The Top Holiday Cookie In The US Isn't Shortbread Or Sugar, According To Target

Cookies are a big deal during the holiday season, and this year, there will be a few different types of cookies left out for Santa — or whoever ends up eating them. What's the uncontested top holiday cookie for 2025? Perhaps you're expecting chocolate chip, or even those easy to upgrade Pillsbury Shape sugar cookies with festive patterns. However, one big-box retailer paints another picture in newly released research. Using its own sales data from November through early December of this year, Target found that gingerbread cookies were the top selling cookies in over 75% of the United States.

Breaking it down by state, 38 U.S. states bought gingerbread more than any other cookie. In a distant second place, sugar cookies were the top sellers in eight states: Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia, and Hawaii. Only four states preferred shortbread cookies, another Christmas classic: Kansas, Maine, Montana, and New Jersey. Nearly everywhere else, gingerbread remains the king of holiday cookies. Gingerbread houses, which require a little more effort and cookie carpentry, are not mentioned in the study.

Even in recent years, several different studies have found that most Americans' favorite holiday cookie was boring chocolate chip (maybe because it's a popular choice to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve). But gingerbread's return to form harkens back to the Medieval European practice of baking gingerbread cookies shaped like people or animals. The first decorated Christmas gingerbread man is thought to date back to Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century, so it's a testament to these little ginger cookies that they're still holiday favorites.

If you want to spice up your cookies with something besides ginger, there are all sorts of Christmas cookies from around the world from which to choose; from honey-based Greek melomakarona cookies, to Indian rose cookies made from coconut milk. Even Dutch speculaas cookies, flavored with cinnamon, taste somewhat similar to gingerbread. Still, if you're spending Christmas in the U.S. — just about anywhere but New England — you're statistically very likely to be enjoying gingerbread cookies this year.