There is sure to be a favorite cookie for everyone on this list of 55 Thanksgiving cookies!
For some, it’s the turkey or the stuffing, and for others it is the various types of pie, but regardless of your favorite, these dinners are not the same without Thanksgiving cookies at the end of the night.
Whether it is for an intimate Thanksgiving with your close family, a big feast with extended family, or even a Friendsgiving get-together, you will want one or two or a few of these for everyone to grab after a delicious dinner.
For many, it is hard to pick our favorite parts of a Thanksgiving dinner.
You can get all of the children involved in preparing Oreo Turkey Cookies and Cornucopia Thanksgiving Cookies thanks to their ease and the hands-on decorating fun from making them.
Fall flavors will come alive with the Cinnamon Crinkle Cookies or Pecan Cookies With Maple Buttercream Frosting.
And of course, it is hard to go wrong with Pumpkin Whoopie Pies or Pecan Sandies!
Some of these have beautiful shapes and colors, some can be adjusted for dietary restrictions, but they all taste amazing and are full of Thanksgiving flavors making them a great way to end your dinner.
If you want to take your cookies up a notch, our Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting will always be a great choice.
These fall themed cookies are perfect for Thanksgiving but have a place all throughout the autumn season.
Food coloring, leaf cookie cutters, and gold sanding sugar make these beautiful and tasty cookies fit as a fall dessert.
Keep in mind, you will want your cookies to cool before decorating them but the good news is these will stay fresh in an airtight container in a fridge for up to two weeks.
One of the best ways to enjoy pie is as a cookie.
Starting with a tried and true sugar cookie recipe, you will need a few different icing tips and icing colors but it will all come together much easier than you would expect.
Although these are all sugar cookies, they let you get a bit of pumpkin, apple, or chocolate pie to share for dessert.
These popular cookies can now be enjoyed after being made fresh in your own home.
They are soft and thick cookies with a smooth cream cheese frosting and a dusting of pumpkin spice on top.
Since the cookie dough doesn’t need any chilling time, there is less time between when you begin preparing these and when you can finally indulge in your favorite fall flavored dessert.
There are a few additional steps involved in baking these cookies from making your buttered pecans, browning the butter, and then creating the cookie dough, but one taste of these melt-in-your-mouth cookies when they come fresh out of the oven shows why it is all worth it!
It is important to remember to adjust the baking temperature and time to ensure your cookies remain chewy inside with a slightly crisp exterior.
An extra pecan placed on top right before baking adds a special touch as does a small sprinkling of granulated sugar once they are out of the oven.
Make sure you have your favorite Thanksgiving or fall shaped cookie cutters ready for this delicious way to enjoy cookies.
A dash of ground nutmeg makes these different from your regular sugar cookies you may turn to when baking.
Piping tips, toothpicks, and gel paste colors make these as fun to bake and look at as they are to eat.
It will be hard not to love these Thanksgiving cookies from how easy and quick they are to make to how soft the inside is.
The pumpkin flavor is subtle so it won’t be overpowering and even those who are over the taste of pumpkin will still enjoy it.
The graham cracker crumbs that this is all coated in give it the classic cheesecake flavor we all know and love making this a winning choice in cookies.
Preparing these cookies could be a fun family activity to get the kids involved with the food prep.
Since you are using Oreo cookies, there is no baking involved and aside from preparing melted chocolate, this is all just decorating using candy corn, eyeball candies, and optionally, pretzel sticks.
Pumpkin chocolate chips make a great beak for your turkey cookies and add a little more seasonal flair to each bite.
Both real apple cider and instant apple cider mix are used to bring the flavors to life with these cookies.
Each bite of these will balance a crisp exterior with a chewy and soft interior.
The options for toppings for this are limitless.
You can use cinnamon sugar, sugar with apple pie spice, or even coarse sugar with instant apple cider.
If you want to stray away from traditional fall spices, these cookies still feature lots of warmth and a balance of sweet with a dash of salty all while adding something unique to your dessert lineup.
Since much of the flavor comes from the browned butter, there is less need for the dough to chill and let the flavors release.
Since butterscotch is essentially caramel with brown sugar, this is a great way to get the delicious and smooth taste of caramel without overwhelming you and your guests with an overdose of butterscotch flavor.
With how soft and fluffy these cookies are, they almost resemble a personal cake.
Using oil instead of butter in your recipe helps ensure these cookies maintain their fluffy texture, even if for some reason they are not all eaten the first night they are baked.
These last quite a while when stored properly, and the dough can even be frozen so you can pull this out for the many Thanksgiving dinners you know you will be hosting.
Although it may sound fairly simple, these cookies are sure to please anyone who takes a bite!
If you are unsure what to serve that will be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser after a hearty dinner, these chocolate chip pecan cookies will give the right amount of chewy chocolatey goodness for your guests.
The addition of toasted pecans adds some nuttiness and butteriness which is always tasty after your Thanksgiving feast.
Rather than using royal icing, frosting does a great job of adding Turkey feathers which will hold their shape on top of your cookies.
While these cookies look amazing, they are actually very simple to put together.
A candy melt with small amounts of frosting can make a turkey face for a fun and sweet post-dinner treat!
The best tip for baking these cookies is to make a few extra batches since they will disappear quickly!
With pumpkin, white chocolate chips and cinnamon sugar mixing together with your snickerdoodle cookies, you will understand quickly why these are eaten up so fast.
As an added bonus, there is no egg in this recipe so if anyone has allergies or dietary restrictions, they can still enjoy these delicacies.
This is another fun treat for the kids to be able to enjoy their (not so) hard work in the kitchen!
Nutter Butter cookies, chocolate morsels, chocolate sprinkles, and pretzel sticks let everyone’s creativity shine through while also giving a fall themed cookie a place at your dessert table.
Adults deserve their cookies, too!
Brown sugar, honey, and warm fall spices make this a cookie you probably will struggle to find in the grocery stores with an added “vintage” vibe thrown in the mix, too.
Hazelnuts are the star ingredient of this recipe since they work wonderfully with the texture while adding a little something special to each bite.
The only thing better than fall themed cookies is double stacked fall themed cookies.
With double the cookies, you get double the deliciousness and double the decorating fun.
Even for beginner decorators, these fall designs are easy enough to prepare.
If sweet potato casserole is your favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner, there is no reason you shouldn’t also enjoy it for dessert.
Soft and sweet sweet potato cookies have dark brown sugar and cinnamon mixed in with broiled pecans and mini marshmallows topping it all off.
Whether you decide to use fresh or canned sweet potatoes, you will love the result of baking it into a soft cookie.
Between the old-fashioned shortbread cookies and the sweet buttercream filling, this will please any type of taste.
As a little secret between us, these are surprisingly easy to bake up, but one taste and everyone will guess otherwise.
Maple flavor is fitting for the cooler weather and if you choose a leaf shaped cookie cutter, you get more fall fun!
If anyone claims to not like oatmeal cookies, they just need one of these oatmeal scotchies to have their minds changed.
Warm cinnamon spiced oatmeal cookies with sweet butterscotch chips will make this highly addicting!
Since there is oatmeal involved, that can definitely justify enjoying this for breakfast.
Yes, this is a simple recipe, but when you find something as great as this, you won’t want to mess with perfection!
Cinnamon sugar adds the crispy and crinkled top while having accurate measurements for your ingredients gives you an incredibly soft and chewy inside.
Since these taste like a cookie version of a cinnamon roll, buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting would taste great with this.
Imagine combining apple pie with almond shortbread cookies.
The result is an irresistible apple pie thumbprint cookie.
Apple pie filling can be made with fresh apples to sit perfectly inside of your almond cookies.
These may look like professionally baked cookies but you can surprise yourself with the cookie decorating skills you may not have known you had.
Mix together your royal icing colors to make the perfect shades needed to get a nice contrast on your cookie.
Edible dust adds a little extra flair to make these cookies insta worthy.
Thanksgiving don’t always have to be complicated recipes.
The simple addition of Reese’s Pieces added to your chocolate chip cookies adds peanut butter flavor and bright fall colors.
A good alternative is autumn colored M&M’s if you prefer your cookies to be peanut butter free.
Or you could mix M&M’s with Reese’s Pieces together for more chocolate and peanut butter flavors in each bite of your autumn treat!
When the kitchen is already planning to be packed with people and food, you want to avoid adding to the chaos by making a complicated dessert recipe.
These Iced Oatmeal Cookies will give everyone something delicious to look forward to eating after dinner without adding too much to the Thanksgiving meal preparation.
Rolled oats, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar add all of the warm fall flavors we have grown to know and love.
Rugelachs are popular in Israel and Poland but can be enjoyed all throughout the world, and especially around Thanksgiving with this pumpkin pie filling.
The cream cheese dough has pumpkin pie spices added in and it is all rolled around a sweet pumpkin butter filling.
The flaky result is well worth the two hours of chilling the dough needs.
Turn your traditional sugar cookies into these magic Thanksgiving treats with the simple addition of cinnamon mixed into the dough.
A browned butter frosting with a bit of cinnamon sugar dusted on top also helps transform it into something amazing.
For a special extra decorator’s touch, melted chocolate works great to design leaves if you decide to make pumpkin shaped cookies.
Chances are, your oven is working overtime to prepare your Thanksgiving meal so any chance to prepare a treat without having to use it should be taken advantage of.
These no bake cookies have less sugar than classic cookies while still keeping all of our favorite pumpkin spice flavors.
You’ll love this easy pumpkin spice cookie recipe with a boxed cake mix, too!
There may be a lot of debate about the quality of the store-bought version of these cookies but making it yourself will have everyone agreeing that they are way better than what you would get from the store.
Somehow the cookie balances being thick and light at the same time with sweet frosting and sprinkles adding to the popularity of this cookie.
Buying these from the store is usually a safe bet for get-togethers but preparing them yourself ensures everyone will love digging into these after a Thanksgiving dinner.
29. Pumpkin Cookies
There is no such thing as too much pumpkin but if you hold the belief that you can in fact have too much pumpkin flavor, these cookies will give you the right balance.
With a cake-like texture that almost melts in your mouth, these are craveworthy so no one will blame you for going for seconds and thirds.
Pumpkin frosting spread on top just adds more fall flavor but you can always switch it for a cream cheese frosting or buttercream.
While this recipe is straight-forward, the taste is far from simple.
Thin with a crispy edge and a chewy center, they give you everything you could want in a cookie.
Chances are, you already have all of the ingredients needed for this in your pantry so it is never too early to start testing out Thanksgiving cookie recipes.
All you need are four ingredients for a fun DIY treat that takes no time to make but will have such a rewarding taste.
Bugles, cookies, M&M’s and optionally, a little bit of frosting, give you a Thanksgiving cookie perfect for those of any age.
With the sweetness from the cookie and the saltiness from the Bugle, you get the perfect melding of flavors in one.
Another great copycat of your favorite cookie brand is here to make your Thanksgiving dessert something to impress everyone!
The sugar cookie base is thick and buttery with a brown sugar butter pecan pie filling sitting on top completing the cookie version of the classic pie.
Rather than waiting for the Thanksgiving holiday for pecan pie cookies to hit Crumbl, you can enjoy these whenever you want, but especially for Thanksgiving!
These will disappear from the plate as quickly as it takes to bake them.
With a spiced filling and buttery cookie base, this is an amazing way to put a fall twist on a timeless cookie.
Pumpkin is usually what comes to mind when thinking of Thanksgiving flavors but pecan is a highly underrated addition to our desserts.
Cookies full of pecan and maple sound like exactly what is needed during the fall holidays.
Considering how great these taste, you will be pleasantly surprised to learn they take less than 30 minutes to make, from start to finish!
The sweet caramel of these cookies paired with the flaky sea salt make for an amazing way to turn chocolate chip cookies into something so much better.
These are delicious with an amazing soft and melted interior from the caramel.
The brown and orange colors of this fit into any fall dinner or dessert yet it tastes so great you will want it year round.
Even with no eggs or dairy involved, this sweet treat is probably way better than what you would find on a grocery store shelf.
While the cookies don’t need any eggs since the pumpkin puree adds a lot of moisture, soy cream cheese can be substituted for dairy cream cheese and will still provide a classic filling for these cookies.
If homemade apple pies are your favorite dessert, these personal cookie versions will change your world.
They still have the fruity-caramelness of regular apple pies but as a smaller cookie that can be eaten by hand.
Even when making the apple pie filling and crust by hand, these will not take all day to bake and only need about an hour of prep.
Candy corn cookie cutters can be used after Halloween by turning them into smiling pie cookies!
These are perfect for sharing with kids or for their school Thanksgiving parties.
To get the different layers of icing to set properly, there will be a bit of waiting but the actual work with decorating these is minimal.
Both homemade and store-bought pumpkin pie spice mix will give you cookies that you will find yourself craving day in and day out.
The dough doesn’t need to chill and won’t spread when mixed long enough.
The finished product tastes amazing with cream cheese buttercream frosting on top, but even the cookies by themselves taste unforgettable.
If you or your friends avoid eating animal products, you can still get to enjoy Thanksgiving cookies with these vegan maple cookies.
When arranged in a wreath, they are as beautiful as they are tasty.
Making the royal icing vegan is also very easy by using aquafaba rather than egg white.
After your friends and family get a taste of these Bourbon Molasses Cookies, every special holiday dinner will lead to a request of a large batch of these making an appearance.
This is not like other cookies you have had thanks to the orange zest, bourbon, and surprisingly, the small dash of black pepper that is mixed in.
Ginger, cinnamon, cloves and allspice also make a special appearance in this recipe for a holiday dinner cookie that everyone will love!
Any time pumpkin cookies are involved at a dinner, you can expect them to be devoured before the night is over.
Add on some cream cheese frosting and you can divide the time they will last on the serving plate in half.
With a soft cake-like texture and rich frosting, there is no wonder these are a classic choice for Thanksgiving cookies to serve.
43. Currant Cookies
For those who are unfamiliar, currants are essentially a flavorful type of raisins, but don’t let that turn you away from these cookies.
They are incredibly soft and packed with so much deliciousness from the added currants.
One taste and everyone will find themselves searching for ways to include currant in all of their baked goods.
There really isn’t a time these cookies won’t be welcome and appreciated.
Whether it is the summer or the cold weather holiday season, these rich and buttery cookies will always be a winner.
There is definitely a Southern touch added to these cookies thanks to the butterscotch, toffee, and chopped pecans.
Both with or without pumpkin puree, these cookies are perfectly spiced with fall flavors we all love!
Even if they are undecorated and kept in a traditional circle shape, the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice make them perfect for a fall dessert.
Of course, cutting them into a pumpkin shape and decorating with royal icing just adds to the fun of them.
This is a classic fall holiday cookie with a vegan twist making it perfect for all to enjoy!
They taste just like the classic cookies you love but are free of animal products.
With a couple of simple vegan alternatives, you can easily make a batch of vegan cookies in under half an hour.
Whether you call these snowball cookies or Russian Teacakes, this is a great fall twist on the holiday cookies.
The right mix of fall spices makes this a tasty option for serving after Thanksgiving dinner.
They look like the Christmas treat but with one bite you get all of the fall spicy flavor that makes these work for the autumn season.
48. Pecan Sandies
No more buying these cookies in store!
They are still as tasty as ever when homemade.
They keep the crispy exterior and chewy center from the shortbread cookie that houses the pecans.
With the granulated sugar and dash of vanilla extract, these are going to make you think twice about buying cookies from the store, again.
With a sugar cookie base, you know you will have an amazing cookie.
Adding in sweet chai spices and maple browned butter frosting transform these into something magical.
These are incredibly balanced from the sweetness, spice, and buttery texture.
A cream cheese filling is the perfect filling to sandwich between your sweet and spicy pumpkin cookies.
While they look good, they taste yummy, as well!
Give these as a little gift, serve them post-dinner, or snack on them by yourself.
Aside from the great taste and the ease of baking, one of the best parts of these cookies is that you can and should have cracking on the exterior!
These are like a crinkle cookie version of a pumpkin flavored powdered donut.
Somehow they are light and soft while also balanced with warm and flavorful spices.
52. Pumpkin Brookies
If cookies aren’t enough for your dessert table, brookies will help satisfy your sweet tooth.
Pumpkin cookies with pumpkin brownies are all mixed into one delicious treat.
During Thanksgiving, pumpkin always has a place at the table but adding chocolate to the mix makes everything that much tastier.
Even for an afternoon snack, this is a delicious non-traditional cookie.
White chocolate drizzled on top of the crisp loaf of pumpkin flavored dough makes it unlike any other Thanksgiving cookie you may have tried before.
Paired with chopped pecans, this is a delectable pairing for a cup of coffee or tea after dinner.
If you are over sugar cookies, you can still make a fall themed cookie with a snickerdoodle base.
Bright fall colors blending together with the cinnamon spice mixed into the dough will make this your go-to fall cookie.
Cinnamon and shortbread are typically popular for Christmas, but the warmth of cinnamon and richness of shortbread mean they should be enjoyed year round!
One thing that sets this apart from many other Thanksgiving cookies is the fact that shortbread cookies are meant to be dry rather than moist and chewy like others are.
This is delicious and perfect as a base for a more complex recipe, adding frosting, or for sandwiching around your favorite filling.
The bottom line
There are tons of options for amazing Thanksgiving cookies that will please all of your friends and family.
Even if you are full from a big feast, just the sight of any of these cookies will have your mouth watering and you ready for dessert.
Get more Thanksgiving recipe inspirations here:
- 15 Thanksgiving Cocktails
- 30 Gluten Free Thanksgiving Recipes
- 25 Thanksgiving Casseroles
- 25 Keto Thanksgiving Recipes
- 28 Tasty Crockpot Thanksgiving Sides
- 27 Delicious Thanksgiving Potluck Ideas
- Ultimate Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
- Thanksgiving Side Dish Ideas
Cookie Assortment For Thanksgiving
From traditional and time-tested to trendy and new, pull up this epic list of Thanksgiving Cookies for dessert inspiration this holiday!
Ingredients
- Fall Leaf Cut Out Cookies
- Sugar Cookie Pies
- Frosted Crumbl Caramel Pumpkin Cookies Copycat
- Butter Pecan Cookies
- Nutmeg Sugar Cut-Out Cookies
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies
- Oreo Turkey Cookies
- Apple Cider Cookies
- Sea Salt Butterscotch Pretzel Cookies
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
- Piped Turkey Cookies
- White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Nutter Butter Acorn Cookies
- Honey Spice Hazelnut Cookies
- Double-Decker Fall Decorated Cookies
- Sweet Potato Casserole Cookies
- Maple Cream Cookies
- Oatmeal Scotchies
- Cinnamon Crinkle Cookies
- Apple Pie Thumbprint Cookies
- Sliced Branch Cookies
- Reese’s Pieces Cookies
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Pumpkin Pie Rugelach
- Cinnamon Spiced Sugar Cookies With Browned Butter Frosting
- Pumpkin Spice No Bake Cookies
- Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Cookies
- Ginger Spice Cookies
- Cornucopia Thanksgiving Cookies
- Crumbl Pecan Pie Cookies
- Pumpkin Linzer Cookies
- Maple Pecan Cookies
- Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Sandwich Cookies
- Apple Pie Cookies
- Happy Pumpkin Pie Slice Cookie
- Pumpkin Pie Spice Sugar Cookies
- Autumn Leaf Maple Cookie Wreath
- Bourbon Molasses Cookies
- Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting
- Currant Cookies
- Loaded Butterscotch Toffee Pecan Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Cutout Cookies
- Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Spiced Snowball Cookies
- Pecan Sandies
- Chai Spiced Maple Sugar Cookies With Browned Butter Frosting
- Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
- Pumpkin Crinkle Cookies
- Pumpkin Brookies
- Pumpkin Spice Biscotti
- Fall Leaf Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Cinnamon Shortbread
Instructions
- Pick one or more options from our list of Thanksgiving Cookies here!
- Start creating your new favorite recipe.
- Share and comment! Did you make any changes to make it even better?