Christmas Cookie Bars are packed with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and Christmas M&M’s. Each bite is so ooey gooey for a decadent treat.
If you like chocolate chip cookies, this recipe for Christmas cookie bars is a must try. This is the perfect snack or dessert to make around the holiday season. The red and green M&M’s make this one of the most festive Cookie Bar Recipes.
We also love these Magic Cookie bars and these Christmas Cowboy Cookies. You might also like to make a Gingerbread House.
What's in this post: Christmas Cookie Bars
Why We Love This
Cookie Bars are so delicious and made with similar ingredients that a regular cookie has. They are baked in a pan and cut into bars. I love the golden-brown crust and the chewiness in every bite.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter. Softened at room temperature so it’s easy to combine.
- Brown Sugar. Homemade Brown Sugar Recipe is easy to make if you run out of store bought.
- Eggs. Room temperature eggs.
- Vanilla Extract. Pure vanilla extract is always best.
- All-Purpose Flour. In order to prevent too much flour from being packed into the cup, spoon the flour instead of scooping it.
- Baking Soda. Try one of the Best Baking Soda Substitutes.
- Christmas M&Ms. The red and green make the bars festive for the holidays.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. I love to use semi-sweet because it helps the bars from being overly sweet.
- White Chocolate Chips. The combination of white chocolate chips and semi-sweet make each bite so decadent.
Get the full list of ingredients at the bottom of the page.
Variations and Substitutions
- Change the Color of the M&M’s – You can easily enjoy these year round simply by changing out a few ingredients. Substitute the Christmas M&M’s for other colors. You can use regular M&M’s to enjoy these anytime of year.
- Make them for different holidays – Try other holiday M&Ms such as: Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s Day, 4th of July and more. It seems they have M&M’s for every occasion.
- Perfect birthdays and baby showers – I bet you could even make these for birthday parties and use the party colors. They would be pretty for a baby shower too with blue or pink M&M’s.
- Change the Chocolate Chips – Now we love the mixture of white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips. But you can swap out one for the other. Sometimes we just use what we happen to already have or can get on sale! Mini chocolate chips is also a great option.
- Add Nuts – These cookies bars would be delicious with added chopped nuts. You can add in pecans, almonds, or peanuts for added flavor.
Step By Step Instructions
- Step 1 – Prepare oven and baking dish – First, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Next, line a 9X13 baking pan with parchment paper or spray with a non-stick cooking spray.
- Step 2 – Mix butter and sugars. – Beat together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar with a stand mixer or a hand-held mixer. Mix until well combined and smooth.
- Step 3 – Add Eggs and Vanilla – Add in eggs and vanilla extract and continue to beat until thoroughly combined.
Step 4 – Then stir in by hand the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder or baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined and be careful not to over mix. Mix until combine.
Step 5 – Add in half of the M&Ms and chocolate chips.
Step 6 – Make sure everything is completely combined.
Step 7 – Then gently stir these in by hand. Put the cookie dough into the 9X13 pan.
- Step 8 – Top with M&M and Chocolate Chips – Place the remaining m&ms, chocolate chips and the white chocolate chips on top. Then gently press them down into the cookie dough.
- Step 9 – Bake Cookie – Bake 35 to 40 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Step 10 – Serve and Enjoy – Let cool completely on a wire rack. Cut and serve and enjoy.
Pro Tips
- Measuring Flour – When you are measuring the flour, make sure you fill the measuring cup to the top. Then take a butter knife and scrape the top. This keeps to much flour being added to the mixture.
- Baking Dish – We used a 9 x 13 pan. For a thicker cookie you can adjust the pan size. It make take longer to cook.
- Disposable Pan – We recommend baking in a regular pan. Then moving to a disposable dish or cookie tray to transport to another location.
- Adding M&M’s – Follow the recipe to the amount of M&M’s to add. This ensure that the cookie bars bake evenly. To many M&M’s added to the cookie may cause it to not fully cook.
- Parchment Paper – We like to use parchment paper to line the baking dish. So that it is easy to lift the bars out of the pan. This makes it easier to cut the bars and easy clean up for the pan.
Storage
Store your leftover cookies at room temperature. Place in an air tight container or wrap completely on a cookie tray. They will last about a week if stored properly.
How to Freeze?
Christmas Cookie Bars are a great dessert to freeze. We like to slice the cookies and freeze individually so you can take out the amount you want to serve.
Freeze on a baking sheet for an hour, then place in a freezer safe container. They will stay fresh for up to 2 months. When ready to serve, thaw on counter and enjoy.
More Christmas Cookies
- Easy Christmas Pinwheel Cookies Recipe
- Christmas Cake Mix Cookies Recipe
- Magic Cookie Bars
- Christmas Sugar Cookie Bar Recipe
- Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
- Make sure you check out all our Christmas desserts too.
We love hearing from you. Please comment or leave a star review if you make these Christmas Bar Cookies.
Christmas Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter softened at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Christmas M&Ms divided
- 1 cup Chocolate Chips divided
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a 9X13 baking pan with parchment paper or spray with a non-stick cooking spray.
- Beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with a hand held mixer or stand up mixer until well combined and smooth.
- Add in eggs and vanilla extract and continue to beat until thoroughly combined.
- Then stir in by hand the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined and be careful not to over mix.
- Add in half of the m&ms and chocolate chips and gently stir these in by hand.
- Put the cookie dough into the 9X13 pan.
- Place the remaining m&ms, chocolate chips and the white chocolate chips on top and gently press them down into the cookie dough.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Let cool completely on a wire rack. Cut and serve. Enjoy!
These are so yummy and my daughter absolutely loves them!!
These are so yummy! They make the perfect dessert for a party because they’re fast and easy to whip together and they travel well. Plus, the cookie bars look so festive with the holiday candies. Thank you for the great recipe. It’s a keeper for us!
I hate making cookies cause it takes so long but these were ideal in a 9x 13 baking dish and great cookie taste and less time to make.
These bar cookies are quick and easy to make and loved by all. It is so easy to switch this up for any holiday or occasion by changing up the chips or sprinkles. So easy….so tasty!