8 Holiday Cookies That Vanished as Families Moved to Store-Bought Options

The smell of flour dusting countertops and cinnamon swirling through kitchens once marked the holiday season in homes across America. Yet somewhere between the convenience of grocery store bakery sections and the rush of modern life, many treasured family cookie traditions quietly slipped away. Sales within the center store cookies category surged by 27.5% compared to the same period in 2022, amounting to a total of $991 million in sales. While commercial cookie sales boom, the homemade varieties that once defined holiday celebrations have become casualties of convenience.

The shift is stark when you consider that 68% of consumers are baking or cooking something special for Christmas, according to a Numerator survey of nearly 4,500 people. That’s an increase from 64% last year. However, baking “something special” increasingly means following simplified recipes rather than preserving the intricate, time-honored cookies that required patience, skill, and often multiple generations of handed-down knowledge.

Pfeffernusse: The German Spice Cookies That Lost Their Zip

According to Farmer’s Almanac, pfeffernusse have been around since the 1850s, with Dutch and German origins. These hard, spiced cookies were traditionally made with a complex blend of anise, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper, earning their name as “pepper nuts.” However, modern taste preferences have not been kind to these heritage treats. Other low performers included chai sugar cookies (30%), pfeffernusse (31%), spritz cookies (32%), and meringue cookies (34%). The YouGov survey reveals that pfeffernusse ranks among the least popular holiday cookies in America, winning only roughly one-third of consumer preference matchups. Their hard texture, meant for dunking in coffee or tea, doesn’t align with the soft, immediately gratifying cookies that dominate store shelves today.

Sand Tarts: Pennsylvania Dutch Treasures Buried in Time

Sand tarts once held a special place in Pennsylvania Dutch communities and spread throughout the region as a beloved holiday tradition. I recently found an awesome hundred-year-old Sand Tart recipe that makes cookies just like I remembered. The cookies are sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar (“sand”), and taste almost like a thin Snickerdoodle. These delicate, paper-thin cookies required considerable skill to roll properly and careful attention during baking. This recipe originally appeared the American Cookery magazine during World War I. There were sugar shortages during the war. Even though the magazine chose to publish the recipe, the editors encouraged cooks not to make Sand Tarts because they “call for more sugar than ordinary cookies.” The labor-intensive nature of sand tarts, combined with their fragility and high sugar content, made them prime candidates for abandonment as families sought easier alternatives.

Hermit Cookies: The Fruit-Filled Wanderers

Hermit cookies represented old-fashioned American baking at its finest, packed with raisins, dates, and warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. The vintage hermit cookies are a masterclass in using fruit to sweeten a recipe, evoking a sense of nostalgia and tradition. The exact origin of these treats is unclear, but they’re often referred to as raisin cookies when dates aren’t specified. This particular recipe combines the warmth of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg with the natural sweetness of raisins and chopped dates. Commercial bakeries largely abandoned hermits because their dense, chewy texture and complex flavor profile didn’t photograph well for marketing purposes. These spicy, sweet molasses and fruit cookies were my mom’s favorite. Since Freihofer closed some of its bakeries and Hermits disappeared, I found the only way to have them was to make them myself. The decline of hermit cookies reflects a broader trend away from cookies that relied on dried fruit and molasses for sweetness.

Spritz Cookies: The Fancy Shaped Treats That Lost Their Press

Spritz cookies once represented the pinnacle of holiday baking sophistication, requiring special cookie presses to create their distinctive shapes and designs. These butter-rich cookies were traditionally made with almond extract and decorated with colorful sugars and small candies. Other low performers included chai sugar cookies (30%), pfeffernusse (31%), spritz cookies (32%), and meringue cookies (34%). Despite their elegant appearance, spritz cookies have fallen dramatically in popularity, achieving only a 32% preference rate in consumer surveys. The specialized equipment required for authentic spritz cookies became a barrier as families downsized their baking arsenal. More than half of the recipes shared were drop cookies, bars or no-bake cookies. These cookies don’t require as much effort, like sugar coatings, cookie cutters or rolling pins. Modern bakers increasingly prefer simple drop cookies over recipes requiring special tools or techniques.

Anise Cookies: The Licorice-Flavored Holiday Tradition

Anise cookies, with their distinctive black licorice flavor, once graced holiday tables across Italian-American and German-American households. These cookies featured the bold, unmistakable taste of anise seed or anise extract, often paired with a delicate glaze or powdered sugar coating. However, anise has become increasingly unpopular among mainstream American palates. On the naughty list of cookies, Americans gave the lowest win records to anise cookies, which only won 29% of its matchups. This represents the most dramatic fall from grace among traditional holiday cookies, with anise cookies receiving the lowest consumer preference rating in recent surveys. The polarizing nature of anise flavor, combined with younger generations’ unfamiliarity with the ingredient, has virtually eliminated these cookies from modern holiday celebrations.

Snickerdoodles: The Cinnamon Classic Losing Ground

While snickerdoodles haven’t completely vanished, their popularity has notably declined from their peak in previous decades. Other cookies frequently associated with the holidays trailed by just a couple points, including gingerbread cookies (59%-win record), snickerdoodles (59%), and gingersnaps (51%). These cinnamon-sugar coated cookies still maintain a respectable showing, but they’re losing ground to chocolate-based alternatives. (Does anyone eat Snickerdoodles any more?) This question, posed by a food blogger in 2018, reflects growing uncertainty about snickerdoodles’ relevance in modern holiday baking. The cookie’s traditional preparation, requiring cream of tartar for the characteristic tangy flavor and proper texture, has become less familiar to contemporary home bakers who prefer simplified ingredient lists.

Lebkuchen: German Honey Cakes That Sweetened Fewer Tables

Lebkuchen, traditional German honey and spice cookies, once represented the sophisticated end of holiday baking with their complex blend of honey, spices, and candied fruits. These dense, cake-like cookies required aging to develop their full flavor and were often decorated with intricate icing designs. The artisanal nature of authentic lebkuchen made them time-intensive to produce properly, requiring specialized ingredients like candied citron and multiple spice blends. As holiday baking shifted toward instant gratification and simplified processes, lebkuchen’s lengthy preparation time and acquired taste for dense, heavily spiced cookies made them casualties of changing preferences. The rise of ready-made holiday cookies from grocery stores offered families the visual appeal of decorated treats without the weeks of preparation traditional lebkuchen demanded.

Meringue Cookies: The Delicate Whites That Crumbled Away

Meringue cookies, those cloud-like confections made primarily from egg whites and sugar, once represented the elegant side of holiday baking. Other low performers included chai sugar cookies (30%), pfeffernusse (31%), spritz cookies (32%), and meringue cookies (34%). These ethereal cookies required precise technique, proper weather conditions, and considerable patience to achieve their characteristic crisp exterior and chewy interior. The technical demands of meringue-making, including the need for completely clean bowls, room temperature egg whites, and gradual sugar incorporation, intimidated many home bakers. Additionally, meringue cookies’ extreme sensitivity to humidity made them impractical for many climates and storage situations, further limiting their appeal in an era where cookies needed to travel well and last longer on serving trays.