Easy Christmas baking ideas to do with children
Ten Christmas bakes that children can do most of the work on, five of them without an oven, with who does which job at each age and when to bake what in December.
Easy Christmas baking with children splits the work in two: an adult handles the oven, the hob and anything that melts, and the children weigh, mix, roll, cut and decorate. Five of the ten bakes below need no oven at all, and the gingerbread spends 10 to 12 minutes in it. Each one follows a published BBC Good Food recipe, with the quantities, temperatures and keeping times that recipe gives, so you can plan which bake goes on which December weekend. Gingerbread house kits and other December activities for children are in our Kids & Elf collection.
Christmas baking ideas at a glance
Oven temperatures are given as conventional, fan, then gas. Keeping times are the ones each recipe states; where a recipe gives none, the table says so.
| Bake | Oven | Time | The children’s job | Keeps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melting snowman biscuits | None | 30 min, then setting | Icing, marshmallows, buttons | Airtight box, no time given |
| Christmas rocky road | None (hob to melt) | 20 min, 3 h chilling | Bashing biscuits, stirring | 3 to 4 days in the fridge |
| Peppermint creams | None | 30 min, 3 to 4 h setting | Rolling and dipping | Not stated |
| Christmas truffles | None (hob for the cream) | 30 min, 7 h chilling | Rolling and coating | 3 days in the fridge, 1 month frozen |
| Sweet snowballs | None | 20 min, 30 min chilling | Crushing, rolling in coconut | Cool place, airtight box |
| Easy gingerbread stars | 190°C, 170°C fan, gas 5 | 20 min, 1 h chilling, 10 to 12 min baking | Rolling, cutting, piping | Not stated |
| Gingerbread men | 200°C, 180°C fan, gas 6 | 45 min, 12 min baking | Cutting, faces | Up to 1 week in an airtight tin |
| Jammy star biscuits | 180°C, 160°C fan, gas 4 | 1 h, plus chilling, 10 to 15 min baking | Stamping windows, sandwiching | Up to 3 days, airtight |
| Rudolph cupcakes | 160°C, 140°C fan, gas 3 | 35 min, 20 to 22 min baking | Reindeer faces | Up to 3 days, sealed box |
| Mince pies with crumble tops | 200°C, 180°C fan, gas 6 | 25 min, 20 min baking | Cutting circles, rubbing in the crumble | Not stated |
No-oven Christmas treats for the youngest bakers
These five suit children from about 2 or 3, because the only hot job is melting, and that stays with the adult. The child’s part is assembling, rolling and decorating.
Melting snowman biscuits
A decorating job on six large shop-bought biscuits, so nothing goes near an oven. Mix 200g fondant icing sugar with cold water, one teaspoon at a time, until it is runny but still coats a spoon. An adult halves 6 white marshmallows with wet scissors.
Children pour a puddle of icing on each biscuit, stick on half a marshmallow as the body and the other half at an angle as the head, then add half a pretzel stick for each arm, mini chocolate beans for the nose and buttons (24 in all) and a face in black writing icing. Let them set before they go in a box.
Christmas rocky road
Twenty squares from a 20cm square tin, and a good way to use up leftover Christmas biscuits and sweets. Children break 250g biscuits into pieces no smaller than a pea (a freezer bag and a rolling pin keep the crumbs in one place), then mix in 75g nuts, 100g dried fruit and 75g chopped Christmas sweets.
The adult melts 300g of the 400g chocolate with 100g butter and 140g golden syrup over a low heat and pours it over; the children stir until everything is coated. Press it into the lined tin, drizzle the other 100g of chocolate, melted, over the top, add sprinkles and chill for at least 3 hours before cutting. It keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge.
Peppermint creams
Three ingredients: 250g sifted icing sugar, one egg white added a little at a time until the mix comes together as a soft dough, and a few drops of peppermint essence. Children roll 20 small balls and press them into discs with their fingertips.
For a chocolate half-coat, melt dark chocolate in the microwave in 30-second bursts, cool it for 5 to 10 minutes and dip each disc halfway. They need 3 to 4 hours, or overnight, to set. The egg white is raw, so use hens’ eggs with the red lion stamp: the NHS says those can be eaten raw, even by babies.
Truffles and snowballs
Christmas truffles start with 150g dark and 150g milk chocolate, melted by pouring over 150ml double cream and 50g butter brought to a simmer, then 7 hours in the fridge. Children roll teaspoons of the mix between lightly oiled palms and coat the balls in cocoa, sprinkles or icing sugar. They keep 3 days in the fridge or a month in the freezer, which makes them a good end-of-term present.
Sweet snowballs are the quick version: crushed plain biscuits and white Maltesers, mini marshmallows, dried cranberries and cake crumbs bound with 400g melted white chocolate and 3 tbsp golden syrup, rolled in desiccated coconut and chilled for 30 minutes.
Christmas biscuits children can roll, cut and ice
Biscuit dough is where children do most of the work. Roll it between two sheets of baking parchment: there is no flour on the worktop and nothing sticks to the rolling pin.
Easy gingerbread stars (the forgiving dough)
BBC Good Food’s ultimate easy gingerbread is the one to start with, because the recipe notes that the dough copes with being overworked, which matters when children re-roll the trimmings.
- Melt 100g salted butter, 3 tbsp golden syrup and 100g dark muscovado sugar in a small pan, then let it cool a little (adult).
- Mix ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tbsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 225g plain flour, pour in the butter mix, stir and bring it together by hand.
- Roll to ½cm between parchment, slide it onto a baking sheet and chill for 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan, gas 5). Cut shapes, such as 9cm stars, and cut a smaller star out of the centre of any that will hang on the tree, so a ribbon can go through.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes and leave to cool completely on the sheet.
- Mix 50g icing sugar with 1 to 2 tbsp water into a thick icing and pipe on the details.
Gingerbread men
BBC Good Food’s gingerbread men add chopped stem ginger to the dough, roll it to 5mm and bake at 200°C (180°C fan, gas 6) for 12 minutes. The biscuits rest on the tray for 10 minutes before moving to a rack. Raisins, sultanas or Smarties make the faces and buttons, and the batch keeps up to a week in an airtight tin, the longest of the biscuits here.
Jammy star biscuits
These take an hour of hands-on work plus two short chills and make 15 sandwiched stars, so they suit a weekend afternoon with children of 6 and over. Roll the dough to the thickness of a 50p coin, stamp stars with a 6cm cutter, and use a 3cm cutter to cut a window in half of them. Bake at 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4) for 10 to 15 minutes; the stars with windows need less time.
Sandwich them with butter icing (50g soft butter, 160g icing sugar and 50g of the jam) piped round the edge, with a dot of jam in the middle. They keep up to 3 days in an airtight container.
Christmas cupcakes and mince pies
Rudolph cupcakes
Twelve chocolate cupcakes from one saucepan: melt 200g butter, 200g plain chocolate, 200g light soft brown sugar and 100ml hot water, cool it slightly, stir in 2 large eggs and 1 tsp vanilla, then 250g self-raising flour. Fill the cases three-quarters full and bake on a low shelf at 160°C (140°C fan, gas 3) for 20 to 22 minutes.
The faces are the children’s job: chocolate icing (200g melted plain chocolate, 100ml double cream, 50g icing sugar), a large milk chocolate button for the muzzle, two white buttons with black icing-pen dots for eyes, a red Smartie nose and halved mini pretzels for antlers. They keep up to 3 days in a sealed container.
Easy mince pies with crumble tops
No lids to crimp, which makes these the simplest mince pies to make with children. The filling is 300g dried mixed fruit melted into 200g apricot jam; the recipe adds 25ml brandy, which you can leave out of a children’s batch. The pastry is 200g plain flour rubbed into 100g butter, bound with an egg yolk and about 2 tbsp water.
Roll it just thicker than a £1 coin, stamp 8cm circles and press them into the holes of a bun tin; re-rolling the trimmings gives 15 pies. Bake the filled cases for 5 minutes at 200°C (180°C fan, gas 6), top them with a crumble the children rub together with their fingers (100g plain flour, 25g icing sugar, 50g butter, 50g chopped almonds) and bake for 15 minutes more.
Who does what: Christmas baking jobs by age
Our suggested split, based on the steps in the recipes above. The oven, the hob, melting chocolate and sharp knives stay with an adult at every age.
| Age | Jobs children can do | Bakes to start with |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 3 | Tip in pre-weighed ingredients, stir cold mixtures, press cutters, add sprinkles | Melting snowmen, truffle coating |
| 4 to 5 | Bash biscuits in a bag, roll dough between parchment, cut shapes, pipe with writing icing | Rocky road, gingerbread stars |
| 6 to 8 | Weigh on digital scales, rub butter into flour, mix icing to the right thickness, sandwich biscuits | Mince pie crumble, jammy stars |
| 9 to 12 | Follow a recipe card, melt chocolate in the microwave in 30-second bursts, use the oven with an adult in the room | Peppermint creams, Rudolph cupcakes |
The NHS says whole nuts should not be given to children under 5, as they can choke on them. For a rocky road or a mince pie crumble that under-5s will eat, leave the nuts out or grind them fine, and check each recipe against the allergies at your table: both contain nuts as written.
A December 2026 Christmas baking plan
Keeping times decide the order: bakes that last longest go first, and the 3-day bakes go into Christmas week.
| When | What to bake | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday 22 November (Stir-up Sunday) | Christmas pudding or Christmas cake mix | The traditional day for the pudding, which needs weeks to mature |
| Saturday 5 or Sunday 6 December | Gingerbread stars with a ribbon hole | Decorations for the tree from the first weekend of December |
| Saturday 12 or Sunday 13 December | Christmas truffles, into the freezer | A month frozen covers end-of-term presents; defrost overnight in the fridge |
| Saturday 19 December | Gingerbread men | Up to a week in a tin takes them to Boxing Day |
| Tuesday 22 or Wednesday 23 December | Rocky road, jammy stars, Rudolph cupcakes | They keep up to 3 days, rocky road 3 to 4 in the fridge, so they are still fresh on Christmas Day |
| Thursday 24 December (Christmas Eve) | Mince pies, melting snowmen | A mince pie for Father Christmas’s plate and a fresh batch for the afternoon |
Stir-up Sunday: the first Christmas bake
Stir-up Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent, which falls on 22 November in 2026. The name comes from the church collect read that day, which opens “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord”, and since Victorian times it has been the day for making the Christmas pudding.
Each person takes a turn to stir the mix from east to west, for the three Wise Men, and makes a wish. Some families stir in a silver coin, traditionally a sixpence, for whoever finds it; keep that for older children. If the cake is your family’s bake instead, our Christmas cake decorating ideas give simple designs children can finish in December.
Gingerbread houses and Christmas Eve treats
A gingerbread house is the bake children ask for and adults dread, because the walls slide apart. A kit with ready-baked panels skips that part and leaves the icing and sweets to the children: our gingerbread house kits collection gathers them. To build one from scratch, our guide on how to make a gingerbread house explains how to stop it collapsing.
On Christmas Eve, the traditional British plate for Father Christmas is a mince pie and a drink, with a carrot for the reindeer, and children can bake the mince pie themselves. A few biscuits in a cellophane bag also fit in a Christmas Eve box next to the pyjamas and a book.
Christmas Eve boxes, elf props and baking kits for the rest of December are in our Kids & Elf range, and Christmas mugs for the hot chocolate after a baking session are in our Christmas home and kitchen collection.
Frequently asked questions
What are some good things to bake for Christmas with children?
Gingerbread biscuits, mince pies with a crumble top, chocolate reindeer cupcakes and rocky road all give children a real job, from cutting shapes to rubbing in crumble. For the very young, decorating shop-bought biscuits as melting snowmen keeps them busy without any oven time.
What are the easiest Christmas treats to make with kids?
No-bake treats: rocky road, peppermint creams, truffles and coconut snowballs only need chocolate or cream melted by an adult. Peppermint creams are the simplest of all, with icing sugar, an egg white and peppermint essence rolled into 20 discs.
What is the most popular Christmas dessert in the UK?
The traditional one is Christmas pudding, served after Christmas dinner, sometimes with warm brandy poured over and set alight. Mince pies and Christmas cake are the other British classics, and a chocolate log is an easier choice for children who find pudding too heavy.
What are the top 10 Christmas desserts?
There is no official ranking, but ten classics for a British Christmas are Christmas pudding, mince pies, Christmas cake, a chocolate Yule log, trifle, gingerbread, shortbread, stollen, panettone and rocky road. The last four can all be bought ready-made if time runs short.
What age can children start Christmas baking?
From about 2, children can tip in ingredients that an adult has weighed, stir cold mixtures and add sprinkles. Around 6 they can weigh and rub in, and from 9 or so they can follow a recipe card with an adult on oven duty.
How far ahead can I make Christmas biscuits?
Gingerbread men keep up to a week in an airtight tin, so a batch baked on 19 or 20 December lasts into Christmas week. Sandwiched jam biscuits keep only about 3 days, so bake those on 22 or 23 December, and freeze truffles if you want to make them earlier.
When is Stir-up Sunday in 2026?
Sunday 22 November 2026, the last Sunday before Advent Sunday on 29 November. It is the traditional day to make the Christmas pudding, with everyone in the family taking a turn to stir and make a wish.
Can children make mince pies?
Yes, with an adult at the oven. Children can rub butter into flour for the pastry, stamp out circles, spoon in the filling and crumble the topping with their fingers. Leave the brandy out of the filling for a children’s batch.
