Christmas Cookies

I have a fun recipe for young kids, although it is not a cookie.
Take a pretzel (the regular ones, not the sticks)and place them on a cookie sheet
Put a hershey kiss on top of the pretzel --the unwrapping is very time consuming for a 5 year old :-)
bake a 300 for about 5-10 min--just enough to soften the hershey kiss
Take out of oven and place an m&m in the middle of the kiss and press it down.
The kids love them and they taste great!

1 mom found this helpful

Here is the website that Emmaline was trying to paste in. http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/cat0001.html
It has a ton of great and easy Christmas cookie recipes... it also has other non-cookie recipes there too. I highly recommend you check it out..
Also something fun that my mother-in-law used to do ever year when she taught Kindergarten was to make reindeer pretzels.
Basically, you need: regular pretzels, straight pretzels, white almond bark melted and M&M's.
you place the regular prezels on wax paper, fill the holes with melted almond bark, and then have the kids place two brown M&Ms in the top holes for eyes, and one red one in the bottom hole for the red nose. Then take a straight pretzel break in two and stick one in each spot above the eyes for antlers.(it helps to do a bunch of the straight ones up in advance so you just have to grab and stick, and to have the M&Ms sorted out ahead of time too)
They look super cute when done and the kids love to make them
Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

These are super easy cookies that you can make for christmas. I love to bake and I like to try complicated recipes, but these are awesome and super easy and my daughter loved helping put the peanut butter cups in :)

a tube of ready made peanut butter cookie dough (if you can't find it just use a recipe and make your own)

fill mini muffin tins 2/3 full of dough and bake for 8-10 minutes (I usually do 8 minutes)

When they are done immediately place a mini peanut butter cup (unwrapped of course) in the center of each "cookie".

You can't get much easier than that :)

Well I did this with my 5yr old boy and he thought it was fun. You take the pretzel rings and I took quickcandi and poured it the middle of the pretzel and then my son put a peppermint M&M in the middle. Also you can take the Andes mint baking chips melt them and put them in side the pretzel also. Make sure you put wax paper down on the baking sheet first and then I stuck them outside so that they hardened and then froze the rest in a container for x-mas.

Hope this helps I know it really is not cookies but, I'm not a baker and I like easy and no mess!!

I like to do easy too so my little ones can help. This year we are doing Santa cookies which are no bake. You need Nutter Butter Cookies, white chocolate, red hots, mini m&m's, red sprinkles, white chocolate chips. You'd be able to use the white almond bark instead of the white chocolate if you wanted.

Melt white chocolate, dip on end of the cookie in the white chocolate and then add red sprinkles and also a dab of white chocolate to secure a white chocolate chip for the hat tassle. Continue making the hats on all the cookies. Then dip the other end in the chocolate mixture for a beard. Put 3 dabs in the middle to secure 2 m&m's for eyes and a red hot for the nose. If you don't want to use red hots use another m&m.

I also make candy and here are some of the ones I make which my 4 year old made last year.

Chocolate covered peanuts:
melt chocolate almond bark or real chocolate and add peanuts and place in clusters on wax paper to dry.

CAPTAIN CRUNCH MIXTURE: (sounds weird but everyone loves it)
Melt white almond bark and add captain crunch berry cereal, miniture colored marshmallows, and peanuts. Mix and drop by spoonfuls on wax paper and let dry.

Pretzel treats
Put pretzels on baking sheet and put a hersey kiss on top. Bake in oven at 350 for about 1 1/2 minutes. Remove and add push down the kiss by adding a m&m. Easy treats and they taste good with the salt and chocolate.

Spread small, salted pretzels (the roundish or twist kind) on a baking sheet. Put one chocolate star on each pretzel. Bake at 350 until chocolate is just soft. Press one holiday colored m&m into each soft chocolate star. Let cool and enjoy your salty, chocolatey sweet creations! Super easy, low mess, and a good one for kids!

Easy, yummy, and healthy (as far as cookies go)!
Just mix a spice cake mix with 1 can of pumpkin and 1 cup chocolate chips (I use a mix of milk chocolate and white chocolate). Bake at 350* for about 15 minutes. Do the toothpick test to make sure they're done.
Kids and parents love these!

You could try a stovetop recipe goodie instead of something that needs to be baked. The women in my family get together every year as well and the oven is always too croweded to get everyones things baked and so I always ended up having to do another baking day for myself to finish all the baking I wanted done. because of that, last year, I opted for Chocolate Almond Toffee and Pepermint Bark. Basically, those 2 recipes are all melting things and pouring them onto a cookie sheet to cool and break-up later. My 4 year old will break it this year and help me bag them in cute little christmas bags. (target has the bags this year in the $1 section, otherwise, the bags could get a little costly) You can find recipes for both online. Or, you could do a Honey Butter recipe or Carmel's. Some cookies are basically like soft chewy molassis cookies that do not require baking, but instead cooking in a stove top to a certain consistancy and then rolling in chopped nuts, etc. Very yummy, but they still call them cookies. Or, you could do fudge and then pour a certain amount into a cute little tin lined with buttered wax paper. Cool, cover fudge with saranwrap, close the tin and tie it with a little ribbon and you've got a nice little gift.

Hope these ideas helped. Have a great christmas.

Years ago a neighbor of mine brought over different cookies and my favorite was probably the simplest one! It was the bacon and eggs "cookie". All it is is two pretzle sticks side by side (a little space between them), a small pool of melted white chocolate on the top in the middle (holds the pretzle sticks together), and a yellow M&M in the center of the chocolate.

I'm going to try to do that one with my boys this year... They can set up the pretzles, and pick out the yellow M&M's... :)

They just get made on wax paper -- no baking required, though you do have to melt the chocolate in the microwave. :)

Try making rice krispy bars flatten them very thin in wax paper or parchment paper. When they are cook cut out shapes using cookie cutters then let the chidren decorate them with sprinkles and candies colored sugar etc. My grandchildren love doing this. very little clean up

My 2 year neice loves to help with these. She helps roll the dough into balls and then put the chocolate on top!

Peanut Blossoms
INGREDIENTS
1 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar for decoration
2 (9 ounce) bags milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and stir in the milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Allow to cool completely; the kiss will harden as it cools.

This is my favorite recipe because there's no egg in it, which means you can eat the dough. :) It's also not very messy, and plenty of opportunities for kids to help. The original recipe doesn't look very festive...rather bland, actually, which is why we've started calling these Scooby Snacks; they look kind of like dog treats! But, the end has a more festive alteration! Enjoy:
Slice & Bake Cinnamon Sugar Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

-Combine butter, brown sugar, and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy (2-minutes). Reduce speed to low, and add flour slowly. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until mixture forms a dough (1-2 minutes).
-Divide dough into fourths. Shape each fourth into logs, about 1 inch in diameter (length doesn't really matter, and the diameter depends on what size you want your cookies to be; we like them smaller because then they're "bite size")
-Roll to create round logs and wrap in plastic wrap. OR, wrap in plastic first, and then shape logs into triangles or squares by pressing the logs flat on each side. (This is where kids love to help.) Refrigerate at least one hour.
-Heat oven to 385. Cut logs into 1/2" slices with a sharp knife. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes or until lightly browned on edges. Cool slightly.
-In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon. Roll warm cookies (or swirl around and fish out with slotted spoon) in mixture and cool.

Alternative: use colored sugar for a festive look. I did a combo of red and green last year and it looked really pretty.

Also, you can freeze the logs once wrapped in plastic wrap. Just throw into a freezer bag and defrost in frige overnight before cutting and baking. This is great to make in a large batch, and just grab a log or two when you want a great little treat. Also perfect for taking frozen logs to the cabin...by the time you get there it's defrosted and ready to bake, and who doesn't love home-made baked goods on vacation!!