• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
The Baking ChocolaTess
  • Desserts
    • Bars
    • Blondies
    • Brownies
    • Cakes
    • Cheesecakes
    • Cobblers and Crisps
    • Cookies
    • Cupcakes
    • Pies
    • Poke Cakes
    • Trifles
  • Holiday Seasonal Desserts
    • Roundups
    • Birthday & Sprinkle Fun
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • New Years
    • Valentine's Day
    • St. Patrick's Day
    • Easter
    • 4th of July
    • Mother's Day
    • Father's Day
    • Candy Included
    • Jello Shots
    • Party Desserts
  • No-Bake Dessert Recipes
    • Cereal Treats
    • Dips & Cookie Doughs
    • Fillings
    • Frostings
    • Fudges
    • Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts
    • Layered Desserts
    • Puddings
    • Truffles
  • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Breads
    • Coffee Cakes
    • Donuts
    • Muffins
    • Rolls
    • Smoothies
  • Healthy Sweets
    • Gluten-Free
    • Flourless
    • Keto
    • Sugar-free
    • Vegan
  • Favorite Flavors & Ingredients
  • Videos
    • Amazon Shop Baking Supplies
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • RECIPES
  • VIDEOS
  • BAKING 101
  • ABOUT
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • RECIPES
    • VIDEOS
    • BAKING 101
    • ABOUT
    • SUBSCRIBE
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home » Recipes » Cookies

    Santa's Christmas Trash Cookies

    Published: Dec 11, 2019 · by Kim Lange · This post may contain affiliate links ·

    1.9K shares
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Yummly
    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Santa's Christmas Trash Cookies are everything!  These cookies pretty much have everything you could ever want in Christmas cookies and more!  Which is why they are called 'trash' or 'kitchen sink' cookies.

    Trash never tasted so good! Sweet and salty is a perfect match and always has you coming back for more.  Have you noticed?

    Santa also loves these Red Velvet Santa Cookies, Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies, 1 Dough - 3 Kinds of Chocolate Cookies for the Holidays, Santa's Reindeer Chow and these Holiday Cranberry White Chocolate Blondies!

    trash cookies on a baking rack

    Imagine biting into soft, chewy cookies smooshed with loads of mini white and chocolate Reese cups, white and chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, sea salt and festive sprinkles! 

    Seriously, you get the best of both worlds with epic sweet and salty yumminess in these holiday 'junk food' cookies!  

    Santa would be proud of these Christmas trash cookies and will be rushing down the chimney to get to these and how about these Ultimate Trash Brownies?  Can't you just see it?  So fun to celebrate with all the colorful candies and sprinkles galore! 

    trash cookies

    trash cookies

    Sweet & Salty Combos for our Christmas Trash Cookies!

    The possibilities of adding in whatever you might have in your kitchen cupboards as far as the add-ins, you can literally go bonkers!

    As an example, if you're more into caramel instead of peanut butter with the with the sweet and salty factor, you could add in Rolo's instead of peanut butter cups. 

    Or if you want to switch out the potato chips with roasted peanuts or almonds, go all out and customize these cookies to your heart's content! 'Tis the season, after all!  The more the merrier!  

    trash cookies for Christmas

    Customize these Trashy Cookies with Candies and Sprinkles for Holidays  

    • Easter - switch out to pastel colors.
    • Valentine's Day - switch out to red and pink colors.
    • Halloween - switch out to orange, yellow and brown colors.
    • Thanksgiving - switch out to fall colors...Get my drift?  Yea...I got you! 

    christmas trash cookies

    Ingredients You Need

    • unsalted butter, room temperature
    • granulated sugar
    • brown sugar
    • egg
    • all-purpose flour
    • baking soda 
    • salt
    • crushed potato chips
    • crushed pretzels
    • mini white chocolate Reese cups
    • mini chocolate Reese cups
    • milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
    • m&m's, I used red, green and blue
    • white chocolate chips
    • sprinkles of choice
    • optional: sprinkles of flaky sea salt for tops of cookies

    Santa's Trash Cookies

    Santa's Christmas Trash Cookies

    How to Make Christmas Trash Cookies 

    1. Preheat oven to 350º and line two baking sheets with parchment.
    2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt until combined, set aside.
    3. Using a mixer on, in a large bowl cream together butter and sugars for 1-3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Once the mixture turns pale yellow in color and has a light and fluffy texture, you’re done. Do not over-cream mixture.
    4. Beat in egg until combined.
    5. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until together until combined. (Dough will be very thick.)
    6. Add in potato chips, pretzels, m&m's, reese cups, chocolate chips, and sprinkles and mix together.
    7. Using a medium sized scoop, scoop onto parchment paper and slightly press them down onto baking sheets and sprinkle with sea salt. Add additional pretzels, chips, candies and sprinkles to tops of cookies for decorative touches. If you want the cookies thick, don't press down as much, you can control how thick you want them. Sprinkle with some sea salt if you wish.
    8. Can also chill dough until ready to use, scoop the dough balls and store them in fridge until ready to bake.
    9. Bake until edges are just starting to get golden, 7 to 8 minutes.
    10. Remove from oven and let cool 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

    Adding sea salt really takes these to another level.  Just a light sprinkle is all you need.  It magically enhances the sugar flavor in the cookies and we can't get enough of it!

    Santa's Trash Cookies

    christmas trash cookies

    christmas trash cookies

    For more holiday cookies, check out my cookie page...you'll find tons!

    Favorite Cookies You Keep Coming Back For!

    • Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
    • Best-Ever White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
    • Christmas Cowboy Cookies
    • Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies! Pure Nirvana!
    • Ultimate Chocolate Cookies
    • "Phenomenal" Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
    • Grinch Sugar Cookies
    • Easy Melted Snowman Cookies
    Santa's Christmas Trash Cookies

    Santa’s Christmas Trash Cookies

    Kim Lange
    These cookies pretty much cover everything you could ever want in cookies and more, which is why they are called ‘trash’ cookies. Imagine soft, chewy cookies smooshed with loads of mini white and chocolate reese cups, white and chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, sea salt and festive sprinkles! Trash never tasted so good!
    4.65 from 116 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 10 mins
    Cook Time 7 mins
    Course Dessert
    Servings 16 Cookies
    Calories

    Ingredients
      

    • 14 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
    • ½ cup granulated sugar
    • ½ cup brown sugar
    • 1 large egg
    • 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda make sure it's not expired
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • ⅓ cup crushed potato chips
    • ⅓ cup crushed pretzels
    • ½ cup mini white chocolate reese cups
    • ½ cup mini chocolate reese cups
    • ⅓ cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
    • ½ cup m&m's I used red, green and blue
    • ⅓ cup white chocolate chips
    • ¼ cup sprinkles of choice
    • Sprinkles of flaky sea salt for tops of cookies

    Instructions
     

    • Preheat oven to 350º and line two baking sheets with parchment.
    • In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt until combined, set aside.
    • Using a mixer on, in a large bowl cream together butter and sugars for 1-3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Once the mixture turns pale yellow in color and has a light and fluffy texture, you’re done. Do not over-cream mixture.
    • Beat in egg until combined.
    • Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until together until combined. (Dough will be very thick.)
    • Add in potato chips, pretzels, m&m's reese cups, chocolate chips, and sprinkles and mix together.
    • Using a medium sized scoop, scoop onto parchment paper and slightly press them down onto baking sheets and sprinkle with sea salt. Add additional pretzels, chips, candies and sprinkles to tops of cookies for decorative touches. If you want the cookies thick, don't press down as much, you can control how thick you want them. Sprinkle with some sea salt if you wish.
      Can also chill dough until ready to use, scoop the dough balls and store them in fridge until ready to bake.
    • Bake until edges are just starting to get golden, 7 to 8 minutes.
    • Remove from oven and let cool 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

    Notes

    Can add more potato or pretzels (up to â…” cup of each, if you wish for more saltiness)
    Feel free to modify any candies with whatever candies you wish.
    Add some vanilla extract if you wish.
    Keyword cookies
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Recipe slightly modified from Delish

    Santa's Christmas Trash Cookies
    Trash Cookies
    Santa's Trash Cookies
    Santa's Trash Cookies
    « Cocoa Marshmallow Brownies
    Holiday Cranberry White Chocolate Blondies »
    1.9K shares
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Yummly

    About Kim Lange

    Hi! I'm Kim! As you may know, I'm cookie, brownie and chocolate obsessed! You'll find hundreds of decadent and healthy dessert recipes to choose from here! So, let's bake something easy and never forget the chocolate!

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Laurie says

      November 17, 2020 at 10:20 pm

      Hello!! I followed your recipe precisely. My cookies were extremely dry. I would love to try them again. Any ideas on what I did wrong?
      Thank you!:)

      • Kim Lange says

        November 18, 2020 at 8:38 am

        It sounds like too much flour, can you make sure you are measuring the flour with spooning the flour into a measuring cup and leveling it off. You could also decrease the flour by a couple of tablespoons and see how the cookie dough is as well. Hope this helps, please let me know how it works out? Thank you Laurie for your feedback, I hope this helps a bit. 🙂

    2. Valentina says

      December 19, 2019 at 2:29 am

      I won't have any left for Santa! These are so packed with deliciousness! 🙂 ~Valentina

      • Kim Lange says

        December 20, 2019 at 9:39 am

        I hear ya! hehehe Thanks Valentina!

    3. 2pots2cook says

      December 13, 2019 at 6:07 am

      Absolutely perfect not only for holidays but for crazy days, too ! Thank you Kim ! xo

    4. Ben|Havocinthekitchen says

      December 12, 2019 at 6:56 pm

      I've seen quite often Santa's Christmas trash cookies lately (I guess that's a new trend!), but I haven't tried them yet. I'm a huge fan pf sweet&salty, so this idea sounds appealing to me. They look totally festive, too!

    5. Katherine | Love In My Oven says

      December 12, 2019 at 4:22 pm

      Sweet and salty is my jam! These are perfect. All of the colors and textures, now that's my kind of cookie!! I bet these would get so snapped up from a Christmas platter! XO

    6. Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen says

      December 12, 2019 at 2:46 pm

      I will never have enough salty sweets! These sound AWESOME, Kim!

      • Kim Lange says

        December 12, 2019 at 3:48 pm

        Me too! It's such an awesome combo! Thanks Kelsie!! xo

    7. Kelly @ Kelly Lynns Sweets and Treats says

      December 11, 2019 at 1:16 pm

      Hahahah first off, I just LOVE the name of these cookies!! So fun! And second, I want to eat that these cookies because there's just so much deliciousness going on in them. Pinned to my Christmas dessert board 🙂 XOXO

      • Kim Lange says

        December 11, 2019 at 2:46 pm

        Thank you so much Kelly! I wish I could eat them all! xo

    Trackbacks

    1. 12 Holiday Cookie Recipes You Need To Try This Year - yellow says:
      October 27, 2020 at 3:26 pm

      […] Santa’s Trash Cookies: If you can’t decide what holiday cookie recipe to make, I would pick this one! It is a perfect blend of anything you could want in a cookie. I heard a secret that people who leave these out for Santa get extra presents […]

    Primary Sidebar

    WELCOME!

    Kim Lange

    Hi, I'm Kim! As you may know, I'm cookie, brownie and chocolate obsessed! You'll find hundreds of decadent and healthy dessert recipes to choose from here! So, let's bake something easy and never forget the chocolate!

    More about me →

    CATEGORIES


    POPULAR

    • Perfect Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins! Fluffy & Moist!
    • Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies! Pure Nirvana
    • Awesome Country Apple Fritter Bread
    • Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
    • Homemade Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
    • "Phenomenal" Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

    AS SEEN IN

    BRANDS TBC

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    Info

    • About
    • Recipe Index
    • Contact
    • Work With Me
    • Privacy Policy

    Contact

    • [email protected]
    The Baking ChocolaTess Blog

    Follow

    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram

    Copyright © 2023 THE BAKING CHOCOLATESSÂ