Over 60 delightful recipes for festive cookies, from traditional favourites to creative new ideas, all of which make perfect gifts.

Get festive and creative at the same time, with this cosy collection of cookie recipes for the holiday season.

Decoration hints and tips are followed by recipes for more than 60 different cookies, from Jolly Santas, Coconut Snowballs, Frosted Fir Cones and Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups to Reindeer Pretzel Cookies, and Meringue Snowmen.

Go all out with packaging ideas for giving your home-baked treats as gifts and find tips on how to host a Christmas “cookie swap” at home, from clever ways to display bakes to sending out invitations.

A joyous collection of seasonal baking recipes that all the family can enjoy.

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Reindeer Pretzel Cookies

These little reindeer would make any Christmas party a jolly event – they have pretzel antlers and chocolate peanut noses – perfect for guiding Santa on his way! You can use any type of pretzel or chocolate peanut nose, and just give one a red nose for the hero Rudolf!

320 g/scant 2½ cups self-raising/self-rising flour

30 g/1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of baking soda

200 g/1 cup caster/superfine sugar

175 g/1½ sticks butter

3 heaped tablespoons golden/light corn syrup

36 pretzels

17 sugar-coated chocolate peanuts plus 1 red one for Rudolf

30 g/1 oz. white chocolate, broken into pieces

30 g/1 oz. dark/bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces

3 baking sheets, greased and lined with baking parchment

2 piping/pastry bags, fitted with small round nozzles/tips

Makes 18

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of baking soda into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. In a saucepan, heat the butter and syrup until the butter has melted. Stir the syrup mixture into the flour and whisk/beat in until the dough comes together.

Divide the dough into 18 pieces and place them in small mounds on the baking sheets, leaving space between them.

Press each cookie down to flatten them.

Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and press two pretzels into each cookie for the antlers. Using a clean cloth press each cookie down. Return to the oven and bake for a further 5–7 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately press one sugar-coated chocolate peanut into each cookie for the nose. Leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then, using a spatula, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Place the white and dark/bittersweet chocolate into two separate heatproof bowls and rest each bowl over a pan of simmering water. Heat until the chocolate has melted. Leave to cool slightly, then spoon into the piping/pastry bags.

Pipe two small circles of white chocolate onto each cookie as eyes and then pipe a smaller dot of dark chocolate onto the white chocolate for the pupils. Leave to cool completely until the chocolate has set.

The cookies will store for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Recipe published with permission from Ryland Peters & Small.