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Whether you’re a sugar cookie connoisseur or a gingerbread architect, Christmas is synonymous with cookies. But if you’re not much of a baker (or if your royal icing always looks less like a chilly snowman and more like a hot mess), it might be better to outsource your sugary cheer.
Whatever the case, don’t sweat over those sprinkles; Denver is filled with fellow cookie lovers who are more than skilled with sugar and spice. Here are some go-to bakeries to satisfy your sweet tooth—just get your orders in on time so you don’t show up to your next celebration empty handed.
The Urban Cookie
Nestled on the corner of Colfax and York Street, the Urban Cookie is a small business that’s big on sweets—literally, the cookies are huge.
The bakery’s lineup of larger-than-life cookies includes popular flavors like snickerdoodle and chocolate chunk and chip. For the holidays, owner Denon Moore serves up hand-decorated gingerbread cutouts, plus four seasonal flavors: Chocolate Crinkle, Ginger Molasses, Raspberry Thumbprints, and Sweet Potato Pie.
Moore does offer orders of smaller-size cookies in her regular flavors. They’re $12 per dozen with a six-dozen minimum for each order. If you’re worried that your eyes are too big for your stomach with either option, pick up the pre-packaged gift boxes of 18 bite-size treats for $18.
Order by: December 20
2260 E. Colfax Ave.
720-532-8100
Victory Love & Cookies
For the 14 years Victory Love & Cookies has been in business, one cookie flavor has been a standout: ginger. “Although I think of it as a winter cookie, I tried to take it off the menu early on in the summer and got constant complaints,” says owner Kristy Greenwood. “It’s chewy, molasses-y, [and] full of organic crystallized ginger and spice. My desert island cookie.”
Place any bulk orders (of ginger or any of the other scrumptious cookies like oatmeal raisin or Lemon Lucy) by December 15, which is when the store will start selling gingerbread dough, too, for at-home baking and decorating. You can also pop in anytime to grab a small selection of cookies.
Order by: December 15
3200 Irving St.
303-455-7194
La Fillette Bakery
French-inspired La Fillette Bakery has year-round chocolate chip cookies, macarons, and iced shortbread cookies. But for the holidays, owner Keturah Fleming-Hall says the bakery does something special: a “12 Days of Christmas,” where a new staff favorite cookie is featured every day from December 12–24. Denverites can expect anything from buckeyes and thumbprint cookies to palmiers and biscochos (Mexican wedding cookies) to hit the menu in the coming days. You can get a mix of these goodies in a cookie box, or bring home a classic shortbread decorating kit.
Order by: December 20
4416 E. 8th Ave.
303-355-0022
Gnarly Mountain Cookies
Three words: carrot cake cookies. Gnarly Mountain Cookies offers this and eight other unique bites as part of its seasonal menu. With local delivery and national shipping, the Seasonal Gnarly 9 box is the perfect way to sample all of the company’s current flavors. Or, if you just want to get your mittens on the Peanut Butter and Mountain Jelly or the Colorado Sweet Corn (like a cookie-fied corn muffin with extra honey), you can find the sweet treats at Meow Wolf, Improper City, Ephemeral Rotating Tap Room, and more locations around Denver.
Order by: December 11
Online orders; info@gnarlymountaincookies.com
Make, Believe Bakery
Operated under the same umbrella as Watercourse Foods and City O’ City restaurants, Make, Believe Bakery specializes in vegan and allergy-friendly baking using organic ingredients. Along with cakes, pies, breads, and pastries, the bakery boasts a variety of plant-based cookies like festive cut-out sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies for $4 each. Sea salt chocolate chip and double chocolate chip peppermint cookies are $40 for a dozen, with gluten-free options including ginger molasses cookies for $44 per dozen.
Order by: December 17
214 E. 13th Ave.
303-318-9843
Wooden Spoon
Wooden Spoon’s year-round cookie lineup features the likes of gingersnaps, chocolate almond cookies, and lemony linzers with raspberry jam—all ideal for Christmas Day snacking. But the bakery also has seasonal-specific choices, including sugar cookies shaped like trees and mittens, and gingerbread people, too. Visit Wooden Spoon’s Highland location to build your own box, or place an order ahead of time to snag your favorites.
Order by: December 21
2418 W. 32nd Ave.
303-999-0327
The Flour Shop
Whether you want fresh cookies delivered to your door or to ship a box across the country to long-distance family members, the Flour Shop has you covered. Along with year-round favorites like Lemon Lavender (a lavender sugar cookie topped with lemon buttercream frosting and lavender sugar) and the Kitchen Sink (a cookie concoction of oatmeal, peanut butter, pretzels, butterscotch, and chocolate chips), the seasonal Peppermint Hot Cocoa cookie (a brownie cookie topped with marshmallows and crushed candy canes) is a must for munching.
Order by: December 21
2400 Curtis St.
720-671-1610
Maggie and Molly’s Sweet Life
The Christmas options at Maggie and Molly’s Sweet Life are limitless. Take your pick from a multitude of cookie trays of beautifully decorated sugar cookies or gingerbread cookies, plus festive cookie cakes and decorating kits for at-home fun. A special can’t-miss treat for the holidays is the bakery’s assortment of seasonal goodies, including candy cane brownies, cranberry-orange slice cookies, and snow top chocolate cookies.
Order by: December 17
2908 East 6th Ave.
720-328-4073
Gateaux
Gateaux is home to mouth-watering pastries and custom-made cakes for weddings and birthdays, but the bakery is also the place for classic Christmas cookies. Owner and pastry chef Michelle Rasul offers specialty (and locally famous) iced shortbread tea cookies in eight festive designs for the holidays, including candy canes, snowmen, Christmas trees, and stockings. You can get individual cookies for $2 each and order in two-dozen increments for shipping.
Order by: December 17
1160 Speer Blvd.
303-376-0070
Miss Molly’s Bakery
Since opening in July, Miss Molly’s Bakery has turned its corner of Colfax into a go-to for East Coast–inspired sweets like whoopie pies and black and white cookies. The bakery’s molasses cookies (which you can get plain or iced) are perfect for the holiday season and can be ordered in bulk along with the bakery’s seasonal pies and cakes.
Order by: December 21
2600 E. Colfax Ave.
303-268-1222
