Baked goods are one of the best parts of the holiday season. After all, who doesn’t love the tanatlizing smell of cinnamon and ginger that seems to be everywhere throughout the month of December?
If your Christmas baked good of choice is cookies, you’re probably aware of how versatile they are. They’re so versatile that you can involve them in a variety of different games that will encourage family bonding over some sweet treats.
This article will introduce you to some fun Christmas cookie games that you can share with your friends and family this holiday season.
The Best Christmas Cookie Games
Christmas cookie games may not be an activity you’ve thought about for the holidays, but the possibilities are virtually endless. Not only is there a wide variety of cookies that you can make, but you can also decorate cookies any way you wish. These are activities that kids and adults alike can enjoy.
To inspire you, check out these four Christmas cookie games that will bring warm smells, sweetness, and holiday cheer to your home.
Christmas Cookie Baking Contest
First, we have a Christmas cookie baking contest.
This is a fun take on the cookie exchange party, where each guest brings a dozen or so homemade cookies to the party, everyone samples the cookies, and each guest leaves with a takeaway container. This version makes it a little more competitive.
The way this contest works is simple. Everyone bakes and brings their cookies to a party. From there, your guests judge the cookies based on a number of criteria, including:
- Taste
- Decorations
- Theme
- Originality
You then vote for the best Christmas cookie. Whoever’s cookie garners the most votes wins. However, it’s all in good fun, and everyone still goes home with a container of their favorite cookies!
Build a Gingerbread House
Christmas and gingerbread houses go hand in hand. When else can you make an entire house out of cookies?
Building a gingerbread house is a classic Christmas family activity. You can easily turn it into a game by challenging your kids to build the best or most creative gingerbread house they can.
To make it even more exciting, you can split your kids and friends into teams and challenge them to beat the other team by making the best house. But in the end, you get to eat the house, so everyone’s a winner!
Christmas Cookie Decorating Contest
Another fun competition, this Christmas cookie contest is fun for both young and old. All you need for this contest is sugar cookies and an abundance of icing in an assortment of colors.
Start by baking a batch of sugar cookies and letting them cool before your guests arrive. You can make them circular or any shape you’d like. Once they’re cool, you’re ready to decorate!
There are several ways that you can make this contest more interesting. For example, you can make everyone try and make the same design on their cookies, such as a Christmas tree. For an additional challenge, set a time limit to finish decorating the cookies. Even if no one creates a masterpiece, you’ll all have a good time checking out each other’s creativity.
Although cookie decorating is usually seen as an activity to do with your kids, this Christmas cookies game proves that decorating cookies isn’t only fun for kids. You’ll also be amazed at how creative adults get with a few cookies and some icing.
Chopped – Cookie Edition
The last activity on our list of Christmas cookie games is Chopped, cookie edition. This Christmas cookie activity is another one that could become a fierce competition.
Inspired by the show Chopped, this game is a little more complicated and laborious, and it requires more prep work. However, it ends in great fun and some new creative recipes.
Best done with two or three people, everyone has to bake their own batch of cookies. The catch? They have to incorporate a secret ingredient into their cookie. To make it a challenge, the secret ingredient should be something Christmas themed, but still a little out of the box, such as:
- Brie cheese
- Eggnog
- Sweet potato
You can do this competition under timed conditions to make it even more difficult. At the end, whoever has the best and most creative cookie wins.
To make this a little less work for you and minimize cleanup, you can give your guests the secret ingredient in advance and have everyone bake the cookies at home. You can then gather at your house to try and judge the cookies and then decide a winner.
Even better, this can be a fun virtual activity where everyone bakes the cookies over Zoom under the timed conditions. Under this circumstance, you’d all have to judge based on presentation, which may make it more challenging!
Different Types of Christmas Cookies
Although there are a few staple cookies that are, without a doubt, meant for the holiday season, there’s no point in gatekeeping the Christmas cookie category. We think it’s OK to call basically any cookie baked on Christmas a Christmas cookie.
That being said, the quintessential Christmas cookie is definitely the sugar cookie. Simple and full of potential to shape, and you can decorate it any way you like, you can’t go wrong with a sugar cookie during the holidays. Gingerbread cookies also share the top spot.
There are several other cookies that no one can resist around Christmas time:
- Shortbread cookies
- Ginger molasses cookies
- Pinwheels
- Snickerdoodles
- Snowball cookies
If you want to switch it up and bake something new this holiday season, try this simple pretzel hug recipe!
Final Thoughts
Christmas cookie games are a great way to spend quality time with your friends and family while enjoying a classic Christmas treat. With cookies, the possibilities are endless, from friendly competitions to getting creative.
No matter what activities you do, make sure that you have time to enjoy your cookies at the end, and don’t forget to pair them with a warm cup of hot chocolate!
Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Thank you. Read our disclosure + terms here.
