Top Eastern European Christmas Cookie Recipes

Bulgarian jam-filled cookies known as maslenki are popular for Christmas. They are traditionally made with lard, but butter will do. When rose-flavored Turkish delight or is chopped and mixed into the dough, they are known as lokumki.

The dough for Bulgarian honey-spice cookies or medenki is typically rolled out and cut into fanciful shapes. When the dough is shaped into ovals or pushed into walnut-shaped molds and then sandwiched together with rosehip jam and dipped in melted chocolate and nuts, they become Bulgarian acorn cookies.

Croatian honeybread cookies called licitars are often heart-shaped as being made in this video, but are also made into doll, bird, mushroom, horseshoe, wreath and horse shapes, among others.

Croatian Fritters or Fritule and Croatian Angel Wings or Krostule are often served for major holidays like Christmas and Easter. Croatian Quince Candy or is another favorite at Christmas time. Prepared at the end of the growing season, the candy is made and stored with laurel leaves (bay leaves) until Christmas.

And, because they are somewhat time-consuming to make, Croatian Peach cookies or Breskvice are saved for special occasions like holidays, weddings and christenings.

St. Nicholas Day, Dec. 6, signals the beginning of Christmas baking for many Czechs. Out come all the time-honored recipes for both labor-intensive and easy no-bake cookies, and sweets known as vánoční cukrový (vah-NAWTCH-nee tsoo-KRAW-vee). This is an all-inclusive list that can consist of cookies, dainty tarts, candies and more. It conjures the image of sugar plums dancing in one's head. 

Like Croatians, Hungarians favor intricately decorated honeybread or honey cookies, nuthorns known as kifli or roszke, kolacky similar to Polish kołaczki, shortbread cookies known as , and spice cookies to serve at Christmas. But Hungarian Non Plus Ultra Cookies, another one of those time-consuming cookies that is reserved for very special occasions, is one of the prettiest cookies and is considered an apro tea sűtemény or "tiny tea cake." 

Lithuanian Poppyseed Cookies or Aguonu Sausainiukai are popular year-round, but poppyseeds are especially important for Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year's because all the little seeds symbolize fertility and wealth. Angel wings or ausukai like chruściki are popular, too. But probably the most popular is the grybai or mushroom-shaped spice cookie. They're a little labor intensive but a time-honored tradition.

All the stops are pulled out with Polish Christmas cookies. Here are 16 recipes to choose from and these are by no means the only ones served at Christmas time. As you might expect, traditions vary from region to region and family to family.​

In Romania, the Christmas meal is sweetened with cozonac and Turkish delight known as rahat or lokum. As for cookies, Salam de Biscuiti, or unbaked cookies made to look like slices of salami, are popular at Christmas time. Many other Eastern Europeans make this treat.

The most popular Russian Christmas cookies are pryaniki. These spice cookies originated in Tula, not far from Moscow. The elegant ones from Tula are stamped with a wooden press producing an embossed surface. The home variety is a thick, simple cookie with white frosting. Today, they are most often served with tea, but in days past, they were exchanged as tokens of love and respect at weddings, christenings and holidays. Commercially prepared pryaniki are made with sweet centers including condensed milk, chocolate and strawberries. Khrustiki, which are similar to Polish chruściki also known as faworki, and Croatian krostule, also are seen at holiday times.

Serbians have a rich dessert history with tortes, nut rolls, strudels and more. As far as cookies go, kifle have to be the most popular for Christmas.

Christmas cookie hearts known as Srdiečka are the most popular treats in the Slovak Republic. They're similar to linzer cookies that are sandwiched with a little raspberry, red currant or strawberry jam.​ Here are more Slovak Christmas traditions you may see.

Nut horns, angel wings and many of the same cookies enjoyed by Croatians, Hungarians, Austrians and even Italians are enjoyed by Slovenians. Spiced biscuits known as Bozicni Skofjeloski Kruhki are the most popular at Christmas time.

Ukrainian Christmas Honey Cookies known as medianyky (which are similar to Bulgarian medenki) can be rolled out and cut into rounds, stars, crescents or other shapes and are often hung near the bottom of the Christmas tree as treats for the younger children who can't reach the higher branches. Honey cookies or sugar cookies are often cut with Byzantine bishop cookie cutters.