks, Jen! Love the lineup of yummy treats!
My husband always bakes mini loaves of bread and cinnamon butter to give to friends and coworkers. People always think I’m the one that bakes them, but I just tie the bows
That’s awesome! I’m super impressed. 🙂
I always make your soft chocolate caramels but I use molasses instead of corn syrup. It is so yummy and festive. Such a good recipe either way! Thanks, Mel!
I’m also going to make your bread bowls for our seafood bisque that we have every Christmas Eve. Yum!
That is such a fabulous idea to use molasses! Thanks for sharing that! That seafood bisque sounds divine!
Mel,
I have been reading your blog for a LING time and love it! I made your green bean casserole at thanksgiving and my super picky inlaws LOVED it. Thank you!!! Last night on a whim I made your brown sugar crackle cookies. – a recipe I had printed in 2012 and still not baked!? They are delicious! Merry Christmas to you and all your crew!
Thanks so much, Chris!
Merry Christmas, Mel! I love your blog. I wanted you to know that your Slow-Cooker Turkey Breast, and your Simple Roasted Turkey (in a bag) recipes were spot on and delicious to feed my crowd this year! Thank you!
I am going to make your Gingerbread Men this year. Question regarding Christmas Dinner: I want to serve 25 big eaters with roasted Beef Tenderloin. How would you advise roasting it/them, and any suggestions to plate it up after tenting and slicing to eliminate the site of blood-tinged juices of medium-rare roast pooling on the plate?
Thanks, Nancy! I’ve used this simple recipe for beef tenderloin before, and it is delicious: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/132351/fabulous-beef-tenderloin/
I don’t know that there is a good way to get around the juices issue other than serving it on a bed of mashed potatoes or putting fresh herbs all around the serving platter, maybe?
Oh, thank you!
Do you recommend replacing a portion (?) of the lite soy sauce with red wine?
I want to get this right; doing 10 pounds worth of meat. thank you for being a “real and responsive” advisor to Kimball.
Hi Nancy – I haven’t replaced the soy sauce with red wine, but lots of commenters did with great success, so you might consider it! Good luck!
I just made 16 dozen of your Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins yesterday and gave those out today. (With a card that said, You’re getting muffin for Christmas!) They were a big hit!
That’s an adorable (and healthy) gift! I love it!
Whoa! SIXTEEN DOZEN? You rock, Shauna!
I had a baby 3 weeks ago so we are doing our gifts in waves. We did homemade hot chocolate for teachers. Butter toffee popcorn for neighbors. Some cookies and toffee for coworkers and church friends.
I’m impressed you are doing ANY baking this year, Kim! Bless you!
I have gifted your oatmeal pancake mix at Christmas time with rave review and many recipe requests. Sometimes it is nice to get something you can use later after the glut of food gifts is gone and you are all sugared out.
What a great gift idea, Jen! I love that so much.
Hi Mel, I love all of your ideas so much! I recently made Jodi’s churro toffee oyster cracker snack mix (5 Boys Baker) and it is wonderful, so I’ve been making a couple of batches of those. I made your holiday black and white cranberry bark last night to take to a party today and it was a big hit. I am going to try the new easiest fudge recipe this coming week. And I make my cinnamon sugar coated pecans every year. I also love Katie Brown’s cinnamon quick bread and make mini loaves out of it to give my pediatrician, yoga teacher, and some neighbors, etc.–it uses shortening, but I buy the non-hydrogenated kind and it is a fabulous recipe.
I wondered how that holiday bark turned out. Glad it was well received! I’m going to have to look up that oyster cracker snack and the cinnamon quick bread. Yum!
always a good line up! I make the cinnamon sugar almonds(nuts) for my husband’s work every year and they are a hit. My daughter made the gingerbread cookies last week = YUM. The twixter cookies are on the to-make list this week for a cookies exchange on Friday. This is my go-to site for deliciousness.
Thanks, Ellen! Happy baking!
I made Christmas crack last year with saltine crackers and some with graham crackers. It is now my favorite thing to make since you can do big batches at a time. This year I am doing that, plus pumpkin bread, truffles, cookies, and anything else I feel like making! I will have to try your brownie batter truffles, those look amazing.
That saltine/graham toffee is the best.
Goodmorning Mel,
Our Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without-
Guinness Gingerbread
White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits (cookies)
My Very Easy Chocolate Christmas Cake
Salted Peanut Brittle
And a very non traditional Chocolate Pudding with Chocolate Sauce
All delicious, all easy, no fuss recipes cause the last thing we need at Christmas is stress from baking.
Have a lovely day.
Fi
What a yummy lineup, Fiona! Thank you for sharing!
I have 3-week-old twins so the only thing I’m baking this holiday season is lactation cookies (ha), but last year I made your twixsters (seriously, my favorite cookie ever!!), and brookies with red M&Ms in the white half and green M&Ms in the chocolate half 🙂 Super fun and festive! I also made peppermint bark and Oreo truffles last year, and fudge of course. My goodness, I might have to go bake during naptime… Christmas baking is better than sleep, right?
Oh my goodness, Lisa. Good for you for NOT baking this year! I can’t even imagine. I do love the idea of those festive brookies, though. Don’t you dare bake during naptime! Sleep, girl, sleep.
Love your blog! Made 3 batches of your DECADENT DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COOKIES to bake at my family’s cookie bake party tomorrow. My Mom made a special request for these cookies as they are one of her favs.
I like your mom! 🙂 Those are probably one of my favorite cookies of all time, too.