31 Treats to Make (and Eat!) with Your Kids This Holiday Season

This gingerbread cookie recipe has all the warm spice flavors that you love, but not too much. Easy icing lets kiddos show their creative side while decorating the cut-out shapes. (Try using a squeeze bottle.)

These buttery cookies are beloved for a reason: They’re sweet, vanilla-y, and baked to chewy perfection. Try sandwiching Nutella or jelly in between two for the ultimate holiday cookie sandwich.

If pillowy, soft, cake-like cookies are your thing, these are must-bakes for your family this season. Almond extract lends flavor to both the cookies and the glaze — and it doesn’t hurt that the prep requires just a single bowl.

Cinnamon-sugar cookies are classic, and baking a dozen (or two) will make your kitchen smell amazing. Oh, and the perfect job for the kids? Ask them to roll each ball in a bowl of cinnamon sugar before baking.

If you’ve ever been to a cookie exchange, you know that these are always a crowd favorite. And what’s not to love? The peanut butter cookies are rolled in sugar before baking for the perfect crunch to counteract their chewiness. After they’re out of the oven, you plunge a chocolate kiss in the center of each one to create the perfect bite.

It’s not the holidays unless your kitchen looks like a snowball fight rolled through it, right? These buttery two-bite cookies contain walnuts or pecans, and then they’re coated — twice! — in powdered sugar. Warn your kids that they’ll get finger-licking messy with this one.

For the more advanced young baker, bake a batch of these cookies, created with three layers of almond cake, layered with apricot jam, and coated in chocolate on top. The result is a moist, flavorful cookie that’s also beautiful to look at.

For some of us, pinwheel cookies are a blast from the past. The base consists of a sugar cookie dough recipe, with half the dough set aside and transformed with the taste of mild chocolate. Together, the two doughs are rolled and then sliced, creating the classic pinwheel shape.

Raise your hand if making dozens of spritz cookies is a cherished family holiday memory? These small cookies require the use of a cookie press to shape them, but the good news is that these tools have come a long way in their design, making them easier than ever to use. (No wonky shapes here!) Once the dough is on the pan, get out your sprinkles and ask the kids to go to town on the decorations.

Sweetened with powdered sugar for a light texture and topped with cinnamon sugar, these spiced cookies can be shaped with any type of cookie cutter you (or your kids) like. Plus, these take just 15 minutes of prep time to piece together.

There are few things more rewarding than making cinnamon rolls and enjoying them warm and gooey out of the oven. They do require some elbow grease — and multiple steps — but you can bring your kids in to help you mix, roll, and frost. (Too bad they get first dibs on licking the spatula.)

These rolls, which are sweetened with cinnamon-sugar butter, are dinner-style but perfect for holiday brunch. And they use the best shortcut around: store-bought dough. That only leaves you to make the buttery-cinnamon-sugary coating and topping. Total time needed: 30 minutes.

This crumb cake is perfect for a holiday brunch (it can be made 24 hours in advance so you’re not scrambling at the last minute) served alongside a cup or two of coffee for the grownups. Plus, you only need two bowls to whip up the best breakfast ever.

A take on a classic Little Debbie snack, these cake slices have a cinnamon-brown sugar layer in the middle and are iced with a mixture of powdered sugar, milk, honey, and vanilla. The recipe is made easy by boxed yellow cake mix, so you and the kiddos can pretend you’re running a bakery (but easier).

Sour cream cakes are melt-in-your mouth tender. Dotted with a cinnamon swirl and lightly drizzled with cream cheese icing, a slice is just sweet enough to be dessert or breakfast. Made with a stand mixer, this recipe is great for little and big kids alike. Ask your littles to run the mixer, while your bigs can swirl in the cinnamon swirl.

Think of this as a scone-meets-chocolate chip cookie creation. After a bite, your kids might even prefer these to muffins. If you’ve never tried your hand at scones before, this is a great intro recipe that you can make ahead and bake right before breakfast or brunch.

Few things are more fun than getting your hands into pull-apart bread. Although you can use a stand mixer to knead the dough, you can also get your hands dirty by kneading it by hand, an activity kids tend to enjoy.

Breakfast breads are a must for a holiday brunch spread. Moist and tender, this cranberry cake is a top-rated recipe that makes a great hostess gift, too.

Pop this out of the oven and, once cool, let the kids give it a generous dusting of powdered sugar. The combination of fresh OJ and orange segments make this French toast bake unique. Plus, you can whip this up the night before for a stress-free a.m. feast.

Just when you thought Muddy Buddies couldn’t get any more perfect, this recipe jazzes up a batch for the holidays with the addition of pretzels, red and green M&Ms, and white chocolate. It’s also one recipe that you can easily make gluten-free by subbing in gluten-free pretzels and rice or corn Chex.

Make a batch, divvy up the pieces into pretty tins, and have your kid proudly present these at each house you visit this season. Peppermint bark has that fancy feel, but only requires four ingredients. Easy-peasy.

These festive no-bakeThis twist on Rice Krispies treats requires you and the kiddos to get a little creative — throwing anything delicious-sounding into the mix. Roasted peanuts? Sure. Potato chips? You’d be surprised. Holiday sprinkles? More, please. bars have everything but the kitchen sink.

Enrobed in buttery, crunchy cinnamon sugar, these walnuts are perfect for a charcuterie board, atop a salad, or on yogurt or vanilla ice cream. With prep time landing at a quick seven minutes (although double or triple that if you’re getting kids involved), this is a speedy project with a tasty payoff.

Magic bars have a cookie crust with a sweetened condensed milk center, plus roasted nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate chips studding the top of each bar. Tip: Give kids the fun task of pressing the crust into the pan.

This “caramel cake” isn’t made with caramel. Instead, it’s a butter-rich yellow cake made with brown sugar. It’s the caramel frosting that takes everything over the top. If you have a kid who loves to bake, they’ll love learning this new frosting technique. (It’s perfect.)

Made with rice flour, banana leaves, and coconut milk, Bibingka bakes in a cast iron skillet. Sit down at your table with a slice, plus a warm mug of tea (or chilly eggnog) with your child and chat about their day.

Bûche de Noël takes some time to put together, but it’s definitely a showstopper. Plus, the family can all decorate it however you’d like, with cranberries, nuts, candied rosemary, powdered sugar (hello, snow!), meringue mushrooms, and more.

This moist date sponge cake is a popular English dessert, but it might become a new holiday tradition for your family too. Serve a gooey slice alongside vanilla ice cream or a big dollop of whipped cream.

The ease of this seasonal sip will make this one you’ll recreate with your family every year. All you have to do is pour the apple cider into your slow cooker, add orange ginger, and spices, then turn the whole thing on low.

Five ingredients: milk, unsweetened chocolate, chocolate chips, brown sugar, and vanilla make for a silky, chocolate-y holiday drink. Offer kids the choice of topping theirs with mini or large marshmallows or whipped cream. A candy cane is perfect too.

One look at this adorably bright green punch and you know you’re going to want to whip it up ASAP. Kool-Aid mix, sherbet, and lemon-lime soda make the drink sweet and fizzy, while the red sprinkle rims bring the fun.