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There is a specific kind of December magic in a cookie tray: the one that shows up at the office, at grandma’s, on the counter where it is not supposed to stay all afternoon but somehow does. We wanted to know which of these old reliables still make hearts flutter.
Please note that some of the images in this article were created with the assistance of AI.
So we asked. Readers tapped a ❤️ or a 👎 under photos of 24 classic Christmas cookies. Votes were anonymous, no names or accounts, just gut reactions to the kind of cookies you remember.
The headline? Christmas cookies are, broadly, beloved. But two of them came within a whisker of a clean sweep.
Readers Weighed In on 24 Classic Cookies
Between Oct 2 and Oct 25, 2026, 292 readers cast 929 votes across 24 Christmas cookies. The verdict was warm from the start: overall, 87% of votes were a ❤️.
That is a crowd in a generous mood. To put it in perspective, even the least-loved cookie with 30 or more votes still pulled in 69% hearts. When your worst performer is still liked by most of the room, you are dealing with a very friendly plate of baked goods.
Two Cookies Came Within a Whisker of Perfect
❤️ 97% of 34 readers who voted on this photo
At the very top, two cookies tied for near-unanimous love among those with 30 or more votes. Red-and-white candy cane twist cookies took 97% of 34 votes, and peanut butter blossoms with chocolate kisses matched them at 97% of 35. The striped twist and the thumb-pressed chocolate kiss, both crowd-pleasers to the last crumb.
A couple of cookies scored right up there with them, but on too few votes to crown. Checkerboard cookies sliced from a log hit a flawless 100% of 19 votes, and bourbon balls rolled in sugar landed at 96% of 24, both short of the 30-vote line.
And a word for the workhorse: frosted sugar-cookie cutouts in red and green icing were the most-voted cookie of all, drawing 79 votes, and still charmed 95% of them. That is a lot of readers agreeing on one thing.
Every Cookie, From Most Loved to Least
Walk the full list and you notice how tightly everyone clusters near the top. Checkerboard cookies sliced from a log led at 100% of 19, with peanut butter blossoms and candy cane twists both at 97%, bourbon balls at 96% of 24, and frosted cutouts at 95% of 79.
From there the hearts keep coming: jam-filled thumbprints with red centers at 94% of 54, powdered-sugar Russian tea cakes at 93% of 73, stained-glass cookies at 93% of 29, butter spritz wreaths at 92% of 66, pecan tassies at 92% of 47, molasses crinkles at 91% of 33, and chocolate crinkles at 90% of 61.
The middle holds steady too: gingerbread men at 88% of 41, Scottish shortbread fingers at 87% of 30, anise pizzelle at 86% of 35, and spiced pfeffernüsse at 84% of 31.
The slide only really begins near the bottom: date pinwheels and Kellogg’s cherry winks both at 79%, coconut macaroons at 77% of 31, fruitcake cookies at 76% of 25, mincemeat drops at 73% of 15, cornflake wreaths at 72% of 36, Italian cuccidati at 69% of 32, and gumdrop cookies bringing up the rear at 56% of 23.
The Fruit-Studded Cookies Trailed the Pack
If you were looking for a pattern, here it is. The cookies loaded with dried fruit, dates, candied fruit, coconut or gumdrops scored lower as a group: 74% across 202 votes over seven cookies. Every other cookie together landed at 91% across 727 votes.
You can see it in the names. Italian cuccidati filled with figs and nuts got 69% of 32, golden coconut macaroons 77% of 31, and Kellogg’s cherry winks and date pinwheels both 79% of their votes. Gumdrop cookies with chopped walnuts, on fewer than 30 votes, sat lowest of all at 56% of 23.
Here is the kind part, though: even trailing, most of these still earned more hearts than thumbs-down. Fruit cookies still have their fans; there are just fewer of them.
The Bottom Line
What readers told us, mostly, is that Christmas cookies are a safe bet. The hearts outnumbered the thumbs-down nearly everywhere, and the top of the tray was a photo finish between a candy cane twist and a peanut butter blossom.
The only real soft spot was the fruit-and-candy contingent, which drew a cooler reception. Everything else? Keep the tray coming.
How we did this
- Readers of our classic Christmas cookies article tapped ❤️ or 👎 under each food photo between Oct 2 and Oct 25, 2026.
- 292 readers cast 929 votes on photos still in those articles. Each reader can vote once per photo. Votes are anonymous: no names, emails or accounts.
- Percentages are the share of ❤️ votes. The 95% ranges show how much a result could move with more votes; when two ranges overlap, we call it too close to call.
- Readers were reacting to photos of each dish, not tasting it. The food photos are illustrations.
- Cookie groups are our own sort of each cookie.
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