15 New York Bakeries Making Christmas Cookies Just Like Grandma’s
Christmas cookies hold a special place in my heart.
Growing up, I remember watching my grandmother roll out dough on her kitchen counter, the smell of cinnamon and butter filling the entire house.
She had this way of making every cookie feel like it carried a piece of her love.
Now, as an adult living in New York, I find myself searching for that same warmth in bakeries across the city.
The good news is that plenty of spots here are keeping those old traditions alive, turning out cookies that taste just like the ones from childhood memories.
These bakeries prove that you do not need a grandmother’s kitchen to get that same nostalgic flavor.
And that’s awesome!
1. Veniero’s Pasticceria & Caffè
Walk into Veniero’s in December and it feels like every nonna in the East Village pooled her recipes into one pastry case.
Trays of rainbow cookies, powdered butter cookies, biscotti, and pignoli are stacked shoulder-to-shoulder, the kind of old-school assortment that shows up on plastic holiday platters at every extended-family gathering.
The bakery dates back to 1894, and it still has that slightly glamorous, slightly worn charm: stained glass, marble tables, and staff who move with the calm efficiency of people who have been boxing cookies for generations.
Around Christmas, locals line up for cookie trays shipped to out-of-state relatives who miss real New York Italian cookies.
Address: 342 E 11th St, New York, NY 10003 (East Village, Manhattan)
2. Ferrara Bakery & Cafe
Ferrara feels like walking into a sepia postcard of Little Italy, only the cookie trays are very real and dangerously plentiful.
Since 1892, the bakery has been turning out Italian classics, and come Christmas, the focus shifts to tins and platters filled with tri-color cookies, pignoli, raspberry donut cookies, and chocolate-topped butter cookies.
You will see multi-generational families debating which cookies taste like Nonna’s while tourists try to sneak just one more from the tray.
The glass cases glow with gold and red foil, and if you are lucky, you will catch staff building mountains of cookies for mail-order gifts headed all over the country.
Address: 195 Grand St, New York, NY 10013 (Little Italy, Manhattan)
3. William Greenberg Desserts
If your grandma’s idea of Christmas cookies involved butter, careful piping, and a very full cookie tin, William Greenberg feels like home.
This New York institution, baking since 1946, is famous for its black-and-white cookies, but December is when the holiday collection really shines: hand-decorated sugar cookies, red-and-green butter cookies, snowflake chocolate cookies, stollen, and gingerbread that tastes like it came from a well-worn family cookbook.
Cases are lined with neat rows of cookies instead of chaotic piles, like someone’s meticulous aunt has been overseeing the display.
Locals pop in for a small bag just to have around the house and somehow leave with an entire gift box.
Flagship Address: 1100 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10028 (Upper East Side)
4. Pasticceria Rocco
On Bleecker Street, Pasticceria Rocco feels like the sort of place where someone’s Italian grandmother might easily be in the back, dusted in flour and muttering about almond paste.
The cases hold all the usual suspects: rainbow cookies, jelly-filled butter cookies, pignoli, and chocolate-dipped assortments.
In December, the volume gets dialed way up for holiday trays and boxed assortments.
Many West Village families quietly treat Rocco’s cookie platters as non-negotiable on their Christmas table.
There is a steady hum in the shop: espresso cups clinking, boxes being tied, and staff calling out orders like they have known your family for years, even if it is your first visit.
Address: 243 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014 (West Village, Manhattan)
5. Breads Bakery
Breads Bakery may be known for its babka, but in December, the cookie shelves look like a modern European grandma’s dream.
Butter pecan shortbreads, palmiers, granola cookies packed with nuts and dried fruit, and seasonal tins make the Union Square flagship smell like toasted sugar and butter from open to close.
The vibe is more design-forward holiday gathering than lace-curtain nostalgia, but the flavors are pure comfort: simple, deeply buttery, and baked in small batches all day.
It is the place you go when you want the feeling of a cookie platter that just came out of a well-loved oven, but your studio apartment does not have the counter space.
Address: 18 E 16th St, New York, NY 10003 (Union Square, Manhattan)
6. Court Pastry Shop
Court Pastry Shop is the kind of old-school Italian bakery where Christmas cookie trays feel like a neighborhood ritual.
Open since 1948, it has been quietly supplying Carroll Gardens families with seven-layer cookies, rococo, macaroons, and other Italian butter cookies by the pound for generations.
In December, the phone rings nonstop with orders for platters headed to office parties and family tables.
The display cases are a mosaic of jewel-toned jams, chocolate-dipped ends, and powdered-sugar dust.
People drop in just for a cannoli and leave debating whether they need the small or large cookie tray.
Hint: it is always the large.
Address: 298 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill)
7. Rudy’s Bakery and Café
Rudy’s is the kind of bakery where you can easily imagine a German grandmother peeking over her glasses and insisting you take just one more cookie.
A Ridgewood landmark since 1934, the shop’s konditorei roots show in its Black Forest cakes and jelly-filled pastries, but the cookie selection is what quietly anchors many holiday tables in the neighborhood.
Around Christmas, the counters fill with butter cookies, jam thumbprints, and European-style holiday treats that taste like they belong on lace doilies.
I stopped by last year and ended up chatting with a regular who swore her family has been ordering from Rudy’s since the 1960s.
Regulars place their orders early, knowing tins and trays will vanish as Christmas Eve creeps closer.
Address: 905 Seneca Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385 (Queens)
8. Andre’s Hungarian Bakery
At Andre’s in Forest Hills, the Christmas cookie spirit leans Central European: think walnut-stuffed kifli, nutty rugelach, jam-filled linzer-style cookies, and powdered crescents that dissolve into buttery crumbs the moment they hit your tongue.
The bakery has been perfecting Hungarian pastries for decades, and during the holidays, the pastry cases look like a tour of every grandma kitchen between Budapest and Queens.
Boxes leave the shop tied with ribbon, destined for family gatherings where someone will inevitably say these taste just like my grandmother’s.
The Forest Hills location feels especially neighborhood-cozy, with locals ducking in from Queens Boulevard to pick up just a small box that somehow becomes a full tray.
Address: 100-28 Queens Blvd, Forest Hills, NY 11375 (Queens)
9. Egidio Pastry Shop
Egidio feels like stepping straight into an old Italian family photo: tin ceilings, worn cases, and rows of cookies that look exactly like the ones your friend’s nonna used to sneak you after Sunday dinner.
Founded in 1912, this Bronx Little Italy icon fills its cases with biscotti, butter cookies, and classic Italian holiday treats.
In December, the shop hums with customers ordering platters for office parties and big family meals, each tray stacked with jam-filled sandwich cookies, chocolate-dipped varieties, and crunchy almond numbers that beg for an espresso.
It is not fancy; it is familiar, and that is exactly why it tastes like home.
Address: 622 E 187th St, Bronx, NY 10458 (Belmont / Bronx Little Italy)
10. Madonia Brothers Bakery
Just down Arthur Avenue, Madonia Brothers Bakery is where many Bronx families go when they want Christmas cookies with serious tradition behind them.
Open for over a century and still family-run, Madonia is known for its breads and cannoli, but the cookie trays are a quiet holiday superstar: biscotti, sesame cookies, delicate almond varieties, and those dense, festive Italian assortments that feel like they belong on a crowded dining room table.
December weekends see a steady stream of customers cradling pastry boxes like fragile heirlooms.
The smell of warm bread mingles with sugar and almond extract, and if you squint a little, it feels exactly like the family kitchen you wish you grew up in.
Address: 2348 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458 (Bronx Little Italy)
11. DiCamillo Bakery
At DiCamillo, the Christmas cookie tradition stretches back through generations of an Italian American family that started baking in Niagara Falls in the 1920s.
Today, their shops, including the Linwood Avenue flagship, still turn out Italian cookie tins that get shipped across the country, packed with biscotti, almond cookies, and butter cookies that feel straight out of a holiday memory.
Walk into the store in December and you will see shelves of festive tins, panettone, and trays that look exactly like something your great-aunt would bring to Christmas Eve.
The staff has that easy, chatty warmth of people who have watched entire families grow up on their cookies.
Address: 811 Linwood Ave, Niagara Falls, NY 14305
12. Leo’s Bakery & Deli
Leo’s is the kind of place where you go in for a loaf of bread and emerge with a box of Christmas cookies you absolutely did not plan on, but will not regret.
This East Rochester institution fills its bakery with pies, breads, and cakes, but when the holidays roll around, their cookie game goes into overdrive.
Trays of decorated sugar cookies, Italian butter cookies, and family-style assortments appear in the cases, and local news crews occasionally swing by to show off their holiday spread.
It feels like the suburban version of Grandma’s kitchen: bright, busy, and full of people arguing lovingly over which cookies make the tray this year.
Address: 101 Despatch Dr, East Rochester, NY 14445
13. Lyncourt Bakery
Lyncourt Bakery feels like the classic neighborhood spot where everyone’s grandma has her favorite thing, but the Italian cookies are the real Christmas headliners.
Located on Teall Avenue, this Syracuse bakery churns out donuts, breads, and pizza all year, yet social media really lights up when Italian Cookie SZN arrives.
Big tins packed with assorted Italian cookies, almond, sprinkle-covered, jam-filled, fly out the door as families stock up for holiday tables and cookie exchanges.
It is the sort of place where you will overhear someone debating whether one large tin is enough for Christmas and instantly know the answer is no.
Address: 2205 Teall Ave, Syracuse, NY 13206
14. Villa Italia Bakery
Villa Italia feels like a Capital Region living room during the holidays, only the dessert table has been scaled up for the entire city.
This family bakery has been baking traditional Italian pastries for decades, and the cookie platters are legendary: rainbow cookies, butter cookies, pasticiotti, and more piled onto mixed pastry and cookie trays that show up at office parties and Christmas Eve dinners all over town.
The Schenectady shop glows warm on cold nights, with people queued up for something sweet and just a small tray that ends up feeding a crowd.
It is the kind of place where the person boxing your cookies has almost certainly done the same for your neighbors, coworkers, and probably your in-laws.
Address: 226 Broadway, Schenectady, NY 12305
15. Caruso’s Pastry Shoppe
Caruso’s in Utica is the kind of bakery that quietly anchors holiday traditions across three generations of families.
For more than 50 years, they have specialized in Italian pastries and cookies, and Christmas is their busy season: cookie trays loaded with almond paste cookies, biscotti, and Italian butter cookies leave the shop in a steady stream.
The Bleecker Street storefront has that familiar, slightly crowded charm: cases full, staff hustling, and regulars greeting each other while they wait for their orders.
You can almost picture a grandmother at home transferring Caruso’s cookies onto her favorite Christmas platter and passing them off as just something I whipped up. No one complains.
Address: 707 Bleecker St, Utica, NY 13501