5 Favorite Christmas Cookie Trends of 2025, According to Pro Chefs

It’s Christmas cookie season, and if you’ve still got a few spots to fill on your holiday dessert tray, then consider these popular recipes. We spoke with two professional chefs to learn this year’s biggest Christmas cookie trends. From cozy and nostalgic favorites to new, trendy flavors, there's a Christmas cookie for every preference. If you’re wondering what the flavor of the year is for 2025 or want to bake up a recipe your holiday guests will never forget, here are the cookie trends to try.

1. Showstopping Patterns

Shaw says cookies with interesting colors and patterns, like pinwheel cookies and checkerboard cookies, are trending this holiday season. Pinwheel cookies are rolled up into a maze of circular stripes, while checkerboard cookies feature alternating chocolate and vanilla squares. These cookies add fun texture and style to your holiday tray—and they’re guaranteed to stop arguments over whether chocolate or vanilla is better.

2. Linzer and Spritz Cookies

The biggest holiday hit that Shaw sees right now is Linzer cookies. “There are a lot of interesting shapes and fillings to make the cookies your own. Plus, you can try incorporating some fun add-ins into the dough,” she says. 

Linzer cookies are sandwich cookies filled with jam. The top cookie has a small shape cut out of its center, so you can see the jam inside. You’ll typically see these cookies dusted with powdered sugar; they’re usually made with nut flour for a nutty flavor that complements the jam. Raspberry jam is the most traditional filling. 

To make your Linzer cookies Christmas-themed, try cutting out different shapes in each one. Small snowflakes, candy-canes, Christmas trees, or even little reindeer are all fun ways to add an easy spin on a classic Linzer cookie. 

“I have been thinking a lot about spritz cookies,” Mensing says. “I still have my mom’s very vintage spritz mold from the 1960s. It’s a very simple cookie that you can make into all kinds of fun shapes, and a festive way to get the whole family involved.” After all, baking is a great excuse to spend time with your loved ones—and spritz cookies are easy, even for beginner bakers.

Spritz cookies are soft and buttery, and they’re molded into darling shapes using a cookie press—a surefire way to make cookies that look like they came straight out of a professional’s pastry case. Decorate them with food dye, sprinkles, or icing—or eat them all on their own for a melt-in-your-mouth treat. 

3. Muted Colors

A holiday dessert board isn’t complete without a few iced sugar cookies. Here, Shaw sees two color trends popping up this winter. The first is muted colors. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to opt for all neutrals when you whip up your sugar cookie icing; rather, soft colors (like dusty rose or pastel green) that go easy on the eyes are ultra-popular this year. 

Shaw says that Phthalo green (or, as you might know it, Home Alone green) is especially popular this holiday season. This trendy color is a social media star because of its rich yet cozy hue, but it’s really taking off for Christmas 2025 because of its association with Home Alone.

If you’re rewatching this holiday classic ahead of Christmas, keep an eye on the film’s color palettes. You’ll notice that Phthalo green is frequently incorporated, giving the film its cozy, traditional Christmas feel.

Incorporating Phthalo green into your sugar cookie icing is such a fun way to make your cookies stand out. When mixing your frosting, you’ll likely want to opt for bright, cool-toned blue food dyes to start, and add cool-toned yellow food coloring until you achieve that rich, luxurious green that everyone loves so much. 

To achieve a bright, colorful cookie that looks like it was decorated by a professional, follow Shaw’s tip. “For the coloring, I add white food dye to my royal icing before adding any color. The white food dye gives you vibrant and opaque colors. I find that without it, the cookie looks a bit lackluster,” she says. Whether you want to make your Phthalo green sugar cookies stand out or just feel like your iced cookies are missing a little something, white food dye will do the trick. 

4. A Little Something Extra

Shaw points out that some of the top add-ins her bakery likes to incorporate have been pistachios and matcha. A pistachio chocolate cookie might just be your next favorite trendy treat—and incorporating a bit of matcha into your favorite sugar cookie recipe is simple. You can even add matcha powder to cookie icing to give it a festive look. 

If you’re hoping to put a spin on your most traditional Christmas cookie recipes this year, Mensing highlights miso and pink peppercorns as two unique, savory add-ins that you won’t be able to get enough of. She recommends trying these flavors with sugar cookies specifically; while they might sound strange at first, adding savory flavors to your cookies is a great way to balance out the sweetness.

Pink peppercorns will add a hit of heat and a dash of Christmas color—and they’re great for adding even more of a warming feel to your favorite holiday spices, like ginger and cinnamon. Miso adds depth, richness, and contrast to the simple sweetness of a classic sugar cookie—try pairing it with brown butter for warm and salty goodness.

5. Leaning Into Nostalgia

“I think Christmas is the time to follow one’s heart, so make all those classics that you and your family love,” Mensing says. Adding a few trendy treats to your cookie tray is always a fun way to switch things up from year to year, but don’t let it distract you from old favorites.

Consider digging up a recipe book filled with cookies you used to love from Christmases past, or work together with your friends and family to create a cookie tray that mixes the old and the new.