16 quick Christmas desserts and treats
Holiday baking is wonderful when you have a free weekend. For every other December day, these treats take 20 minutes or less and still feel festive.
Updated October 2026 · ranked by popularity
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1. Snickerdoodles
Soft, chewy snickerdoodle cookies with crackly cinnamon sugar tops and a little tang from cream of tartar. No chilling, so they go from bowl to cookie jar in 20 minutes.
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2. Soft sugar cookies (no chill)
Thick, soft sugar cookies with crisp golden edges and a hint of almond, rolled in sugar and studded with holiday sprinkles. No chilling and no rolling pin.
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3. Peanut butter blossoms
Soft peanut butter cookies rolled in sugar and crowned with a milk chocolate kiss pressed in straight from the oven. The classic holiday cookie tray favorite.
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4. Christmas crack (saltine toffee)
Saltine crackers baked under bubbling brown sugar toffee, then covered in melted chocolate and pecans. Sweet, salty and impossible to stop eating.
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5. Oreo balls
Crushed chocolate sandwich cookies mixed with cream cheese, rolled into truffles and dipped in white chocolate. Three ingredients, no baking, ready for the cookie tray.
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6. Peppermint bark
A layer of dark chocolate and a layer of creamy white chocolate, topped with crushed candy canes and snapped into shards. Homemade holiday bark in 20 minutes.
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7. Cannoli dip
Sweet whipped ricotta and mascarpone with vanilla, orange zest and mini chocolate chips. All the flavor of cannoli, served with broken waffle cones and cookies for dipping.
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8. Puppy chow
Rice cereal coated in melted chocolate and peanut butter, then shaken in powdered sugar. The crunchy, snowy snack mix is ready in 10 minutes.
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9. Pecan pie bites
Store-bought mini phyllo shells filled with a buttery brown sugar and pecan filling and baked until set. All the flavor of pecan pie in one bite.
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10. Chocolate fondue with fruit
A silky dark chocolate and cream fondue made in one small saucepan, served warm with strawberries, banana and grapes for dunking. Ready in 13 minutes.
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11. Grinch fruit skewers
Green grapes, banana slices, upside-down strawberries and a mini marshmallow on a stick, stacked to look like a little green face in a Santa hat.
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12. Rum balls
No-bake holiday rum balls made from crushed vanilla wafers, pecans, cocoa and dark rum, rolled in powdered sugar. Ready to eat as soon as they're rolled.
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13. Santa hat strawberries
Strawberries piped with a fluffy vanilla cream cheese filling and topped with their own tips to look like little Santa hats. A no-bake holiday bite.
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14. Chocolate-dipped pretzel rods
Crunchy salted pretzel rods dipped in smooth melted chocolate and rolled in colorful sprinkles. Salty-sweet party treats set in the freezer in 10 minutes.
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15. Gingerbread mug cake
A soft, sticky gingerbread cake made in a mug in the microwave with molasses, ginger and cinnamon. Holiday baking for one, ready in about five minutes.
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16. Sticky toffee mug pudding
A soft, dark sticky toffee date pudding cooked in a mug in the microwave and drowned in a quick butterscotch sauce. Dessert for one, in under ten minutes.
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Several of these make good edible gifts: pack them in tins or jars lined with parchment.