25 Exceptional Christmas Bread Recipes

Make your holidays special with any one of these exceptional Christmas bread recipes. You’ll find everything from traditional shaped breads, to easy loaf breads, to savory breads for your holiday meals. Any one (or two…or four) of these can become a looked-forward-to part of your family’s traditions!

And as a fellow bread lover, be sure to check out AOC’s Best Bread Recipes – all from scratch –  for bread recipes that can become a part of your everyday life.

When I think about the special Christmas foods my family talks about and looks forward to every year, it’s cookies and candy (of course) and holiday breads. It seems that many families have their favorites – some that were passed down from a European tradition, some that are easy to make and give, and some that are shaped like wreaths and trees.

For our family, it’s all about the cinnamon rolls and overnight monkey bread (I sense a sweet-cinnamon theme here…). I think I would be banned from the family if I didn’t make these! I also like to make smaller loaf breads to add to our goodie bags – they can be easily frozen for people to enjoy whenever they want.

But there are a lot of other fun Christmas bread recipes out there, which I found out when gathering the recipes for this list. I separated them into easy loaf recipes (gingerbread, chocolate-peppermint, and eggnog), shaped bread recipes (traditional stollen, panettone, and pretty wreaths), and savory Christmas breads including a tree-shaped pizza dough pull-apart bread I can’t wait to make with my quick pizza dough.

There are also a couple of healthy Christmas bread recipes – a paleo fruit and nut bread and a maple-gingerbread loaf.

In other words – you’ve got options! Which one will you be making?

Christmas Bread Recipes

From AOC:

1| Delicious Real Food Make-Ahead Monkey Bread. This is our family’s Christmas morning tradition – my daughter and I make the dough and dip the balls in the afternoon of Christmas Eve and put it in the fridge. The next morning it comes to room temperature while we’re opening our stocking gifts and then I pop it into the oven while we open our tree gifts so it’s warm and waiting as part of our Christmas brunch. Yum.

2| The Best Cinnamon Rolls…ever. If there’s another food I’m known for in my extended family besides chocolate chip cookies it’s these cinnamon rolls. Over the years I have perfected them to be the perfect balance of moist, sweet, and cinnamony, but not too dry and not too gooey. I make them only at our big family gatherings for the holidays and in the spring, prompting two of my nephews to ask for them as a present. My niece now makes them for her family and they’ve become a tradition there, too. Why not make it your own tradition?

3| Whole Wheat Orange Cranberry Bread Recipe. This is a newer recipe on AOC, but one I’ve actually been making for years. I adapted it to use whole wheat and less sugar and it’s still the cranberry bread with know and love. This makes a great gift and sliced in half and toasted would be a unique part of a holiday cheese board.

4| Cranberry Crumb Muffins (or Loaves). The “big” crumb topping on these muffins or small loaves is what puts them over the top from regular cranberry breads. Also the fact that you use both dried and fresh cranberries – or my favorite, leftover cranberry sauce! (Got more leftover cranberry sauce? Here’s more bread recipes using cranberry sauce.)

From Other Websites:

Loaf Christmas Bread Recipes:

Each row from top left to right:

5| Gingerbread Loaf @ Creme de la Crumb. Perfect for the holidays and a lot easier than gingerbread cookies.

6| Christmas Gift Idea Cinnamon Bread Recipe @ Julie Blanner. The presentation of this bread is so cute with the cinnamon sticks – I’d love to receive this as a gift at Christmas.

7| Chocolate Peppermint Bread @ Butter with a Side of Bread. Oooh, this had me at my favorite flavor combination of the season – that and the chocolate glaze topping, that is.

8| Paleo Fruit & Nut Bread @ The View From Great Island. Made with almond flour, banana, chopped nuts and dried fruit, this recipe is a nice option for people going low-carb.

9| Healthy Classic Gingerbread with Maple Glaze @ Amy’s Healthy Baking. This gingerbread is sweetened with molasses and maple syrup and made with whole wheat flour.

10| No-Yeast Cinnamon Bread Quick Bread @ Five Heart Home. Here’s a great last-minute gift idea – the bread looks delicious and comes with printable tags for giving away.

11| Glazed Eggnog Quickbread @ The Recipe Critic. This seems like it would become a classic – people love eggnog at the holidays.

Shaped Christmas Bread Recipes:

Each row from top left to right:

12| Stollen German Christmas Bread @ Curious Cuisiniere. A classic German Christmas bread would be such a fun thing to bring to a holiday party.

13| Christmas Bread @ Taste of the South. Such a basic name for a very non-basic looking bread. This is a braided loaf studded with just a few dried fruits. I think it would make great toast.

14| Sweet Nut Holiday Bread Wreath @ Hostess at Heart. This bread looks like sticky buns made into a pretty wreath shape – what’s not to love?

15| Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread) @ Brown Eyed Baker. Another classic European holiday bread that would be fun to try making.

16| Viennese Christmas Bread @ Restless Chipotle. Spices, dried fruit, and whole wheat add up to delicious sounding bread.

17| Christmas Chocolate Panettone @ Eat in My Kitchen. I’m all about a chocolate version of classic panettone!

Each row from top left to right:

18| Homemade Cinnamon Roll Pull Apart Bread @ Pinch of Yum. Hmm, the next best thing to my cinnamon rolls?

19| Candy Cane Braided Bread Recipe with Cherry Filling @ Gluesticks. How fun to fill and shape a bread into a candy cane for the holidays! I think you could fill this with anything from other fruit jams to even chocolate.

20| Brioche au Chocolat Loaf @ Bake from Scratch. But then, maybe you should just make this amazing looking chocolate brioche loaf.

21| Swedish Tea Ring @ Simply Recipes. I’ve actually made a tea ring before and they look way more complicated than they are – which gives them a nice “wow” factor that only you know was pretty easy.

Savory Christmas Bread Recipes:

Each row from top left to right:

22| Savory Christmas Cheese Bread @ King Arthur Flour. I think the red from dried tomatoes and the green from scallions give this bread it’s name but it’s a quick and easy recipe that you can make any time of the year.

23| Christmas Tree Bread @ Serious Eats. This is basically dinner rolls arranged and baked in the shape of a tree – hello Christmas dinner table!

24| Christmas Tree Pull Apart Bread @ Southern Living. I’m making this for sure this season with my quick pizza dough! When dipped into marinara sauce, the bites can be an appetizer or even a main dish served with a salad (which is my plan…).

25| Cheese and Herb Star Bread @ Food 52. Now this bread is a bit more complicated – which is how it achieves it’s fabulous look. If you’re up for it, all the steps are pictured for you and you may just become the star of the show.

I hope you enjoyed these Christmas bread recipes and that you found a few to add to your holiday traditions.

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