2025 Holiday Cookie Box - Nutcracker Themed

I’ll be honest: I’m not the most festive person. As a child of immigrants with a very small family in the States, the holidays never felt like a joyful time of year, but just a chillier version of Tuesday night dinner. So this year I decided to change the narrative and go big or go home by making a holiday cookie box to pass out to my friends in the city.

As inspiration for the cookie flavors, I drew from my other holiday nemesis— the Nutcracker. After doing the Nutcracker since I was four, the Tchaikovsky score still sends a chill up my spine. I hope that this year I can finally get over both humps of the holiday season.

How to compose a cookie box:

While you can certainly make all your favorite cookies and throw them in a box, a great cookie box has a balance of flavors (nutty, chocolatey, fruity), textures (chewy or cakey), and colors (ie not everything is beige) to make one cohesive cookie box.

Now I decided to make 12 different flavors of cookies. You do not need to be so ambitious. Not only did this take 3 days, 10 dishwasher cycles, and literal blood sweat and tears, I’m not sure people really needed that much variety.

Here are the final cookies I chose for each. The recipes are linked below!

• Nutcracker - Baklava cookie bars

• Spanish (Chocolate) - Hot Chocolate cookies with homemade marshmallows

• Arabian (Coffee) - Vietnamese Swirl brownies

• Chinese (Tea) - Earl Grey cookies with lemon curd

• Russian - shortbread cookies with honeycomb

• Marzipan / Reed Flutes - Rainbow Cookies

• Mother Ginger - Oatmeal cookies with crystallized Ginger

• Waltz of the Flowers - Raspberry rose linzer cookies

• Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - “Plum” cookies

• Clara - Chocolate-dipped meringue kisses

• Snow - Snowflake sugar cookies

• Mouse Cookies - Cheddar crinkle cookies

Prepping/Baking

1. Shop ahead
   Read through all your recipes at least a week before baking and make one consolidated grocery list. Buying early also gives you time to order specialty items online if your local store doesn’t carry them. And if you’re baking over a weekend, you’ll avoid the last-minute grocery crowd. Make sure you also plan how many friends you’ll give them too!

2. Stagger your baking schedule.
   Some cookies actually benefit from resting time. If you can, I try to split the work into three days.

   • Day 1: Prep doughs that chill overnight (linzer, sugar cookie), make and mature macarons.

   • Day 2: Bake sturdy cookies and make fillings (curd, ganache).

   • Day 3: Assemble, decorate, and package.

3. Fridge space is precious when you’re juggling multiple doughs, fillings, and trays of prepped cookies. Most cookie doughs freeze well. Just portion them ahead of time so you can bake straight from frozen. You can also freeze fully baked cookies like shortbread, macarons (unfilled), and brownies. Just make sure they’re completely cool before wrapping tightly in plastic and sealing in a container. This not only frees up space but gives you more flexibility with your baking schedule.

Packaging

One of the best parts of gifting a cookie box is how you present it. So here are the supplies that I bought for this year’s boxes.

1. Cookie Boxes (with clear windows)
   I used 8x8 inch kraft boxes with a window so the cookies peek through. Next year I’m going to use white boxes because I think the beige cookies pop more against the white boxes

2. Cupcake Liners
   Perfect for shortbreads, truffles, and meringue kisses. They help separate cookies and add a touch of structure.

3. Food-Safe Cellophane Bags

   Great for soft cookies (like brownies or lemon bars) that might smudge other items.

4. Labels or Gift Tags

5. Red and White Baker’s Twine

   I used this packing twine, but ribbon is also a cute option!

6. Silica Gel Packets

   I don’t see many people talking about these, but these are so helpful in keeping your cookies fresh because they absorb moisture in each box, which slows down the staling process.