96 Fun Facts About Christmas Cookie

Modern Christmas cookies trace back to the biscuits of which period?

Medieval Europe: spices such as cinnamon and ginger reached western kitchens then, and hard spiced biscuits were soon being sold as treats at medieval fairs.

Who brought the earliest Christmas cookies to the United States, in the early 17th century?

The Dutch brought them to their American colony in the early 1600s, which is why Americans say cookie, from Dutch koekje, 'little cake', where the British say biscuit.

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa took hold in America during which era?

The Great Depression. Parents in the 1930s are said to have used the plate of cookies to teach children to give to others and be grateful for their gifts, even when money was short.

The modern sugar cookie is credited to Moravian settlers in which US state?

Pennsylvania. Moravians settled Nazareth in the mid-1700s, and in 2001 the town lobbied legislators, without success, to make theirs the official state cookie.

Pepparkakor, thin crisp ginger biscuits eaten at Christmas, are traditionally from which country?

Sweden. Swedes say eating pepparkakor makes you kind, a belief tied to King Hans, whose doctor is said to have prescribed the biscuits for his bad temper.

Which two German regions have baked springerle at Christmas for centuries?

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The first pictures on the biscuits were Bible scenes, because springerle grew out of church baking; coats of arms, riders and fashionable ladies came later.

Spritz cookies, a German Christmas favourite, take their name from a verb meaning what?

To squirt: German spritzen describes how the soft, buttery dough is squeezed through a press fitted with patterned holes, so the press, not a cutter, shapes each biscuit.

How is springerle dough treated before baking so that its embossed picture stays sharp?

Left to dry for about 24 hours: the top sets firm while the underside stays moist, so in the oven the base rises into a little 'foot' and the picture above stays crisp.

Instead of going into the dough, anise traditionally flavours springerle in which way?

Dusted onto the baking sheets: the moulded biscuits sit on a tray strewn with anise seed, which clings to the base and scents them as they bake.

Who is said to have invented lebkuchen?

Monks in Franconia in the 13th century get the usual credit, though another account has Franconian monasteries adapting a recipe that began in Dinant; Ulm records it by 1296.

Printen, hard spiced biscuits of the lebkuchen family, are a specialty of which German city?

Aachen. Its bakers once sweetened Printen with honey, but after Napoleon's blockade made honey and sugar costly they turned to cheaper sugar-beet syrup, still used today.

The base under a traditional lebkuchen was borrowed from which other use?

Holy Communion. The wafer, called an Oblate, uses the same unleavened recipe as a communion host, and the sticky dough is piped onto it so the biscuit never sticks to the tray.

Which Italian region are pizzelle originally from?

Abruzzo. There the cookies go by ferratelle and belong to weddings, and families handed down the tools for making them, engraved with their initials or crest.

What equipment gives pizzelle their pattern?

An iron like a waffle iron: its long-handled plates were once held by hand over the stove, stamping a snowflake pattern into both sides of the batter.

Speculaas were traditionally baked for which winter feast day?

Saint Nicholas' Day: speculaas grew out of 'klaasjes', rye-and-honey cakes eaten at the saint's December feast, Sinterklaas, before spices and sugar transformed them.

Which country did shortbread come from?

Scotland. Shortbread began in the 12th century as a sweetened 'biscuit bread', and popular legend, on thin evidence, credits its refinement to Mary, Queen of Scots.

What is the traditional ratio for shortbread?

One sugar, two butter, three flour is the classic shortbread ratio, with no leavening at all; the high proportion of butter shortens the gluten strands, which is why the biscuit crumbles instead of rising.

What are triangular wedges of shortbread known as?

Petticoat tails: one dictionary explains the name by the round's scalloped edge, like a petticoat's, while an old theory made it a garbling of French petites gatelles, 'little cakes'.

What is a snickerdoodle rolled in before baking?

Cinnamon sugar: the spiced coat is one of the things that tells a snickerdoodle from a plain sugar cookie, which is rolled in white sugar alone.

Which ingredient gives a snickerdoodle its signature texture and tang?

Cream of tartar is the key: the acidic ingredient reacts with baking soda to give a snickerdoodle its slight tang and soft chew, and its use is the usual line drawn between a snickerdoodle and a plain sugar cookie.

Where does the Joy of Cooking suggest the name 'snickerdoodle' comes from?

German origins is the Joy of Cooking's guess: it suggests snickerdoodle comes from Schneckennudel, a German cinnamon roll, while a rival theory calls it a nonsense word in the New England tradition of whimsical cookie names.

Who is said to have brought gingerbread to Europe in 992 AD?

An Armenian monk, Gregory of Nicopolis, is said to have brought gingerbread to Europe in 992, settling near Pithiviers in France and teaching local Christians to bake it over the seven years before his death.

Which monarch is credited with the first gingerbread men?

Elizabeth I is credited with the first gingerbread men: her court bakers shaped the biscuits to resemble visiting dignitaries, so guests were presented with small gingerbread versions of themselves.

In December 2025, the world's largest gingerbread house was built as a replica of the house in which Christmas film?

Home Alone. Disney+ and Hulu recreated the McCallister house in Los Angeles for the film's 35th anniversary, taking a record that a gingerbread house in Texas had held since 2013.

Why was a crook added to the top of the original sugar sticks?

To recall the shepherds is the legend's reason: the choirmaster had the sticks bent into a crook like a shepherd's staff, giving the sweets a nod to the Nativity that justified handing them out in church.

The fanciest gingerbread sold at fairs centuries ago was often decorated with which costly finish?

Gold leaf. The gilding gave English the phrase 'to take the gilt off the gingerbread', meaning to make something less appealing than it first seemed.

What did the Keller Machine, patented in 1957, do?

Twisted and cut candy canes automatically is what the Keller Machine did: Gregory Keller, a Catholic priest in Arkansas, patented it in 1957 to spiral-stripe the soft candy and cut it to length, replacing hand-bending.

The butter cookies sold worldwide in round blue tins come from which country?

Denmark. The Royal Dansk tin is so often reused to hold sewing supplies that the surprise of opening one became a shared joke, one the company has publicly acknowledged.

What are the main ingredients of the plain cut-out biscuit iced at Christmas?

Sugar, flour, butter and eggs are the base of the classic sugar cookie, usually with vanilla and a pinch of raising agent; the stiff dough holds a cutter's shape and takes royal icing well.

Linzer cookies, jam-filled sandwich biscuits, are named after a city in which country?

Austria. The cookie is a miniature of Linz's Linzer torte: two rounds sandwich the jam, and a hole cut in the top one lets it show through.

What is the traditional form of a speculaas biscuit?

Flat, crisp and moulded: the dough is pressed into a carved wooden board, so each thin biscuit comes out as the mirror image of the picture cut into it.

Which region were speculaas developed in?

The Low Countries, today's Belgium and the Netherlands. The Belgian version, speculoos, drops most of the spice and takes its flavour from caramelised sugar instead.

Which German city, home to lebkuchen bakers since at least 1395, is the biscuit's most famous exporter?

Nuremberg: its bakers were on record by 1395, and by the 1500s the city was shipping ready-made gingerbread as far as Scandinavia.

Which flavourings are usual in pizzelle?

Anise, vanilla or lemon zest, with anise the usual choice; while still warm, a pizzella is soft enough to be rolled into a cannoli-style tube.

The caramelised speculoos cookie handed out on airline flights is sold worldwide under which brand name?

Biscoff: Lotus Bakeries coined the name in 1986 from 'biscuit' and 'coffee', and airlines began handing the biscuits out as in-flight treats around the same time.

What is a snickerdoodle's most recognisable visual feature?

A cracked surface is the snickerdoodle's signature: the soft dough spreads as it bakes and the sugary coating sets before the cookie finishes rising, so the top splits into a crazed pattern.

A Betty Crocker cookbook credits chocolate crinkle cookies to a home baker in which US city?

Saint Paul, Minnesota: Helen Fredell served them at home in the early 1950s, and guests so often asked for the recipe that Betty Crocker printed it.

Krumkake, the Norwegian wafer rolled into a cone while hot, has a name meaning what?

Bent cake: krum is Norwegian for curved or crooked. Emigrants carried the cookie to the American Midwest, where it took root so firmly that one US dictionary tags the word 'Upper Midwest'.

The crescent shape of Vienna's vanillekipferl is said to mark a 1683 victory over whom?

The Ottoman Turks are the legend's losers: the crescent of Vienna's vanillekipferl is said to copy the crescent on Ottoman banners after the 1683 siege of the city was broken, and the biscuits are rolled in vanilla sugar.

Which US state adopted the bizcochito, a lard-based holiday biscuit, as its official state cookie?

New Mexico made the bizcochito its state cookie in 1989, the first state to name one, choosing the anise-scented biscuit to help keep traditional home baking alive.

The word biscotti comes from a Medieval Latin term meaning what?

Twice-cooked is the meaning: the log of dough is baked, sliced and baked again until dry, and bread dried that way kept so well it fed the Roman legions.

Struffoli, fried dough balls bound with honey at Christmas, are a speciality of which Italian city?

Naples. The dish may go back to the city's ancient Greek founders, since Greece still fries a close cousin, loukoumades, though another theory credits Spanish rule.

The Spanish holiday shortbread polvorón takes its name from the Spanish word for what?

Powder is the root: polvorón is traced to pólvora, 'powder', or polvo, 'dust', because the crumbly shortbread collapses into dust at the first bite.

The Netherlands' ring-shaped kerstkransjes biscuits are traditionally put to which festive use?

Hung on the Christmas tree: the name means 'little Christmas wreaths', and the hole lets each ring, often topped with flaked almonds, dangle from a branch until it is eaten.

How are Norway's fattigmann cookies traditionally cooked?

Deep fried in unsalted fat. The name means 'poor man', said to be a joke: with cream, eggs, cardamom and cognac in the dough, baking them supposedly left you broke.

In 1444, Swedish nuns at Vadstena Abbey reportedly baked gingerbread to ease what?

Indigestion is the ailment: the nuns of Vadstena Abbey are recorded in 1444 baking gingerbread as a remedy for it, the earliest trace of gingerbread baking in the country, where German immigrants had introduced it in the 13th century.

The string handle on a box of Barnum's Animals crackers was added in 1902 so the box could hang where?

On the Christmas tree: Nabisco designed the box for the 1902 holiday season, and the string let a carton of crackers double as an ornament.

In The Gingerbread Man, the American fairy tale first printed in 1875, which animal finally eats the runaway?

A fox outwits the Gingerbread Man after he has outrun everyone else: in some tellings it pretends to be deaf to lure him close, in others it offers a ride across a river.

Peanut butter blossoms, an American Christmas staple, are topped with which chocolate pressed in after baking?

A Hershey's Kiss crowned Freda Smith's entry at the 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off; it did not take first prize, yet Hershey went on to print the recipe on its bags.

Which fairy tale, published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, is often credited with inspiring gingerbread houses?

Hansel and Gretel stumble on a house built of bread and sugar, and decorated gingerbread houses became a Christmas custom in the tale's wake; some food historians think such houses already existed.

The round blue tins of Danish butter cookies, a common Christmas gift, are famously reused to store what?

Sewing supplies are the tin's best-known second life: lifting the lid to find needles and thread where the biscuits should be has become a pop-culture joke.

Which hard-setting mix of egg whites and sugar is the usual edible glue holding a gingerbread house together?

Royal icing sets so firmly that it works as an edible cement for the walls and roof, and bakers use the same icing to pipe the snow scenes on top.

The three coloured layers of rainbow cookies, a Christmas favourite created by immigrant bakers, represent what?

The Italian flag inspired the green, white and red layers, yet nothing quite like the cookie exists in Italy: Italian-American bakeries created it around the turn of the 20th century.

In the Shrek films, which nursery-rhyme character is revealed as the baker who made Gingy the gingerbread man?

The Muffin Man is Gingy's creator, and in Shrek 2 he also bakes Mongo, a giant gingerbread man who helps storm the castle.

In which classic ballet does an army of gingerbread soldiers go into battle against the forces of the Mouse King?

The Nutcracker sends gingerbread soldiers against the mice first; tin soldiers then join the fight while dolls act as doctors and carry away the wounded.

Spritz biscuits, buttery Christmas shapes named after the German verb 'spritzen', are formed with which kitchen tool?

A cookie press pushes soft dough through a patterned plate with a plunger, and that squeezing is the 'spritzing' behind the name; some bakers call the tool a cookie gun.

In which Christmas comedy does Scott Calvin suddenly crave milk and cookies despite being lactose intolerant?

The Santa Clause makes the craving part of Scott's transformation: he balloons in weight almost overnight and grows a white beard that returns the moment he shaves.

Honey-soaked melomakarona and sugar-coated kourabiedes are the two classic Christmas cookies of which country?

Greece bakes both for the holidays: melomakarona are dipped in cold honey syrup straight from the oven, and their name begins with meli, the Greek word for honey.

Which no-bake Christmas truffle of crushed biscuits and cocoa keeps its alcoholic kick because it never sees an oven?

Rum balls are mixed and rolled without heat, so the spirit never burns off; each is about the size of a golf ball and coated in chocolate sprinkles, coconut or cocoa.

Hard gingerbread hearts iced with affectionate or cheeky messages are a classic souvenir of which German festival?

Oktoberfest visitors take the hearts home as souvenirs, and the same hard Lebkuchen, a tougher bake than the usual soft kind, is sold iced with messages at Christmas fairs.

A glazed cinnamon-and-almond Christmas biscuit from Swabia, made with whipped egg whites, is cut into which shape?

Stars give Zimtsterne, German for cinnamon stars, their name, and the shape is older than the Christmas link: Emperor Charles V is said to have been served the biscuits back in 1536.

Which composer, visiting the Polish gingerbread city of Toruń aged 15, wrote to friends about his love of the treat?

Frédéric Chopin liked Toruń's gingerbread so much that the city's biggest maker now sells a heart-shaped one called Scherzo with his portrait on the wrapper.

Baker's ammonia, the old leavening used in Lebkuchen and other Christmas bakes, was originally made from what?

Ground deer horn gave the leavening its old name, hartshorn; it was the forerunner of baking soda and still suits thin, dry bakes such as crackers.

Staff at the Oslo branch of which retail chain baked a 651 kg gingerbread man in 2009, setting a Guinness record?

IKEA is better known for flat-pack furniture, but the staff of its Furuset store turned out the 1,435-pound biscuit on 9 November 2009.

Which silver sugar beads used to decorate Christmas cookies does the US Food and Drug Administration class as inedible?

Dragées with a metallic finish can be sold in the US only with a notice that they are for decoration, though Britain and France class the same silver beads as food.

Cuccidati, iced Sicilian Christmas cookies topped with rainbow sprinkles, are stuffed with which dried fruit?

Figs give cuccidati their English name, Sicilian fig cookies; when the pastry is shaped into a ring they are called buccellati, meaning little bracelets.

In Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Cookie Monster eats a pencil, a typewriter and a telephone while trying to do what?

Contact Santa is all he wants, to ask for cookies, yet he eats each tool he picks up and ends the special having eaten the decorations in Gordon and Susan's apartment.

Which smartphone operating system named its version 2.3, released in December 2010, after gingerbread?

Android 2.3 Gingerbread reached the public on 6 December 2010, and the Nexus S became the first Google phone to run it as well as the first Nexus with built-in NFC.

Which American cookie brand's animated elves, led for decades by Ernie, first appeared in advertisements in 1968?

Keebler dates back to 1853, but the elves arrived only in 1968, when the Leo Burnett advertising agency invented them along with a fantasy factory for them to bake in.

Ruth Wakefield created the chocolate chip cookie while running which Massachusetts inn with her husband Kenneth?

Toll House Inn was the hotel and restaurant Wakefield ran in Whitman; she later let Nestlé print her recipe on its chocolate packaging, and said she was promised a dollar for the deal.

Which dark sweetener, cheaper than sugar for colonists in the Americas, gave gingerbread a softer texture?

Molasses is the thick by-product left when cane or beet juice is refined into sugar, which kept it cheap; in the UK it is sold as black treacle.

Hallongrotta, which Americans call a thumbprint cookie, has a Nordic name meaning 'cave' of which fruit?

Raspberry jam is the usual filling for the 'cave' pressed into each biscuit, and Australians know a similar bake as jam drops.

Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies are the same nutty Christmas bake, also sold under which wintry name?

Snowballs get the name from their thick white sugar coat: the cookies are rolled in it once while still hot and again after cooling.

Cookies are thought to have originated in the 7th century in which region, soon after sugar became common there?

Persia took to sugar early, and the sweet biscuits that followed spread west with the Muslim conquest of Spain, until street vendors and royal kitchens alike were selling and serving them.

Which Norwegian city has built a town of gingerbread houses each year since 1991, claimed to be the world's largest?

Bergen names its display Pepperkakebyen, Norwegian for 'the gingerbread village'; in 2009 vandals destroyed the entire thing.

A gingerbread house covering 2,520 square feet set a Guinness World Record in 2013 in which US state?

A group in Bryan, Texas, built the edible-walled house in aid of a hospital trauma centre, using 1,800 pounds of butter and 7,200 eggs.

Nanaimo bars, three-layer Canadian treats that need no baking, are named after a city in which province?

British Columbia is home to the city of Nanaimo; when the bar appeared on a Canadian postage stamp in 2019, critics complained about the ratio of its three layers.

Bredele, small Christmas biscuits that families bake and give to neighbours, are a tradition of which French region?

Alsace families each bake their own assortment from the many varieties and then hand them to neighbours as Christmas presents, a custom shared with parts of southern Germany.

Licitars, decorated honey-dough biscuits sold as souvenirs, are a traditional symbol of which country's capital city?

Croatia saw its northern gingerbread craft added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2010; the biscuits first won fame at the shrine of Marija Bistrica, where pilgrims bought them.

In which 2015 Christmas horror comedy do three living gingerbread men named Lumpy, Dumpy and Clumpy attack a family?

Krampus gives the three cookies the voices of Seth Green, Breehn Burns and Justin Roiland, and one of them lures a boy to the chimney, chains him up and kidnaps him.

Bethmännchen, marzipan Christmas cookies named after a banking family, are a speciality of which German city?

Frankfurt sells them at one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets, which dates back to 1393; legend credits a Parisian pastry chef working for the banker Simon Moritz von Bethmann, but dates it to 1838, after his death.

Ricciarelli, soft biscuits served at Christmas with a glass of Vin Santo, come from which Tuscan city?

Siena counts them among its signature sweets alongside panforte; legend says Ricciardetto della Gherardesca brought them back to his castle from the Crusades.

Which composer's 1893 fairy-tale opera, built around a witch's gingerbread house, is traditionally staged at Christmas?

Engelbert Humperdinck began it when his sister asked for music to songs she had written for her children; Richard Strauss conducted the premiere in Weimar on 23 December 1893.

Who wrote American Cookery, regarded as the first cookbook by an American and the first to print the word 'cookey'?

Amelia Simmons also printed the first advice to serve cranberry with turkey, along with seven different gingerbread recipes; only four copies of her first edition are known to exist.

Läckerli, a hard spice biscuit of honey, almonds, candied peel and kirsch, is the speciality of which Swiss city?

Basel has records of it from 1711; the popular tale that it was created for the church council of 1431 is unlikely, because the key ingredients were not yet on sale in the city.

The ginger in gingerbread comes from which part of the Zingiber officinale plant, often loosely called a root?

The rhizome is a stem that grows underground; ginger's is gathered when the stalk above it withers, then scalded or scraped at once so that it cannot sprout.

Which French chemist's name is given to the browning reaction, described in 1912, that makes baked cookies taste toasty?

Maillard, in full Louis Camille Maillard, came across the reaction between amino acids and sugars while he was trying to reproduce biological protein synthesis.

Which baking spice, named in 1621 for seeming to combine several flavours, is really a single dried berry?

Allspice is the dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, a plant native to the Greater Antilles and Central America, and is also sold as pimento.

Which city gives its name to Russia's famous stamped gingerbread, a glazed tile often filled with jam?

Tula imprints its pryanik with patterns, names, greetings or even pictures of the city's kremlin, and making the stamped cakes is considered an art form.

Dominosteine, layered Christmas sweets of gingerbread, jelly and marzipan, were invented in 1936 in which German city?

Dresden confectioner Herbert Wendler created them, saw his factory destroyed in the Second World War, rebuilt it in 1952 and got the company back from the state at reunification in 1990.

Kūčiukai, tiny baked dough bites served with poppy milk at the Christmas Eve dinner, belong to which country?

Lithuania calls the meal Kūčios, and custom says the little cakes should be baked that same day; they are eaten dry, soaked in poppy milk or with cranberry kissel.

Which co-director of Shrek 2 also provides the voice of Gingy, the gingerbread man of the Shrek films?

Conrad Vernon joined Shrek as a writer and was responsible for the character before he voiced him; he later co-directed Monsters vs. Aliens and Sausage Party.

Tirggel, thin Christmas biscuits baked at 400 °C for only 90 seconds, have been made since 1461 in which Swiss city?

Zürich bakers push the dough into elaborately carved wooden forms showing Biblical or regional scenes; four of the old carvings are on show in the Swiss National Museum.

Buckeyes, peanut butter fudge partly dipped in chocolate, are named after a poisonous nut linked to which US state?

Ohio resident Gail Tabor is widely credited with the modern version, which she was making by 1964; her recipe reached print in 1973 despite her refusal to share it.

Fortune cookies, a fixture of Chinese restaurants in America, most likely originated with immigrants from which country?

Japan still has a larger, darker version flavoured with sesame and miso, and a very similar cookie was being made in Kyoto as far back as the 19th century.

Oreo, first sold in 1912, was launched as an imitation of which chocolate sandwich cookie introduced four years earlier?

Hydrox came from the Sunshine company in 1908, yet Oreo outsold it so thoroughly that most people now assume Hydrox was the copy.