Cake Mix M&M Christmas Cookie Recipe | Santa’s Cookies

This cake mix M&M Christmas cookie recipe is one we make every year. It uses simple ingredients, is easy to make and they are delicious! We leave these cookies out with a glass of milk on our fireplace every Christmas Eve for Santa to enjoy. 

It is that time of year, when our family whips out our aprons, blasts Christmas music and spends a whole weekend baking holiday treats. We have been working on perfecting our Christmas cake mix cookies for years and I think we have landed on our final recipe. The fluffy inside, melted chocolate and just a hint of a crisp on the bottom of this cookie is pure perfection. 

My kids affectionately call these “Santa cookies” because we leave them out for the jolly man every Christmas Eve with a glass of milk and they are gone in the morning when the kids wake up. Santa seems to love them too! 🙂 This festive cookie is delicious and you could even add Christmas sprinkles to them to add a little extra Christmas cheer.

These easy Christmas cookies are so festive and would make a great gift for teachers, neighbors or friends. Just wrap them up in a cellophane bag and tie with a red ribbon and you have a festive gift to give. 

We love making these for holiday parties, cookie swaps, classroom Christmas parties and family Christmas celebrations.

These holiday cookies are one of the easiest cookie recipes I have ever made. My 10 year old can make them pretty much independently which he is very proud of. I love finding simple recipes that my kids can help me with and this is definitely one of them.

Ingredients

• White Cake Mix
• Olive Oil (or Vegetable Oil)
• Flour
• Egg Whites
• M&Ms
• Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

How To Make Your Cake Mix Christmas Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°

In a large bowl mix the cake mix, egg whites, flour and olive oil together

​Mix in the M&Ms and chocolate chips (I recommend doing this by hand)

Roll the cookie dough into 1×1 balls and place on the cookie sheet (If you would like to use parchment paper lay this down before this step)

Gently push the cookie dough balls down just a bit to create a cookie form 

Add a few M&Ms and chocolate chips to the top to make the bright Christmas colors stand out

Bake for 6-7 minutes (timing can vary depending on your oven)

Immediately remove from the baking sheet, put on a cooling rack & let them cool at room temperature

Storage

These can be stored in an airtight container for 3-5 days. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months. 

A little tip my mom taught me, if you don’t want to make the whole recipe right away make the cookie dough balls and place them on a sheet pan and put it in the freezer for 2 hours. Remove the frozen dough from the freezer and add to a freezer bag/container and you have individual cookies you can take out at any time to make fresh, warm cookies! 

Tips When Making Your Cake Mix M&M Christmas Cookies

Be careful to not over cook! These cookies cook fast in those last 1-2 minutes. The bottom of the cookies will brown faster than the top so remove from the oven right when you notice the cookies have set and are no longer doughy.

Make sure to put the cookies on a wire rack to cool, do not let them sit on the cookie sheet once you remove from the oven to avoid the bottoms getting too crispy.

Any boxed cake mix works but I prefer the extra moist white cake mix when making these. You could get creative and try a different flavor of cake mix, strawberry could make yummy strawberry cookies and I also would love to try a french vanilla cake mix in the future!

For super simple clean up use a parchment-lined baking sheet when baking these cookies.

Other Fun Christmas Recipes

• Christmas Punch 
• Christmas Puppy Chow
• Christmas Blonde Brownies
• 3 Ingredient Hot Cocoa Dip