The Best Christmas Baking Books to Warm Your Kitchen

Bake up a batch of festive winter treats that will bring a touch of Christmas magic to the party. Lou Seibert Pappas, acclaimed author of more than 50 cookbooks, shares some recipes both traditional and contemporary that can take pride of place on any table (or as a treat for Santa on Christmas Eve!). The recipes include classics like spiced Lebkuchen, Snowflake Brownie Diamonds, and Norwgian lace cookies! 

Finding gifts for your loved ones can be tough, but there's something that almost everyone loves: cookies! Cookie exchange parties are all the rage, and Julia M. Usher's book offers a whole basket of ideas to make tasty tidbits for every possible holiday, not just Christmas. 

Usher, a talented baker, reveals that cookies are infinitely adaptable to whatever you need them to be, whether it's something sweet and gooey for Valentine's Day or a nutty crunch with a festive twist. Whatever you want, need, or crave, there's a cookie for that!

Let's face it: we all want to get through Christmas prep with as little drama as possible. So, anything we can do to make the process easier is a big positive for us. 

Melissa Barlow wants to take all the stress and sweat out of festive baking with Easy Christmas Cut-Up Cakes. The easy instructions show you how to bake packaged cake mixes in various-sized pans, then cut them into pieces and shape amazing creations like penguins, snowmen, angels, and even Santa himself. It's quick, easy, won't break the bank, and will delight everyone.

There may be no flavor more evocative of the Winter season than gingerbread. There's a reason you can find its scent in every candle this Christmas! But for Jennifer Lindner McGlinn, gingerbread can be a delight all year round. 

Her cookbook dedicated to the flavor shows how gingerbread can be enjoyed for breakfast or dessert from spring to winter. Start with simple, yummy treats like Gingerbread Rum Cake and Sticky Toffee Gingerbread, then graduate to building your own gingerbread house for the holidays. You’ll never got back to store-bought after this. 

The American Girl series is a nostalgic favorite for generations of kids who adored the dolls and their accompanying books focused on various eras of American history. Their Holiday Baking tie-in cookbook would make the ideal gift for a die-hard fan with a sweet tooth. 

The ninth book in the bestselling series from American Girl features over 45 delicious recipes for young chefs to bake for the holidays. You can try Christmas cookies, chocolate candies, candy cane bark, and even Pumpkin-Spice Snickerdoodles. The book provides essential tips and safety knowhow as well as ideas to make each treat even fancier!

Christmas time is also family time, so why not get the kids in the kitchen and have some fun together making sweet treats everyone can enjoy? Sweet Christmas includes 100 recipes and projects for children of all ages that are easy to make, don't require expensive equipment, and will delight even the fussiest of tastes. 

You can try homemade candy—peppermint fudge, pulled ribbon candy, sugared pecans—or make edible treats for your tree, such as stained glass cookies, Rice Krispie snowmen, chocolate Santa mice. You can even make delicious feasts for Christmas morning, like buttery pull-apart bread in a caramel glaze, sticky buns, orange-butter pancakes, and hot maple doughnuts.

There's something about a homemade treat that makes the holiday season feel even more special. For years, Yvette van Boven has been writing Christmas recipes for newspapers and magazines, sharing her wisdom with the world to make holiday planning easy and fun. 

Home Made Christmas compiles some of her most popular recipes, with color illustrations to make it all the easier. Van Boven doesn't want Christmas to be overwhelming or arduous, so she's included some "make ahead" recipes to ease the pain as well as menu ideas to have a three (or more!) course feast for you, your family, and your friends.

Ah, cupcakes. So decadent and treat-sized yet often devilishly tricky to pull off well. they're perfect for Christmas. Think of everything you transform a cupcake into! 

Carolyn White's Seasonal Cupcakes collection for Christmas includes tips on baking and equipment in a special selection to help you perfect your pocket-sizes treats. How do Santa hat cakes sound? How about Rudolph and friends, or even fir trees? It's got it all!

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and gang are a crucial part of many people’s Christmas traditions thanks to their holiday special. So, why not bring them into the kitchen for some culinary inspiration? 

The recipes in the Peanuts Holiday Cookbook are kid-friendly, delicious, and would lift any cloud of melancholy. Treats include Charlie Brown’s (Un) Happy Birthday Cake, the Great Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Snoopy’s Dogdish Apple Pie.