Traditional Italian Cookies to Make Your Holiday Extra Special

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Italy: The birthplace of the nativity scene, surrounding country of the Vatican, and originator of several delicious holiday cookies. If anyone knows how to do Christmas, it’s the Italians.

In this collection, I’ve gathered 13 traditional Italian cookies to make your holiday extra special. From cookies featuring nuts, fruits, and unique textures and flavors, your family, Italian or otherwise, will love them.

Italian Knot Cookies (Anginetti)

A wicker basket filled with round traditional Italian Knot Anginetti cookies, each topped with white icing and festive red and green sprinkles.
Image Credit: It Is a Keeper

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Italian Knot Cookies (Anginetti) are pillows of sweet Italian goodness. They are often made for weddings but also work well for Christmas. Anginetti feature both vanilla and almond flavor that will perfectly compliment your Christmas.

GET THIS RECIPE: Italian Knot Cookies (Anginetti)

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Italian Pignoli Cookies (Pine Nut Cookies)

A wooden plate piled with traditional Italian cookies, topped with pine nuts and dusted with powdered sugar.
Image Credit: It Is a Keeper

Italian Pignoli Cookies are traditional pine nut and almond cookies. One of the best parts of them is that they are traditionally gluten free as they use almond paste as a base instead of flour. These delicious cookies can be made from start to finish in just under 30 minutes, so they’re perfect even if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands.

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Italian Pizzelle Cookies

A stack of round, thin Christmas Pizzelle cookies with intricate patterns and a dusting of powdered sugar on top.
Image Credit: It Is a Keeper

Italian Pizzelle Cookies were a favorite in my house around Christmas time. Though we weren’t Italian ourselves, my mom’s Italian friends would include this delicately designed delicacy in the multiple dozens of cookies we would receive in the yearly holiday cookie exchange. A bite into a Pizzelle reveals a sweet, lightly spiced crunch like no other.

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Italian Lemon Ricotta Cookies

A plate of lemon ricotta holiday cookies topped with multicolored round sprinkles, perfect for any festive celebration.
Image Credit: It Is a Keeper

Italian Lemon Ricotta Cookies are rich, cakey, lemony, and irresistible. You might think that putting ricotta in a cookie would make it savory and cheesy, but the ricotta adds texture, moisture and definition to create a complex flavor profile. The glaze is simple yet flavorful, perfectly completing a great cookie.

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Pistachio Cookies

A birds-eye view of a stack of round traditional Italian pistachio cookies with an additional cookie leaning sideways off of the stack sit on a white plate, garnished with whole pistachios, with more pistachios scattered on a red and white peppermint patterned surface.
Image Credit: It Is a Keeper

These Pistachio Cookies take a simple shortbread cookie dough and turn it in an Italian pistachio dream. If you love nuts like pistachios and almonds, you’ll love these. A splash of food coloring adds some fun to these Italian Christmas cookies.

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Italian Sesame Seed Cookies (Giuggiulena)

Sesame-coated traditional Italian cookies are stacked on a white plate, with one cookie broken in half to reveal the inside.
Image Credit: Brown Eyed Baker

Italian Sesame Seed Cookies (Giuggiulena) are an Italian grandmother’s favorite to make. They feature toasted sesame and anise flavor that can be dipped in milk or coffee, similar to a biscotti. This recipe makes enough for your family and then some so you can supply cookies for your entire neighborhood if desired.

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Italian Lemon Drop Cookies

A close-up of glazed Italian lemon drop cookies stacked on a blue plate.
Image Credit: Bread Booze Bacon

Italian Lemon Drop Cookies are sweet and citrusy with a hint of vanilla covered with a creamy, lemony glaze. These cookies are fluffy like a biscuit and will crumble beautifully in your mouth. They are great Christmas cookies but also work well for spring holidays like Easter.

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Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies

Chocolate meatball cookies topped with chocolate icing and colorful sprinkles, cooling on a wire rack, with one cookie broken in half to reveal the inside.
Image Credit: 12 Tomatoes

Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies may look like meatballs, but they don’t taste like them. Instead they are packed with chocolatey flavor accented by spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. The chocolate glaze can easily be topped with different colored sprinkles that fit the holiday you’re baking them for, including red and green for Christmas.

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Baci di Dama Italian Cookies

A close-up of several roasted hazelnut sandwich cookies with chocolate filling.
Image Credit: Natasha’s Kitchen

Baci di Dama are traditional Italian roasted hazelnut sandwich cookies filled with creamy dark chocolate. Their name translates to “lady’s kisses” after the two crunchy hazelnut halves that kiss the chocolate like a pair of lips. Even though they are bite sized, they are filled with tons of rich flavor for your Christmas cookie platter.

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Italian Almond Cookies (Gluten free biscuits, Ricciarelli)

A close-up of several traditional Italian holiday cookies topped with sliced almonds and dusted with powdered sugar. Powdered sugar can be seen raining from above the cookies.
Image Credit: Recipe Tin Eats

Ricciarelli are chewy almond and cherry cookies coated in crunchy almonds and dusted with powdered sugar. They are also gluten and dairy free so anyone in your family can enjoy them this Christmas even if they have dietary restrictions. These cookies might not always look perfect, but they sure will taste like it!

GET THIS RECIPE: Italian Almond Cookies (Gluten free biscuits, Ricciarelli)

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Cuccidati (Italian Fig Cookies Recipe)

A glass platter with twelve rectangular Cuccidati holiday cookies with colorful sprinkles and glazed with icing arranged in a circular pattern on a wooden table. One cookie is cut open to reveal a rich dark fig filling.
Image Credit: The Slow Roasted Italian

Cuccidati are like the perfect combination of a Fig Newton and a Pop Tart with a touch of Italian Christmas flair. The filling features not only figs but dates, walnuts, orange zest and marmalade, and marsala wine for something tangy and citrusy that pairs well with the vanilla shortbread it’s enveloped with. The name Cuccidati translates to “little bracelet” because of the way the dough wraps around the filling like a bracelet would wrap around a wrist.

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Italian Walnut Pillow Cookies

Three thick, round Italian walnut pillow cookies with white icing are stacked on a white plate, with one cookie leaning against the stack.
Image Credit: Brown Eyed Baker

A walnut pillow might not be too comfortable to lie your head on, but an Italian Walnut Pillow Cookie will comfortably melt in your mouth. According to recipe author Michelle Lettrich, “These are essentially little nut rolls that have been baked and dipped in a basic powdered sugar icing”. She often eats them for Thanksgiving, but they work just as well for Christmastime.

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Italian Butter Cookies (Filled with Jam + Chocolate Dipped)

Close-up of Traditional Italian butter cookies filled with raspberry jam, partially dipped in chocolate and decorated with red, white, and green sprinkles.
Image Credit: Heart’s Content Farmhouse

These simple Italian Butter Cookies are brought up a notch by their raspberry jam filling and melted chocolate coating. They’ll fit right in amongst your array of Christmas cookies with their festive sprinkles.

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Meet Christina

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Hi there, it’s nice to meet you!  I’m a recipe developer, author, TV contributor and recipe hoarder that shares tried and true recipes anyone can make.  It Is a Keeper started in 2010 as a hobby that quickly grew.  Spending time in the kitchen has always made me happy – whether I’m making an old favorite that I know by heart or trying a new recipe. You can learn more about me here. 

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