10 Clever Ways to Gift-Wrap Your Christmas Cookies

Holiday gifts are best when they're unique and personable—and yet, homemade cookies are the one holiday gift that feel special and intimate even though they're made in batches. Holiday cookies are a fantastic gift for those you interact with on a daily basis outside of your family: Friends, co-workers, teachers, and neighbors will all love receiving a tasty batch during the holiday season. And since many families have their own unique holiday traditions, your spin on a classic cookie recipe might just surprise even the most ardent sweet lover. 

You can even select a cookie recipe that's free of nuts or certain allergens, including gluten, so that your gifts are safe for a greater amount of recipients. That might be the best route if you're hosting a classic cookie exchange with friends, family, and acquaintances this year; your guests can rest easy knowing they can enjoy a bite of each delectable option you've made. 

Regardless of the cookie you choose to create, baking is only half the fun when gifting cookies in the holiday season. Presentation is key here; using simple crafting skills, you can make your gift feel that much more special when you dress it up in packaging that makes use of seasonal motifs. You'll need to pack your cookies tightly using tissue paper, but adding things like craft paper and shiny ribbon can help you transform a dozen cookies wrapped in plastic into a joyful holiday gift box. And wrapping cookies correctly is essential if you plan on shipping them as a gift to their final destination—check out even more tips on how to prevent holiday cookies from crumbling in the mail.

Quaint town-house boxes are a creative way to package "lebkuchen," a type of cookie that the German town of Nuremberg has been famous for since the late 1300s. The house templates in this project create a custom sleeve that slips over a box filled with cookies.

Kitchen molds make attractive gift containers, and they serve the recipient well long after the cookies are eaten. Here, pudding molds lined with parchment make excellent vessels for soft cookies.

Shop Now: Mrs. Anderson's Baking Steamed Pudding Mold, $20, bedbathandbeyond.com.

Long lidded bread pans, swathed in bright taffeta or velvet ribbon, are the perfect container for rustic cookies such as biscotti. Be sure to line them with craft paper and tissue paper so they won't bump up against the rigid sides of the container while in transit.

Shop Now: King Arthur Pain de Mie Pan, 9", $30, shop.kingarthurflour.com.

Show off your beautiful Christmas cookies in clear jars with festive lids. After all, who would want to hide these palmiers (a classic French treat that's sometimes called palm leaves) in a closed box? For cookies that are shapely and beautiful all their own, upcycle a mason jar instead.

The icy color palette of these cone-shaped treat bags shows chocolate, snowy or brightly decorated cookies at their best—and the cellophane bag inside holds the treats safely.

Shop Now: Martha Stewart Crafts Frosty Elegance Icicle Treat Bags, $21 for set of 12, ebay.com.

Give a plain box a seasonal makeover with fresh pine sourced from your own backyard. Arrange the leaves in a small ring and glue together the stems before securing the delicate wreath with ribbon as shown.

Shop Now: The Container Store Small and Medium White Premium Gift Boxes, starting at $4.99, thecontainerstore.com; Celebrate-It Double-Faced Ribbon 1.5", $5, michaels.com.

A mixed cookie tin is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Line the bottom and sides of a square or rectangular airtight tin with corrugated paper. Fold short lengths in half for dividers. Then, envelop your cookies in tissue paper, buffer them with corrugated paper tubes, and protect them using accordion-folds of red paper. You can also tie a short stack of cookies with baker's twine.

Shop Now: Papermart Rectangular Tin Cans, $36 for 24, papermart.com.   

Stack this year's holiday cookies and sweets inside store-bought clear tubes. At under $1 each, they’re more affordable than tins or plastic containers; they're also sturdier in transit than cellophane wrapping. Finish them with our custom clip art to secure the boxes, too, by covering the tube's end caps.

Shop Now: Uline Clear Tubes, 1 1/2" by 6", $17.75 for 25; uline.com; Uline Clear Tube End Caps, starting at $16 for 50, uline.com.

These charming packages of holiday cookies are like a woodland fantasy in each box; here, we sandwiched our cookies between layers of waxed kraft paper. Fine wood shavings protect the cookies from any breakage. Embellish the outside of the boxes with your choice of wrapping paper and your own adornments; here, we use a graphic tree cutout to accompany the satin ribbon.

Shop Now: The Container St0re Small and Medium White Premium Gift Boxes, starting at $4.99, thecontainerstore.com; The Container Store Red Double Satin Ribbon, $11, containerstore.com.

Just the right shape for mailing (or hand-delivering) cookies, bright-colored cardboard tubes look even more festive when outfitted in red and white to mimic the season's best candy canes. Nail the look by cutting strips of adhesive paper in different widths with a utility knife on a straightedge; then, wrap the strips of adhesive paper around your mailing tubes. Wrap and pack your cookies in decorative tissue paper before slipping them into the tube.

Shop Now: Uline Kraft Mailing Tubes with End Caps, $27 for 25, uline.com.

Labors of love as pretty as home-baked cookies needn't be hidden in paper or cardboard. Here, neat rows of chocolate-espresso wafers and orange-ginger rounds are rolled in cellophane, and the ends are finished with ribbons.

Shop Now: Martha Stewart Collection Gold Printed Cellophane, $3, michaels.com; Martha Stewart Collection Gold Ribbon Set, $6, michaels.com.