Fast, simple, and easy – just the way Christmas baking should be! Sheet Pan M&M Chocolate Holiday Bars are festive, fun, and family-friendly! Baking cookies in a sheet pan like this, is much faster than baking one tray at a time!
It’s Day 21 of Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas. As promised, Dear Reader, the recipes are going to be getting easier and easier. As Christmas Day approaches, we have less time we have to prepare for the big day. Sheet Pan M&M Chocolate Holiday Bars are perfectly easy and fast too!
In our home, sweets and treats that are Christmas themed are vitally important to a happy and festive holiday. We all love to have a big selection of cookies to choose from. We love to package up goody bags and take them to our neighbours. There’s always a large platter of cookies on the coffee table for our annual Christmas Eve movie marathon! And there must be M&Ms!
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS
Do you and your family have any Christmas Eve traditions? We have a few traditions that we stick too. They are tried and true and it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them. First, there’s the Christmas Eve movie marathon. Every Christmas Eve we watch the Elf movie. I order in pizza or Chinese. That is followed by homemade cookies, squares, and balls.
The Elf movie is a must and is usually the first one we watch. The second movie must be a Christmas classic. We have a collection that we bring out every year. And, every year, we add another movie or two to the collection. Those are movies like It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, etc.
And, every Christmas season, we try to get our fill of Christmas horror movies as well. Why? Well, McKenna and I absolutely love horror movies. John.e is not a huge fan. But, he’s come a long way in the past few years and will sit and watch with us. Do you watch Christmas horror movies?
MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES!
Did you know that I’ve been posting a 24 Cookies of Christmas series for a few years now? There are over 100 Christmas cookie recipes that you can find right here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen! To make it easier to find, I have created a page for each series. Just click on the image below and you’ll find the full series for that volume all one page!
CHRISTMAS EVE MATCHING PAJAMAS ARE A MUST!
Another Christmas tradition for us is our annual Christmas Eve matching pajamas. This is something my ex-wife had started way back when McKenna was just a toddler. John.e and I have continued the tradition. For the past three or four years, rather than buy Christmas t-shirts at Old Navy, John.e will design them.
Once he’s finished with the design, we upload it to Vista Print and get our personalized t-shirts. I usually wait until the Black Friday sales buy us matching pajama pants to be worn with the t-shirts.
If you look back at our Annual Christmas Posts, you see the t-shirts John.e has designed for the past few years. In true John.e fashion, rather than settle on just one design, he’ll usually manufacture one design and then personalize it so that each of us – him, McKenna, me, and sometimes, my dad – has our very own one of a kind Christmas Eve t-shirt.
FIND THE PICKLE ORNAMENT – SO MUCH FUN!
Let’s see – what else is there? Oh, yes! Our annual pickle hunt to determine who’s going to open the first present. Just before we start watching movies, we play our annual Find the Dill Pickle game. If you’ve never heard the tale of hanging a dill pickle ornament on your tree, then it’s something you simply must do – especially if you have kids!
Hanging a pickle ornament on the Christmas tree is said to be an old German tradition; the lucky person who first spots the green ornament hidden deep within the branches of the tree can open a present on Christmas Eve. However, plenty of doubters, many of them German, say there is no basis for this legend, and at least two additional Christmas pickle ornament stories are floating in the brine of myth and speculation.
WHY A PICKLE THOUGH?
One tells the story of a Bavarian soldier whose dying wish is for a pickle, which saves his life. The other recounts a tale of two boys trapped in a pickle barrel. Either way, whomever the excited winner ends up being, he or she can pick any one present under the tree and open it on Christmas Eve night.
So, Dear Reader, tell me about your traditions. Do you have friends and family visit on Christmas Eve? Or do you lock yourselves away from the world like we do and enjoy each other’s company?
MORE CHRISTMAS CONFECTIONS!
In some cases, we want more than a cookie. That’s why I have two more Christmas-themed collections you might want to consider. The first, is my 12 Bundt Cakes of Christmas, and the second is my 12 Biscotti of Christmas. Click on the image below to see each collection all on one page with links to each recipe!
STORING, PACKAGING, AND FREEZING
These cookies will stay fresh for about 3-5 days in a covered container and in a cool place. But, if you plan to freeze these cookies, use a food-safe container that can be frozen. You’ll want to ensure a very tight fitting lid too. (I use these quite often when freezing baked goods.) I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that cookie freshness locked in!
You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. They will come out of the freezer looking just like they did when you put them in there. Once you thaw them, they will taste just as fresh, and be just as soft, as the day you first baked them.
Sheet Pan M&M Chocolate Holiday Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 2 cups M&Ms candy
- 1/4 cup Christmas-themed candy sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly coat with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In large bowl, use a hand-held mixer to beat together the butter and sugar for 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes.
- Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Beat until just combined.
- Add 1 cup of the chocolate chips and 1 cup of the M&Ms. Stir into the cookie batter using a wooden spoon.
- Spread the cookie dough as evenly as possible onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Don’t get too worried about the dough being even. It will expand and fill in the gaps during the baking process.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle over the remaining chocolate chips and M&Ms, along with the candy sprinkles. Return to over and bake for 5 more minutes.
- Remove from oven. Allow to cool, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Carefully slide the giant cookie off of the sheet pan and onto a cooling rack to continue cooling.
- Once completely cooled, slice into large bars.
Notes
Nutrition
Bridget Bennett says
No matter how hard I try I can’t get the recipes