This is the ULTIMATE LIST of Christmas baking ideas for Christmas cookies, candy, bar desserts, cakes, and bread. All of my favorites, all in one place. There are tons of can’t-miss December recipes, such as crock pot peanut clusters, avalanche bark, eggnog bundt cake, nut roll, and the most popular recipe for the last few years – Danish butter cookies. No boring holiday cookie trays for you!

Tin of Danish butter cookies with text overlay of "The 2024 Ultimate List of Christmas Baking Ideas".

Have you started any holiday baking yet?

Thanksgiving is over and our house is decorated for Christmas, but I haven’t made any Christmas recipes yet. Usually, the very first one to come out of my kitchen is peppermint bark – I keep it in the refrigerator and love to steal nibbles throughout the month :)

I compiled this list for all of us (myself included!) so we can narrow down what to bake in the upcoming weeks. I’ve included TONS of Christmas cookies, candy, some bar desserts, festive cakes, and bread. So many options!

I would love, love, love to hear which Christmas sweets are nostalgic for you, what you MUST have, what you plan on making this year… please share in the comments below!

Christmas Cookies

Nothing says holidays quite like Christmas cookies! The centerpiece of Christmas cookie trays, there are so very many to choose from and so little time!

Growing up, my mom’s go-to cookies were mini cheesecake cookies, peanut butter blossoms, pecan tassies, peanut butter cookies, and, of course, decorated cut-out sugar cookies.

The Christmas cookie lineup on BEB:

Christmas Candy

Does Christmas scream CANDY to you? Do you churn out batch after batch of fudge, toffee, and brittle?

I could take an entire batch of peanut butter buckeyes, hide until New Year’s, and be a very happy gal.

My favorite Christmas candy:

Easy Bar Desserts

Bar desserts aren’t AS popular on holiday cookie trays, and I don’t know why! They’re usually super easy to bake and you can cut them into small squares to get a lot of bang for your baking buck.

I love ALL of these bars and think they’d all make wonderful additions to your Christmas baking list.

Bars for Christmas cookie trays! … 

Christmas Cakes and Desserts

What is your go-to for Christmas dessert? Or Christmas Eve dessert? Truth be told, we are usually too full from both meals for a large dessert, so we typically graze on cookie trays. But if you’re looking for a fantastic holiday dessert, any of these cakes would make a wonderful choice!

Behold, Christmas celebration cakes:

Christmas Bread

And finally, festive Christmas bread! Just a few, but I couldn’t have a Christmas baking list without them. Babka is the ULTIMATE in sweet breads and I could eat a ridiculous amount of it. I’ve also included both Italian and Greek traditional Christmas bread, as well as nut roll, which is maybe technically a bread since it uses yeast? Or pastry? However you classify it, it’s not Christmas without it!

For my bread-baking buddies:

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS RECIPES?

I would LOVE to hear about your family traditions, favorite recipes, and what you absolutely, positively cannot live without in December. Share in the comments section below!