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Christmas Desserts

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If you need a delicious dessert at the eleventh hour this holiday season, look no further! These 25 holiday dessert ideas are coming to the rescue.

Looking for a quick treat to leave out for Santa this year? Check out my best easy Christmas cookie recipes.

The Best Christmas Dessert Ideas

Amidst all the shopping, decorating, festivity planning, and cooking up a holiday roast, it’s sometimes easy to forget about dessert! If you need something sweet and delicious in a hurry this holiday season, I’m sharing some of my favorite holiday desserts.

From cookies to truffles, and bars to no-bake desserts, many of the festive recipes below are quick to prep on the spot with ingredients you already have on hand. As a bonus, these treats also make great gifts!

Overhead view of assorted Christmas Oreos decorated to look like reindeer, snowmen, and Christmas trees.

Christmas Oreos

How adorable are these chocolate-covered Christmas Oreos? These are crazy-easy to make and perfect for last-minute gifting. Decorate them any way that you’d like!

A bunch of peanut butter truffles on a white surface with a bite taken out of the one in the middle

Peanut Butter Balls

Crispy peanut butter balls are a quick and delicious no-bake dessert made from Rice Krispies cereal and creamy peanut butter, wrapped in a rich dark chocolate coating. You only need 6 pantry ingredients to make them!

A small pink dish with gold polka dots is filled with Mexican Wedding Cookies

Snowball Cookies

Snowball cookies are such a classic! You might also know them as Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies. These sweet and buttery shortbread cookies melt in your mouth, and they’re super simple to make for last-minute Christmas cookie platters.

Assorted Christmas cupcakes decorated with buttercream Christmas trees, Santa, and reindeer.

Christmas Cupcakes

Whether you make one of these or try a variety of these techniques, your friends and family will be amazed at your creativity with these easy Christmas Cupcakes ideas. Everything from Santa to Christmas Trees and Reindeer.

Assorted Christmas Cookies laid out on a table

Easy Sugar Cookies

If you’re too pressed for time to fuss with cut-out Christmas cookies, never fear. My EASY drop sugar cookies recipe is here to save the day. These cookies are soft and buttery, and you don’t need to chill the dough. You can easily make them festive by tossing in some Christmas M&Ms or red and green sprinkles.

Chocolate Truffles Piled Onto a Light Pink Dessert Plate

Chocolate Truffles

Homemade chocolate truffles are the easiest no-bake dessert that you can make with 5 ingredients. Whip up a batch of fudgy, chocolatey truffles, roll them in your favorite coatings, and you’re ready to go.

Two stacked peppermint bark cheesecakes unwrapped

Mini Peppermint Bark Cheesecakes

Try these bite-sized mini cheesecakes made from creamy filling loaded with peppermint crunch candy, topped with rich chocolate ganache. You’ll be swirling on a finishing touch of whipped cream in under an hour.

Three seven layer dessert bars stacked on top of one another with more bars in the background

Seven Layer Bars

Seven-layer bars? More like seven layers of heaven! Also called magic bars or Hello Dollies, these gooey dessert bars use common pantry ingredients like chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts, layered over a buttery graham cracker crust. This may be one of the quickest recipes to throw together.

Peanut butter buckeyes in a small white bowl with black polkadots.

Peanut Butter Buckeyes

Classic peanut butter buckeye candy needs only a handful of ingredients and it’s always a hit at the holidays! These chocolate and peanut butter balls require no baking and very little fussing.

A white plate with stacked cranberry orange cookies

Cranberry Orange Cookies

Soft, chewy and packed with flavor, these Cranberry Orange Cookies are a Christmas must-have. Dip or drizzle in white chocolate for a festive twist.

A batch of Peanut Butter Blossoms with some stacked on top of each other.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Peanut butter kiss cookies, also called peanut butter blossoms, are another classic that you can make in a flash. Mine are soft-baked peanut butter cookies that are rolled in sugar and topped with creamy Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Kisses.

A mini Gingerbread Cheesecake topped with whipped cream and mini gingerbread man

Mini Gingerbread Cheesecakes

Quick to make and even quicker to disappear at holiday parties, these cute mini gingerbread cupcakes are an easy Christmas dessert. The creamy cheesecake filling is filled with spice, and baked in a Biscoff cookie crust.

A glass plate piled high with rum balls decorated in various ways

Chocolate Rum Balls

Remember those chocolate truffles from earlier? Meet their indulgent, boozier cousins! These chocolate holiday rum balls are filled with crunchy nuts and a splash of spicy dark rum. These are great for grown-ups-only gifting.

A completed Christmas tree cake with a star on top and presents underneath it, all made out of cupcakes, frosting and sprinkles

Christmas Tree Cupcake Cake

Arrange your cupcakes in the shape of a Christmas tree for this easy and festive Christmas dessert. This tutorial will provide tips for assembly and decorating along with the recipes to use.

A small white cake stand with mini pecan pies on top

Mini Pecan Tarts

These mini pecan tarts are ready in an hour or less and taste like full-sized pecan pie. Make the sugary pecan filling with only 5 ingredients, then load it into bite-sized pie crusts and bake!

peanut clusters in a small white bowl with more in the background

4 Ingredient Peanut Clusters

You might know peanut butter clusters as crockpot candy, but making them on the stovetop is quick and easy! Chocolate chips, butterscotch, creamy peanut butter, and peanuts combine into irresistible crunchy clusters in this fail-proof no-bake dessert recipe.

white bowl filled with reindeer chow

Reindeer Chow

Fun and festive reindeer chow is a sweet holiday snack that does double duty as dessert. Chocolate muddy buddies, mini peanut butter cups, salty pretzels, and mini M&M combine in the perfect Christmas snack mix.

overhead shot of sugar cookie bar decorated with a buttercream Christmas tree

Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bars

Sugar cookie bars are the best shortcut to sugar cookies that don’t require any chilling, rolling, or portioning of the dough. These cookie bars are soft, chewy, and filled with crunchy peppermint candy, ready to be decorated with your favorite frosting.

A stack of 3 brownies with mint frosting

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Mint chocolate brownies are incredibly easy to make (you can even use a boxed brownie mix!) and they always receive high praise. Topped with creamy mint frosting and a layer of fudgy ganache, these brownies are an easy last-minute dessert for holiday potlucks.

A Christmas pinwheel cookie with a stack of cookies behind it.

Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

These Christmas pinwheel cookies are buttery sugar cookies infused with peppermint extract. It’s a soft-baked sugar cookie rolled into a festive pinwheel design. Slice and Bake cookies make a great addition to your Christmas cookie lineup.

a tall slice of a peppermint cheesecake on a white round plate with a gold fork

No-Bake White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

No-bake desserts are the perfect recipes to make ahead of time. Take the stress out of the last-minute holiday baking with this No-Bake Cheesecake.

A stack of five sugar cookies with every other cookie covered in nonpareil sprinkles

Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies

These soft and chewy Chocolate Sugar cookies are the fudgy counterparts to my favorite easy sugar cookie recipe. You can roll them in sugar or festive Christmas sprinkles for a holiday twist.

An overhead view of Christmas Anise cookies

Anise Cookies

Anise cookies are traditional Christmas cookies that you can prepare in under 30 minutes. They’re filled with delicious flavor from anise extract and topped with sweet icing. Just add sprinkles!

A close up of a dessert charcuterie board showing peanut clusters and some candy

Christmas Cookie Dessert Charcuterie Board

Whether you use homemade cookies or gather up your favorite store-bought treats at the last minute, you can’t go wrong with a Christmas cookie charcuterie board. This easy tutorial walks you through how to assemble the ultimate dessert charcuterie platter in just a few steps!

A loaf of cinnamon sugar bread cut into slices.

Cinnamon Sugar Bread

Technically this could be breakfast or dessert, but Cinnamon Sugar Bread is one of my favorite recipes to gift to friends, neighbors, and teachers. It’s soft, buttery, and has all warm cinnamon and brown sugars flavors in the streusel.

Craving more baking inspiration this festive season? Be sure to check out all of my latest holiday recipes!

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