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October 31, 2026

Christmas Desserts: 25 Ideas, Make-Ahead Plans and Dairy-Free Swaps

Christmas desserts that work: cookies, pies, cakes and no-bake sweets, with make-ahead timing, dairy-free swaps and what Americans actually serve.

Christmas Desserts: 25 Ideas, Make-Ahead Plans and Dairy-Free Swaps

Christmas Desserts: 25 Ideas, Make-Ahead Plans and Dairy-Free Swaps

Christmas table with pies, cake and cookies

The best Christmas dessert table has one show-stopper, two or three cookies, something that can be made days ahead, and at least one option for guests who avoid dairy. Pumpkin, apple and pecan pie are still the American default, but cookies, bars, cakes and no-bake sweets carry most of the season. Below you will find what people actually serve, how to choose by effort and time, how to make desserts dairy-free without ruining them, and how to schedule the whole thing so you are not baking at midnight on December 24.

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TL;DR

  • Pie wins the popularity contest: a 2024 survey put pumpkin first, then apple, then pecan. Cookies are the easiest crowd-pleaser.
  • Pick a mix: one centerpiece (pie, cake or crisp), two cookies, one no-bake treat. Four desserts cover most gatherings.
  • Cookie dough, pie crust and many bars freeze well, so most of the work can happen in early December.
  • For dairy-free baking, swap butter 1:1 with block-style dairy-free butter, use full-fat coconut milk for cream, and read every label.
  • Start with simple recipes and save laminated dough or multi-day projects for a year when you have spare weekends.

Table of Contents

What Americans Actually Serve at Christmas

If you want the safe choice, bake a pie. A 2024 Talker Research survey for Newsweek found pumpkin pie was the most popular Christmas dessert, chosen by 40 percent of respondents, ahead of apple pie at 27 percent and pecan pie at 25 percent. The same ranking also lists cake, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies among the favorites.

That tells you something useful: the crowd pleasers are familiar. Nobody is disappointed by a good sugar cookie. The effort should go into making familiar things well, not into chasing novelty.

Tradition also varies by region. New England leans toward mince pies and British-style Christmas pudding, the Mid-Atlantic toward shoofly pie and Smith Island Cake, the Midwest toward kringles, and the Southwest toward biscochitos. If your family has a regional or inherited dessert, it belongs on the table before anything you find online, including this list.

What Americans Actually Serve at Christmas

How to Choose Your Christmas Desserts

Before you look at a single recipe, answer four questions.

  1. How many guests? Cookies and bars scale well. A tall layer cake feeds many, but a single pie feeds about eight.
  2. How much oven time do you have on the day? If the main course occupies the oven, choose no-bake sweets, desserts that are served at room temperature, or things baked days earlier.
  3. Who is eating? Kids want decorating and sprinkles. Older relatives often want something not too sweet. Someone is nearly always avoiding dairy, gluten or nuts.
  4. How adventurous are you feeling? A difficult recipe is a fine gift to yourself in a calm week. It is a bad idea at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

A workable formula is one centerpiece, two cookies, one no-bake treat and something fruity or fresh to cut the richness. Anything beyond that is optional.

Christmas Cookies: The Easiest Win

Cookies are the most searched part of the holiday dessert category for a reason. They are portable, they can be made ahead, they gift well, and a plate of three kinds looks generous without much work.

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

The classic holiday cookie is also the one most people dread, because chilling and rolling dough takes time and warm dough spreads. Our no-chill sugar cookie recipe for soft cut-outs is built for people who want to skip the long wait and still get clean edges. Cut the shapes, decorate them with a simple icing, and let kids take over the sprinkles.

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Dressed Up

Chocolate chip cookies are not a Christmas cookie by definition, but they sit on nearly every holiday plate, and the survey above confirms their popularity. If you want a version that tastes deliberate rather than default, we have several, each solving a different problem:

The overnight-rest style is the one to remember for holiday planning. Dough that has to sit anyway is dough you can make on Tuesday and bake on Thursday.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Soft peanut butter cookies are a quiet favorite on a mixed plate. Our brown butter peanut butter cookies are soft and chewy and finished with flaky salt. If a guest has a peanut allergy, keep them off the shared platter and label everything.

Other Cookies Worth Making

If you are filling out a cookie tin, these are traditional picks that bakers reach for: gingerbread cutouts, spritz cookies pressed into trees and wreaths, thumbprints filled with jam, snickerdoodles, shortbread and hot chocolate cookies. Choose cookies with different textures: one crisp, one chewy, one soft. A tin of three chewy cookies is monotonous.

Pies, Crisps and Cakes for the Centerpiece

The centerpiece is the dessert people remember, so it deserves the most thought but not necessarily the most work.

Pies

Pumpkin, apple and pecan pie lead the national ranking, and each has a role. Pumpkin is smooth and spiced, apple is fruity and a little tart, and pecan is rich and sweet. If you serve only one, pick the one your family already asks for. If you can serve two, pair pecan with apple for a good contrast between sweet and tart.

Apple Crisp When You Want Pie Flavor Without Pie Crust

A crisp is the shortcut for anyone who loves pie but does not want to blind-bake or crimp. Our bourbon pecan apple crisp with a buttery oat topping gives you warm apples and a crunchy streusel, and it reheats well. Serve it warm, with ice cream if your guests eat dairy.

Chocolate Cake With a Twist

For a chocolate centerpiece that is more interesting than a standard layer cake, look at Abuelita’s chocolate olive oil cake, flavored with cinnamon and Mexican chocolate. Olive oil cakes are known for a moist crumb. If you need it dairy-free, read the ingredient list against your needs before you commit, since some recipes add milk, butter or yogurt alongside the oil.

A Weekend Project for Serious Bakers

If you have a free weekend before the holiday and like technique, a laminated pastry is a rewarding project. Our laminated brioche feuilletée and homemade croissants with honeycomb layers are for that kind of baker. These are serious, multi-stage recipes, and they suit a Christmas morning breakfast far better than a last-minute dessert. More of that kind of cooking lives in our advanced and chef-level recipes.

No-Bake and Low-Effort Sweets

When the oven is busy, these are what rescue the table:

  • Fudge and truffles. Chocolate, a fat and a pinch of salt, then chilling. They are among the top-ranking easy ideas for a reason.
  • Peanut brittle and other candies. They need a thermometer and attention, but they keep well and make good gifts.
  • Bread pudding. It uses leftover bread, bakes while you eat dinner, and tastes best warm.
  • Bark. Melt chocolate, spread it, scatter dried fruit, nuts or crushed candy canes, and break it into shards.
  • Trifles and parfaits. Layers of cake, fruit and cream assemble in minutes if the components are ready.

These are the desserts to give to the relative who always says, “What can I bring?”

A Look at the 13 Desserts of Provence

One of the most common questions about the topic is what the “13 desserts” of Christmas are. It is not an American custom but a Provençal one, from the south of France. The tradition is thirteen desserts served after the Christmas Eve supper, representing Jesus and the twelve apostles. The selection is not a fixed list. It typically includes the Four Beggars (figs, almonds, raisins and walnuts or hazelnuts), pompe à huile (an olive oil brioche) and regional sweets such as nougats and calissons.

The Four Beggars stand for the religious orders that took vows of poverty, and pompe à huile is traditionally broken by hand rather than cut, echoing the breaking of bread at the Last Supper. Another account notes that the exact thirteen vary by region, town and family.

You do not need to be Provençal to borrow the idea. A platter of dried fruit and nuts is the easiest dessert board there is, it needs no oven, and it happens to be naturally dairy-free. Add dried fruit such as dried peach halves beside figs and almonds, put out some dark chocolate, and you have a lighter counterweight to the cookies and pie.

Dried fruit, nuts and dark chocolate board

Dairy-Free Christmas Desserts That Still Taste Like Christmas

Dairy-free baking is far easier than it used to be, but a few rules prevent the common disappointments. Whether your guest is lactose intolerant, has a milk allergy or simply avoids dairy, the same swaps apply, though an allergy calls for stricter label reading and separate utensils.

The Swaps That Work

Ingredient Dairy-free swap Works best in
Butter Block-style dairy-free butter, used 1:1 Cookies, shortbread, pie crust, crumble toppings
Butter (flavor) Neutral oil or olive oil Moist cakes and quick breads
Heavy cream Full-fat canned coconut milk or coconut cream Ganache, truffles, panna cotta, whipped topping
Milk Unsweetened oat, soy or almond milk Batters, custards, bread pudding
Chocolate Dark chocolate with no milk solids Bark, brownies, truffles, dipped fruit
Sour cream or yogurt Unsweetened plant-based yogurt Cakes and muffins

Two details matter most. First, choose block-style dairy-free butter, not the soft spreadable kind in a tub. Tub spreads contain more water, which makes pastry greasy and cookies spread. Second, chill canned coconut milk overnight if you want to whip the solid cream off the top.

Desserts That Are Dairy-Free by Nature

Some desserts need no substitution at all, which is the least risky route:

  • Dried fruit and nut platters, as in the Provençal tradition above.
  • Poached pears or baked apples with cinnamon.
  • Meringues and pavlova, which use egg whites and sugar.
  • Dark chocolate bark made with dairy-free chocolate.
  • Fruit crisps made with oil or dairy-free butter in the topping.

The apple crisp is a good example: swap the butter in the topping for a block-style dairy-free butter, serve it with a coconut-based ice cream, and most guests will not notice.

Read Labels and Protect Guests

The word “dairy-free” on a recipe is only as good as the ingredients behind it. Chocolate chips, caramel, sprinkles and some margarines contain milk. If a guest has a milk allergy rather than a preference, check every label yourself, keep the dessert away from shared spoons and cutting boards, and ask them what they are comfortable with. A guest with a diagnosed allergy should confirm with their own doctor or allergist what is safe. Lactose intolerance is a different matter from milk allergy, and many people with it tolerate small amounts, but let the guest decide.

Make Ahead, Store and Serve

The single best thing you can do for a calm Christmas is to split the work across the weeks before it. This is a schedule that works for most bakers.

Early December: Freeze Dough and Crusts

Cookie dough that is scooped into balls and frozen on a tray, then bagged, bakes straight from the freezer with a minute or two of extra time. Rolled cut-out dough can be shaped into discs, wrapped and frozen. Pie dough freezes well too. Label everything with the date and name.

The Week Before: Bake Sturdy Things

Shortbread, gingerbread, brittle, fudge and bars keep well in airtight tins. Bake these first. Keep crisp and soft cookies in separate containers so the crisp ones do not go soft.

Two Days Before: Cakes and Pies

Most cakes taste better after a day, since the crumb settles and the flavor deepens. Pies with cooked fillings, like apple and pecan, can be baked a day or two ahead. Custard fillings, such as pumpkin, should stay chilled and be covered once cool.

The Day Of: Finish and Serve

Warm the crisp, whip the cream, ice the cookies and put out the fruit board. Bring chilled desserts out a little before serving so the flavors open up. Label dairy-free items clearly so nobody has to ask.

A Sample Four-Dessert Menu

Dessert Type Make-ahead step Dairy-free option
Pecan or pumpkin pie Centerpiece Bake 1 to 2 days ahead Use dairy-free butter crust and coconut milk
Bourbon pecan apple crisp Warm dessert Assemble ahead, bake before serving Dairy-free butter in the topping
Sugar cookies Cookie plate Freeze dough early Dairy-free block butter
Fruit and nut board No-bake Arrange the same day Naturally dairy-free

Our Perspective on Christmas Baking

Here is how we look at it. Holiday dessert lists tend to reward volume: 55 ideas, 64 ideas, a recipe for every sprinkle. Few of them tell you which recipes are actually easy, which will fail if your kitchen is warm, and which are secretly a two-day commitment. That is the gap we try to fill. We develop and test our recipes in-house, we give honest difficulty ratings, and we write down what happened when we cooked them.

For Christmas, our advice is to be ruthless about your own time. Choose one recipe you are excited about, and let everything else be simple and reliable. A well-made sugar cookie and a warm crisp will beat a stressed-out showpiece that arrives late. If you love a challenge, do it in the week when you have the space, and do not apologize for buying the ice cream.

And make room for a plate that everyone can eat. It costs very little, and it is the kind of generosity people notice.

— Oloru

Find Your Holiday Recipes at Forkward

If you are planning your menu, we have built our recipe library for exactly this kind of planning, with honest difficulty ratings so you can match each dish to the time you have. Whether you need a fast weeknight dinner before the holiday rush or a weekend project for the big meal, you will find it among our original, tested recipes.

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Start with our easy dessert recipes for cookies, brownies and cakes, or browse all Forkward recipes to build the full holiday menu around them.

FAQ

Pumpkin pie. In a 2024 Talker Research survey for Newsweek, 40 percent of respondents picked it, ahead of apple pie and pecan pie. Cookies, cakes and brownies also rank high, so a mix of pie and cookies suits most tables.

What are the 13 desserts served at Christmas?

They are a tradition from Provence, France, served after the Christmas Eve supper to represent Jesus and the twelve apostles. The list is flexible, but usually includes figs, almonds, raisins, walnuts or hazelnuts, pompe à huile, nougat and calissons. The exact selection varies by town and family.

What are easy Christmas desserts for beginners?

Start with no-chill sugar cookies, a fruit crisp, fudge or truffles, and bark. None needs special equipment or advanced technique. Our easy dessert recipes are a good place to look, and each recipe carries an honest difficulty rating.

How do I make Christmas desserts dairy-free?

Swap butter for block-style dairy-free butter, cream for full-fat coconut milk or coconut cream, and milk for unsweetened oat or soy milk. Use dairy-free dark chocolate and read labels on chips, caramel and sprinkles. For a milk allergy, keep utensils separate and ask the guest what they are comfortable with.

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