4 Easy Cookie Recipes for Santa

Super easy, family friendly cookies you can make with the kids!

It’s that time of year where children have to help bake cookies in the kitchen. Uh-oh. I mean, it’s that time of year where everyone gets to be in the kitchen together as a family. Yay! Seriously, though, who doesn’t love baking cookies for Santa?

Baking is actually a great way to introduce young children to cooking and giving homemade gifts to other friends and family, too. Now, I will admit that I like easy recipes–I mean really easy recipes. I like recipes that have between three and five ingredients. Here are four of my favorite easy, family-friendly holiday cookie recipes.

3 Ingredient Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are my favorite cookies (and sugar cookie dough is also the best) and when I can find a quick and easy recipe, I just stick with it. The great part of a simple recipe is that you can add things to it. You can add vanilla or almond flavor to this recipe, add sprinkles at the end or even in the dough, or decorate them once they’ve cooled. However, these cookies can spread while baking, so you have to give them room on the cookie sheet. (Don’t worry, we’ve got tips for that coming.)

• 2 sticks plus 4 TBSP salted butter
• ⅔ cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

First, make sure you start with room temperature butter. Next, mix the sugar and the butter together until the mixture is almost white and fluffy. It should feel like a slightly gritty frosting. You can do this part by hand, but it is better with an electric mixer. Then gradually stir in the flour to make your dough.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make the cookies into 1” balls and put them on the cookie sheet. Now–and this step is crucial–put the cookies in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes. Sounds like a lot of work, but this step will make them spread less and keep their shape better. And you get time to make the kids clean up for decorating or preheat your oven if you forgot. (I always do!)

Bake for 15 – 17 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.

• Christmas Cookie Pro Tip – This is a great recipe for the traditional Christmas cookies decorated with icing and/or sprinkles that we all know and love. The trick is to roll out your dough into ¼ inch sheets while it’s soft, cut it into shapes and lay those out on your cookie sheets, and THEN put them in the freezer to chill. They’ll stay cute snowmen or trees instead of turning into crispy golden blobs!

2+ Ingredient Banana Cookies (No sugar added!)

If you’re health conscious and like bananas, this is the cookie recipe for you. This is also a cookie recipe that you can add to very easily. You can add spices, nuts, or dried fruits to this recipe.

• 3 Ripe Bananas
• 1 ½ cups whole oats
• ¼ cups add-ins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease or line your cookie sheet.

Mash the bananas in a bowl, add the oats and any other add-ins and then stir. Then form and place your dough on the cookie sheet. Bake them for 12 minutes.

These guys will not change shape while cooking, so if you want them to have that “cookie” appearance, you will have to flatten them before popping them into the oven.

You can add all kinds of things to these cookies: almonds, peanut butter, Nutella etc…

Cake Mix Cookies

Cake mix cookies are sort of my new favorite thing because it takes out all of the extra work of spices but still makes amazing, fluffy cookies. The best part is that it makes the flavor guesswork so easy when it comes to children. Any cake mix they want– that’s the flavor! How simple is that?

• 2 (18 oz) packages of cake mix
• 1 cups butter
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cookie sheets.

Combine softened butter, eggs, and cake mix in a bowl until the dough is thoroughly mixed.

Drop the dough by tablespoons 2” apart on a cookie sheet. For extra fun, press a frozen chocolate candy or chilled nut into the center of the cookie.

Bake for 9-12 minutes. Cool the cookies for two minutes before moving them to wire racks to cool.

Free of All the Things Peanut Butter Cookies

Are you trying to please a lot of different people with one recipe? Is someone vegan, someone else gluten free, someone else has an allergy to something, and then everyone else is on a diet? If that’s the case, then this peanut butter cookie recipe is right for you. Instead of eggs, this recipe calls for ground chia seeds. Ground chia seeds can be purchased at most health food stores in a bag or fresh, or you can buy whole seeds and use a coffee grinder.

• 2 cups peanut butter (or any nut or seed butter you want)
• 1 ½ cups sugar (or whatever sweetener you want)
• 3-4 tbsp ground chia seeds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until it is well mixed. Start with 3 tablespoons of the ground chia seeds and if the batter seems too thin, add the extra tablespoon.

Form small balls on the sheet, spread them 3-4 inches apart. Press the balls into cookie shapes and press them with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown and soft.

When Santa comes around, you have to have cookies for him, right? These sorts of holiday traditions are the most fun to share with your kids, even if it ends up in a mess. These recipes should all be easy enough for you to make with your kids, so that you can focus on enjoying the time with them and not on a bunch of fussy prep and cleanup. With our easy recipes and cookie baking tips, you’ll have cookies your kids will love to make and Santa will love to eat!