Old Fashioned Christmas Dessert Recipes That Grandma Loved

Grandma's old fashioned Christmas dessert recipes will let your family experience a traditional Christmas filled to the brim with delicious homemade treats.

Surprise your loved ones this Holiday Season with Christmas cakes, cookies, puddings, pies, and melt-in-your mouth candies — all made in your own kitchen using these marvelous recipes.

Get Grandma's Old Fashioned Christmas Dessert Recipes

Children Enjoying Christmas Baking with Their GrandmaHave Fun While Christmas Baking
(Source: ©luckybusiness/Depositphotos.com)

International Christmas Desserts

Vintage DIY Christmas Decorations

Yummy! So many festive ideas. It's the go-to place for good old-fashioned food memories and desserts. —Maggie

Remembering Christmas

Chocolate Nut Christmas SquaresOld Time Chocolate Christmas Squares
(Source: ©eva_daren/Depositphotos.com)

I recall Christmas holidays when family and friends dropped by unannounced. Our farm kitchen was often filled with people talking, laughing, playing board games, and all the while enjoying Mom's homemade treats.

Mom always prepared delicious baked goods for the Holiday Season using Grandma's old fashioned Christmas dessert recipes. Afterwards, she carefully stored her Christmas baking in the pantry. I so remember the sweet and spicy aroma of that little room.

There were tins filled with sugar cookies, holiday squares, fancy cupcakes, mincemeat tarts, and plum puddings, all carefully placed on high shelves beyond my reach — until I sneaked in with the kitchen stool.

Secure on the top shelf and wrapped in several layers of brown paper was her Christmas fruitcake faithfully made from Grandma's recipe. Mom was so proud of her Christmas cake, and I knew not to touch it. It was bursting with fruit, perfectly moist, and absolutely delicious.

Throughout the Christmas holidays, whenever company had dropped in, everyone was treated to Mom's homemade goodies. The sideboard in the dining room was loaded with Christmas baking: delicious mincemeat tarts, crumbly date squares, colorful sugar cookies, and fruitcake — all manners of tasty tidbits.

However, guests could never leave without first sampling a piece of Mom's Christmas cake. I have many happy memories associated with Mom's Christmas baking.

Now, you can have Grandma's old fashioned Christmas dessert recipes to make your own pies, cakes, cookies, and candies — all the trimmings of a traditional family Christmas to create your own happy memories!

These homemade goodies will make edible Christmas gifts too. Imagine giving that special someone a tin of traditional shortbread, an assortment of sugar cookies, or a box of scrumptious Christmas fudge. Everyone will love it and love you for it.

For both kids and grownups, those homemade goodies were impossible to resist. We stuffed ourselves! Now, you can have the same recipes to make the same delicious treats. Your Christmas get-togethers will be truly memorable!

Share the Christmas Blessing


By remembering our kinship with all men;
By well-wishing, friendly speaking, and kindly doing;
By cheering the downcast, and adding sunshine to daylight;
By welcoming strangers (poor shepherds or wise men);
By keeping the music of the Angels' Song in this home;
God help us every one to share the Blessing of Jesus,
In whose Name we keep Christmas. —Henry Van Dyke

Bless your family and friends with an old fashioned Christmas this year, and as Tiny Tim said in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, "God bless us every one!"

Christmastide Scene of a Canadian VillageCanadian Christmastide in the Early 1800s

An Early Canadian Christmas Story relates an Anglo-Canadian's fond memories of a Canadian Christmas in the early 1800s.

Christmas Stories and Articles are featured on Dr. Ralph Wilson's Joyful Heart Ministries website. (This link opens onto a new page while leaving this page available for your convenience.)

Stereoscopic Photo of Children Singing CarolsYoung Children Singing Christmas Carols, c. 1890
(Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., LC-USZ62-112653)
Illustration of a Girl Looking Into an Antique StereoscopeStereoscope

The double image is an old time stereograph. To view it in 3D without a stereoscope, lean close and stare through the images while slightly crossing your eyes until the images converge to form one central 3D picture. It's fun to try.

Christmas Morning Memories

Christmas Morning in the Fleming HomeThe Excitement of a 1960 Christmas Morning
(Source: ©Don Bell)

Do you remember how exciting Christmas mornings were when you were young? Getting that special present you dreamed about is something you never forget.

My wife Vicki was just a little girl when the above photo was taken, and she wasn't letting go of her new bike for anything.

Did you ever hunt for your presents before Christmas? I often hunted for them without success. But, I did find a present by chance one Christmas.

My Uncle Max arrived on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays with us. He hid my present behind the chesterfield in the living room, planning to wrap it early on Christmas morning before I woke up. However, things didn't go as planned.

I was playing with my Dinky Toys on Christmas Eve while the grownups talked, and one of my toy cars rolled behind the chesterfield. While retrieving it, I found my present.

It was a band-new baseball bat, and I tripped over it, landing on my behind. I can still hear Uncle Max laughing and slapping his knees.

Just thinking about the old fashioned Christmas dessert recipes always brings back fond memories.

An Old Gaelic Rune

I saw a stranger yestreen;
I put the food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place;
And, in the sacred name of the Triune,
He blessed myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones,
And the lark said in her song:

Often, often, often, Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise;
Often, often, often, Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise. —Anon

Traditional Christmas Wreath

Christmas is a wonderful time for gathering with family and friends to celebrate the Holidays.

And what better way to celebrate than with traditional treats made using the old fashioned Christmas dessert recipes from Grandma's collection.

Grandma McIlmoyles Little Dessert Book

Sign Up now for GRANDMA'S DESSERT CLUB and download your FREE PDF COPY of Grandma McIlmoyle's Little Dessert Book. Also receive my regular Bulletin featuring classic recipes and nostalgia.


Learn More

Like This Page? Please Share It

Get Grandma's old fashioned Christmas Dessert Recipes. Pin for later!