Vintage cookie recipes for Christmas! The last time I brought your Vintage Pie recipes for the holidays (or anytime) but it just wouldn’t be Christmas without some of these amazing vintage cookie recipes! If your family is like mine you have a few standards that have graced holiday dinners for as long as you can remember. Maybe they’re secret recipes that you can’t share or maybe everyone on the block is now making your great-great-grandmother’s favorite vintage bake. Either way vintage cookie recipes should be kept and made for generations to come. You know how important I think cooking from scratch is, and baking is at the top of that list during the Christmas season.
The best part of making these yummy cookies is it can be a family event. My daughters and I can spend a day baking and the youngest loves to bring a plate to the neighbors.
I hope you find a vintage cookie recipes that you can incorporate into your holiday celebrations this year!
The Most Delicious Vintage Cookie Recipes for Christmas
Pfeffernüsse Cookies (spiced German Christmas cookie)
Old Fashioned Gingerbread Men Cookies
Apricot Kolaches (Hungarian Christmas Cookie)
Traditional Christmas Shortbread Cookies
Grandma’s Snickerdoodles Recipe
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies Recipe (perfect for decorating) 
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies (so festive)
Cranberry Icebox Cookies (grab a mug of tea with these)
Coconut Macaroons (a personal favorite of mine)
Vintage Cherry Winks Cookie (with maraschino cherries)
Moravian Christmas Cookies (paper-thin, crispy, spiced molasses cookies)
Grandma’s Christmas Divinity (ok kind of a candy but still oh so vintage)
Italian Christmas Cookies (family recipe)
Mom’s Best Peanut Brittle (again more of a candy but its tradition!)
Old Fashioned Spritz Christmas Cookies
Grandma’s Ranger Cookies (a chewy cookie with old-fashioned oats, flaked coconut, and Rice Krispies)
Butter Tarts (Canadian classic with sweet, slightly runny filling and flaky melt in your mouth pastry) 
Old Fashioned Oat Lace Cookies (a crispy and delicate oat cookie with hints of caramel)
Sour Cream Cookies (a recipe from Betty Crocker circa 1963)
Classic Kentucky Bourbon Balls (no bake delight for the adults)
Old-School Haystack Cookies (another awesome no-bake cookie)
French Macaroon with Vanilla Buttercream Filling
Gadettes Christmas Cookies (or are they waffles?)
Christmas Whoopie Pies (chocolate & peppermint goodness) 
Grandpa’s Oatmeal Gumdrop Cookies
I hope these amazing vintage cookie recipes give you some inspiration for new family favorites this year. Tell me in the comments what your classic Christmas cookie recipe is!
My husbands grandma use to make a cookie that was kind of a sandwich cookie. The top had a small circle cut out of the top. It was filled with I believe mincemeat. Do you have any idea what that would be?
Chris, would you be talking about mincemeat tarts? I have seen many recipes for these.
The recipe I have is filled with raisins. My grandma made them every Christmas.
Banbury Tarts.
My Grandma made them with raisins also but it was more of a thick raisin sauce.. I would love to have the recipe for them!
My mom’s were filled with dates that were cooked until a wonderful, thick, sticky filling was made. Delicious! Think I’ll make some. ?????
JUST SEEING THOSE CARDS IS LIKE GOING BACK IN TIME; Many of our recipes show how they coped with very little. [ think if you look at everyones cookie recipes – show effects of depression and wartime. so i make ours in celebration of those brave woman and think of them as i do it
Thank you for printing the vintage cookie recipes. My Mother used to make the Date Pinwheel cookies for me every Christmas. I couldn’t find the recipe when she passed away. I am so glad to have it again. Thank you so much.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I am glad you can make some cookies in her honor! <3
I Love my dad’s favorite cookie was the icebox cookie with walnuts can,T the recipe anyweredo you know were I can find it.gene
Icebox cookies come in two kinds. The type that spread like chocolate chip & the kind that look sliced & don’t spread, & are crisp. If you Google, or search Pinterest for, “icebox cookies,” Better Homes & Gardens, or Woman’s Day, though, I’ll bet that’s the one. (Same exact recipe, both sources). Chop & add walnuts. Seriously. My mom & grandma’s entire generations made those & the original recipe had a list of things to add (walnuts or pecans, dried fruit, chocolate, etc.) I don’t remember how many walnuts Mom added, so I wing it, lol. I looked at a couple of other cookies recipes with nuts & averaged the amiunt of nuts to flour & it worked fine. It’s to taste with nuts anyway, as long as there aren’t so many the dough won’t hold together. They’re adjustable unlike things like baking powder or butter which need to be exact for the science part of baking to work. But icebox cookies are a classic, the kind you roll in wax paper, fridge awhile, slice, & bake. Better Homes & Gardens and Woman’s Day are very likely to be what you grew up with. BH&G cookbook will most likely be in your local library & I believe all their recipes are online. They may give the Walnut amount. Mine from the 90s did not. I’d send a photo but I learned not to loan cookbooks the hard way… Never got it back. 🙄😂
Cookie cookbooks at home, happy memories of childhood
Cookies from around the World
100 cookie recipes
I would bake with my sister’s
Wonderful Aroma the kitchen
Lace cookies made of oatmeal
Good memories are often made in the kitchen! <3
A few yrs ago, at Thanksgiving my husband & I decided not to have appetizer, as the meal was large enuf. We also decided to cut back on sides because we are in our 70’s & tired of being “The holiday Cooks”! Just as I star-ted to warm the gravy (we always make it a day ahead), put the green bean casserole & my husband’s yam in the oven (he’s the only one who likes them & hates marshmellows), slipped the mashed potatoes over the dbl boiler, my adult son walks in & asks, “Where are the deviled eggs, Mom? Me: “We’re not having them. There are some cashews in the living rm, & dinner will be ready in 15 mins.” Son: “WHAT! It’s not a holiday without them!” He then proceeds to get out the one remaining pot & moving the mashed potatoes off their burner & starts to make deviled eggs ! ARGGHH! I onle have 2 working burners, I could have killed him, because of course, every-one was crowded into my kitchen (all 8). Lesson: always serve the usuals & have others bring the sides.
Here is one that is vintage potato candy my mom made it every Christmas. I’ll post my recipe later
Does anybody have a recipe it was a frosted bell shaped cookie. My mom made it in the 70s.
It was kind of like a cream puff dough and with frosting it was delish!! Guess they were called Christmas Bells?? My mom is gone now so it would mean a lot to me to get that recipe
cream horns
My grandma used to make a soft sugar cookie that had nutmeg in it.
Nutmeg really adds a lovely flavor. <3
My mother used to make cookies/ bars called ” mystery bars “. She passed when I was in college, which was many , many years ago. I have been trying to find the recipe since, to no avail! We lived in Rhode Island when growing up, so maybe someone from that area would know it. I would LOVE to have the recipe again, if anyone has it.
Hi Susan – is this the recipe? https://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/27/Mystery-Bars73533.shtml
My mom was not much of a cook, but my G’ma & Aunt ran a bakery in The City for many years. When they died, about a month apart, the neighbor ladies were in the kitchen fighting over their recipes. It was like the scene in ‘Zorba’. My sister & I just stared. We were there for my great-grandmother’s quilts. It never occured to either of us to demand the recipes, saying, “We will make copies of all & send them to you. Just give us your name & address.” What I wouldn’t give for those recipes now! Make a book for your kids w/all their favorites & record your voice telling s’thing of your family’s history.