20 Dessert Recipe Ideas for Your Christmas Celebration

Need inspiration for Christmas dinner’s desserts? With 20 Dessert Recipe Ideas for Your Christmas Celebration, I’ve got you covered! Whether its cookies for nibbling or a show-stopping memorable dessert, each one of these recipes is a tried-and-true, delicious dessert!

From super-easy, toot sweet recipes all the way up to recipes that require a bit of effort, these 20 Dessert Recipe Ideas for Your Christmas Celebration will have your family asking you to make them again and again! Who knows? Maybe one or two of them will become your family’s new favorite!

We’ll start with the easiest and work our way down to the most difficult:

Peach Pineapple Dump Cake is the most searched recipe on our site! What I mean is that more people land on our site doing a Google search for this combination of dump cake flavors! While this recipe is one I created long ago, after learning about the fabulous dump cake idea that lit the nation on fire, this recipe was made, photographed and posted on this blog by Tiffany, my niece and former partner on this blog.

While the photos aren’t stellar (taken with an iPhone in the early days of this blog), I’m not inclined to re-do them because:

Tiffany did this post and I love and honor her contribution to this blog;
it has adorable pictures of her daughter and my great-niece, Princess Sweetie Pie, helping Tiffany make this cake;
since it drives lots of traffic to this blog, “why fix it if ain’t broke”?

Anyway, if easy is your thing, Peach Pineapple Dump Cake is the ticket. Did I mention how delicious it is?

Razzle Dazzle Dump Cake is another super easy recipe! With oatmeal and walnuts added to cake mix, this delicious recipe has both a chewy and crunchy texture.

My Fresh Strawberry Pie couldn’t be easier. Made with a pre-made pie crust, fresh strawberries and a pre-made strawberry glaze, this pie can be made ahead of time. Oh, and this photo, too, was taken with an iPhone, pre-fancy, dancy camera days!

Salted Caramel Icebox Cheesecake is another easy dessert. It does require that you prepare your pan by lining it with plastic wrap and it does need several hours of freezer time between layers, but this dessert can be made well ahead of time freeing your holiday schedule. And, who doesn’t like cheesecake, salted caramel ice cream and chocolate?

My Berrylicious Ice Box Cheesecake is another delicious make-ahead dessert. I’m lucky that fresh berries are available year-round in my neck of the woods, but you could substitute other things to decorate your dessert, like frozen berries!

Hot Fudge Cutie Pies are so cute plus easy! Made in mini graham cracker pie shells, you can make individual servings for your guests plus you can make them ahead of time!

Chocolate-covered Strawberries and White Chocolate-covered Strawberries are so easy, too! Dipped in a purchased and microwaved pre-made chocolate, they come together in minutes. Best eaten the day these are made, you could make them in the morning or afternoon for your holiday dinner. If having a dessert buffet, these are a beautiful and delicious addition.

Crazy Chocolate Cake is my grandmother’s recipe from the Depression Era. Made in a 9″ x 13″ glass baking pan, it’s perfect every time. Plus, you can’t get any more “chocolately” than this cake! This photo, too, was taken with an iPhone.

Want something “healthy” but show stopping? Watermelon Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream is the right choice! Watermelon may be hard to find this time of year, though. But, you could freeze strawberry ice cream in a round bowl and make a similar, show stopping dessert!

Cookie bars your thing? Cake Batter Chess Bars are made with a box of yellow cake mix! They, too, can be made ahead of time, but trust me, if you put them out before dinner, you won’t have any left for dessert!

Ditto Salted Maple Pecan Pie Bars from Pinch of Yum! These cookie bars, developed by Lindsay from Pinch of Yum, are like mini hand-held pecan pies! Chewy, sweet, nutty goodness!

Butterscotch Walnut Squares ala Chris is a recipe shared with me from my friend, Chris (thus the name). I have a “Teach Me to Cook” series that runs on this blog and I invite friends and family over to teach me their recipes. Chris came over one day and made these fantastic bars, a recipe from her mother. These, too, will be gone in a flash if you leave them out for your family! You can’t eat just one!

Gail is my sister and she taught me to make Gail’s Potato Chip Cookies long ago (like 35 years ago or more!). A family favorite, these cookies are made with potato chips as one of the main ingredients. Surprisingly delicious (it must be that “sweet/salty thing”), these are always the kids favorite cookie!

My Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies are the all-time favorite cookie of my adult family members! Don’t let this poorly lit iPhone photo fool you (pre-fancy, dancy camera days), these cookies are really the best ever! While my family loves Gail’s Potato Chip Cookies, too, after you eat a few potato chip cookies, you can’t eat anymore. Even though made with potato chips, they are surprisingly sweet!

With my Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies, you could probably eat a dozen without blinking your eye, except that you’ll get really full {grin}! The secret ingredient? They are a tad bit salty – again working on that “sweet/salty thing” our brains crave. In addition, Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies keep well and will be just as good a few days later as they were freshly baked.

I made Firecracker Pie Crust Stars for the 4th of July this past year, but you could make them for Christmas, too! Just make the blue stars green instead! Easy to make with pre-made pie crusts, they too have that “sweet/salty thing” going on and are addicting!

My Christmas Caramel Apples are made with tiny Lady Apples! So cute, they are the perfect size because you can eat one of them and eat some cookies, too {grin}! A win-win!

Need a dessert to feed a crowd? Rosa’s Caramel Flan does just that. Made in a Bundt cake pan, it does require a water bath. But the custard itself is easy to make with just a few ingredients. This can be made ahead and served the next day.

French Silk Chocolate Pie isn’t difficult, but it does take time. You need to beat it for several minutes between adding each egg, plus it needs refrigeration time. But, the result is a luscious, silky, chocolatey dessert – need I say more?

Vanessa’s Pavlova is a showstopper, for sure! While it isn’t difficult, it does take several hours to bake in a slow oven. But, you can make the meringue layer the day before and store it, wrapped, at room temperature. Layered with fresh whipped cream and a pile of beautiful fruit and passionfruit squeezed over the top, Vanessa created the perfect combination of flavors that make this dessert irresistible!

Vanessa, my blogging friend who lives in Australia, came to visit us in July 2013 and made this fantastic dessert for me and Charlie. Here’s my confession: this dessert is so good that the 3 of us (Vanessa, me and Charlie) ate the entire thing in one sitting {grin}! But, we rationalized our pig-out by saying it was “healthy” because of the egg whites for the meringue and the pile of fruit!

I’ve saved the most difficult for last. But, truly (really, truly), my White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Brown Butter Rum Sauce is one of the best desserts you will ever eat (just read the comment from a visitor!). It takes several hours and many steps to prepare, but you can make the bread pudding the day before and reheat it. In fact, I have reheated pieces of it in the microwave including the Brown Butter Rum Sauce and it is still delicious! This recipe garners rave reviews from your guests every time you serve it – guaranteed! No fooling! I promise! It is a labor of love that your family and guests will appreciate.

Christmas is less than a week away! Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? If you haven’t chosen your dessert yet for your holiday gathering, any one of my 20 Dessert Recipe Ideas for Your Christmas Celebration is a winner!

Tootles,

(other posts about Christmas)

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