This Gingerbread Emoji Cookies Recipe Will Make You :heart_eyes:

Nothing gets you in the holiday spirit quite like baking easy Christmas cookies (and making a mess in the kitchen with sugar, flour, and *all* the sprinkles). Thankfully, you don't have to be a trained pastry chef to create the best holiday cookies for Santa. Christmas cookie decorating doesn't necessarily mean sitting down with fancy candy topping and buckets of royal icing. It could be as simple as throwing together some easy Christmas cookie recipes with few ingredients or hacking cake mix to make the dough. Now that you have the confidence to get started, check out these easy Christmas recipes and get to baking!

Fun Cookie Cutters To Make Easy Christmas Cookies More Festive

Cranberry Christmas Cookies

You can make the cookie dough in this recipe ahead of time and freeze it to save you time during the Christmas rush. When you're ready for this baking recipe, just take them out of the freezer and arrange on a baking sheet. Fourteen minutes later, you'll be enjoying one of the best Christmas cookie recipes: warm cranberry white chocolate chunk cookies — filled with melty chocolate chips. (via Brit + Co)

Easy Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe

Is all that red and green cramping your style? Give typical holiday colors a break with these pink pastel ornament Christmas cookie idea, complete with crushed candy cane sprinkles. Eloise would definitely approve. (via Brit + Co)

Basic Gingerbread Cookies

This warmly spiced gingerbread cookie dough can act as a base for your favorite holiday shapes and decorations. Personally, we're suckers for this making snuggly sweaters with this easy Christmas cookie recipe. (via Brit + Co)

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Need a cup-shaped cookie to go with your steaming cup of hot cocoa? Try this frosted, easy holiday cookie recipe, made with store-bought ingredients. (via Brit + Co)

Cinnamon Bun Palmiers

These crunchy, delicate, heart-shaped cookies come together with puff pastry, cream cheese, and a cinnamon sugar coating. (via Brit + Co)

White Chocolate Candy Cane Fortune Cookies

This lightly pink holiday cookie idea is homemade, but in a pinch, just stock up at a Chinese restaurant and dip in white chocolate and crushed candy canes at home. (via Brit + Co)

Best Cookie Christmas Trees

These fun Christmas cookies are sure to wow all your holiday guests, including Santa himself. Plus, it's awesome to add a twist to the Christmas cookie game with zero baking. (via Brit + Co)

Gingerbread Emoji Cookies

Express those fond holiday emotions not with words but with a custom-made emoji expression. (via Brit + Co)

Peanut Butter Sugar Cookies

The holidays can be nutty, but baking Christmas cookies definitely makes things better. These goodies can be rolled out, cut, and decorated to your liking. Plus it makes for a fun date night or girls' day activity. (via Brit + Co)

Animal Cracker Sugar Cookies

Though there aren't any animal crackers in the actual recipe, the addition of honey and oat flour will make you think otherwise. Use the dough for all of your fave rolled or cut cookies. (via Brit + Co)

Oreo Chocolate Christmas Cookie Recipe

Though you can make any cut-and-bake cookies with the chocolate dough, we're partial to using it for these edible hot cocoa mugs. They are finished off with a sprinkle rim, Rudolph face, and candy cane handle. They're so cute they can almost pass for the real thing! (via Brit + Co)

Peppermint Sandwich Easy Christmas Cookies

Who needs store-bought Oreos when you can impress your friends with the homemade version? We also think that the scalloped edges are the perfect finishing touch. (via Brit + Co)

Olde Fashioned Einkorn Gingerbread Cookies

These Christmas cookies can also double as cute decor, at least until they're all gobbled up. Add some powdered sugar before serving or add peppercorn eyes and buttons and bake until all the moisture is gone (around 10 minutes) to display them through the holiday. (via Calico and Twine)

Vegan Raspberry Almond Linzer Cookies

Not only are these cookies tasty but they're extra cute. The hearts are perfect for Valentine's Day but for the holiday season swap your cookie cutters for some Classic Holiday Cookie Cutters. (via Two Spoons)

Slice 'n' Bake Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies + Whipped Buttercream Frosting

It's just not the holiday season without frosted sugar Christmas cookies. Ditch the idea of a perfect cookie and instead, top yours with a fluffy buttercream and whimsical decorations. The messier the better! (via Half Baked Harvest)

Frosted Peppermint Brownie Cookies

Why choose between cookies and brownies if you don't have to? This hybrid is the best of both worlds, with a luscious peppermint frosting on top. It's the thing of our candy cane dreams! It's oh-so-tempting to serve these warm with ice cream in lieu of the frosting! (via Cooking Classy)

Toffee White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Buttery toffee, smooth white chocolate, and rich macadamia nuts make these homemade Christmas cookies a natural pairing with hot chocolate. (via Lovely Little Kitchen)

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cookies

Any combo of cinnamon and sugar tastes like the holidays to us. This easy Christmas cookie is great for all kinds of gatherings and is plain enough that even picky eaters will want one. (via Cozy Cravings)

Eggnog Frosted Chai Snickerdoodle Snowmen

Just when you thought mini Reese's cups couldn't get any better, they make impressively convincing snowmen hats on these unique Christmas cookies. Don't forget to save a couple cups to snack on later! (via Half Baked Harvest)

Ginger Spiced Sugar Cookies

The trick in these cute Christmas cookies is making a depression in the cookies with the bottom of a glass before sticking them in the oven, so you can fill each one with as much icing as you like. Load 'em up! (via The View from Great Island)

Cinnamon Spiced Almond Sugar Cookies

These cookies are made with healthier ingredients (like coconut sugar, cinnamon, and almonds) and are also grain-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. That means you can gift them to pretty much everyone on your list. (via Cotter Crunch)

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Trees

If you're going to give your kids a cookie, you might as well hide a strawberry on top to balance it out. Dip the strawberry in green candy melts, add sprinkle ornaments, and let it fully harden before attaching it to the cookie with a blanket of white frosting snow. (via Lovely Little Kitchen)

Paleo Caramel Apple Gingersnaps

Gingerbread cookies are a mainstay of the easy holiday cookie table. This recipe is made healthier with dried apples, then drizzled with a paleo-friendly caramel sauce. (via Food Faith Fitness)

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Turn your favorite cup of cocoa into a festive + easy Christmas cookie with this recipe. This is definitely for the chocolate lovers out there — it's got double the chocolate and a cocoa powder topping for good measure. (via Amanda Wilens)

Eggnog Cookies

If you don't usually love eggnog, give this recipe a try before you write it off completely. There's only a touch of spice, but it's just enough to keep things interesting. (via Half Full)

No-Roll, Softbatch Sprinkles Cookies

If you love cookies but dread rolling out the dough and meticulously decorating them, use this recipe. The dough doesn't need to be rolled out before you form the cookies, and since the sprinkles go directly into the dough, the decorations are already done. (via Averie Cooks)

Chewy Molasses Cookies

Soft and chewy molasses cookies are a hallmark of the holidays. And unlike some, these don't need to be chilled before baking, so they can go from the bowl to the oven to your mouth in record time. (via A Cookie Named Desire)

Gluten-Free Chocolate Turtle Thumbprint Cookies

Chocolate, caramel, and nuts form the traditional turtle cookie — but these are a deliciously gluten-free version. (via The Skinny Fork)

Easiest Christmas Cookie: Whipped Shortbread

If you're more of a visual learner, follow along with the easiest Christmas cookie recipe of all, the whipped shortbread cookie.

Get your favorite brownie and cookie in one with this gluten-free recipe that's soft and chewy inside with a little peppermint crunch. (via The Real Food Dieticians)

Your cookie secret weapon: hazelnut liquor and almond extract to bring out the vanilla flavor. These buttery soft cookies generously frosted with a creamy whipped caramel buttercream frosting. (via Half Baked Harvest)

Filled with ginger and warming spices, these gingerbread cookies are a throwback to a classic Christmas. Be playful with all sorts of decorations! (via Averie Cooks)

These melt-in-your-mouth cookies with hints of vanilla and almond extract are easy to bake but stand out in the cookie crowd. (via Completely Delicious)

Simplify your cookie baking with a box of cake mix to start, then dip in chocolate with lots of festive sprinkles! (via Kathryn's Kitchen Blog)

Craving a cinnamon roll this season? Here it is in cookie form, made with sugar cookie dough and a buttery cinnamon-sugar filling, yum! (via Pink Owl Kitchen)

Everyone loves a classic sugar cookie, and this recipe makes things easy with just six ingredients so you can whip up several batches stress-free. (via Pip and Ebby)

Milk powder gives these buttery cookies a slight tenderness, a delightful crisp, and a subtle milkiness. Decorate as you like! (via Woman Scribbles)

Spread some joy with a delicious mix of white chocolate, nutty walnuts, and a hint of sweet icing. (via The Fast Recipe)

Have some fun baking and eating these cookies, made with peanut butter, oats, M&Ms, and white chocolate chips. (via The Endless Meal)

The only way chocolate cookies can get any better is by sticking sweet maraschino cherries in the center. A drizzle of white chocolate doesn't hurt either. (via The Kitchen Is My Playground)

This Italian classic is a must around the holidays, and this recipe kicks things up a few notches by bringing chocolate, candies, and nuts into the equation. (via Saving Room for Dessert)

Combine your love of turtles and cookies together with these chocolatey treats rolled in chopped pecans and filled with a gooey caramel sauce that'll blow your tastebuds away. (via Swanky Recipe)

These low-carb, vegan cookies only call for five ingredients, and none of them is sugar! Dipped in Stevia-sweetened chocolate, they're garnished with nuts for extra crunch. (via Sweet As Honey)

Nutter Butters and sugar cookies fuse together to create adorably festive (and delicious) reindeer. (via Pip and Ebby)

Whether you're eating them accompanied by a cup of tea or coffee or enjoying them solo, these bites will satisfy your sweet tooth with their crumbly and buttery texture. (via Oat and Sesame)

This warming recipe brings you sugar, spice, and everything nice with almost three dozen cookies in just 30 minutes. Magical. (via Yay! For Food)

Life is too short to just have ONE type of cookie, which is why this recipe gives you tasty options with fruit and chocolate. (via Casablanca Cooks)

Sate your raw cookie dough craving with these egg-free hunks of soft chocolate chip bliss. (via Seasoned Sprinkles)

If you can't decide between the classics, mash two faves together to create a bomb confection your friends will *love.* (via The View from Great Island)

Lead image: The Endless Meal

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What did the ending of The Challengers mean?

There is a lot of tension between Tashi, Art, and Patrick throughout the movie, and it all builds to the titular Challenger match. It's Art vs. Patrick, and they're playing for way more than just the title and the money (though of course, they're definitely playing for the title and the money) — this is one final chance to prove themselves to Tashi, who's sitting court-side looking very unimpressed.

Both men lose their cool during different sets, but it's in the third and final set that everything comes to a head. At the end of the match, Patrick confesses to sleeping with Tashi using a tennis ball and racket signal only Art recognizes. For a split second Art is is complete shock, and I expected him to completely lose it. And, technically, he does, but in a totally unexpected way. Rather than jump the net and punch Patrick in the face, Art channels his emotions into his tennis, and the fury he feels actually allows him break through whatever slump he's been stuck in.

Unable to have a conversation about Patrick's secret, Art and Patrick talk with their serves and returns. And because Tashi doesn't catch the signal, for the first time in the whole movie, she's cut out of the conversation.

Did Tashi love Art and Patrick?

Tashi's been pulling the strings ever since she met Art and Patrick, and she's never not been in control. After Patrick sends the signal, she knows something is going on between them, she just doesn't know what — and it unnerves her. Thanks to Zendaya's expert subtlety, the twitch of her eyebrow or the particularly anxious way she grips her hands are the only things that give her away. But her confusion, and the men's anger, quickly turn to pure joy in the final moments of the movie.

Patrick and Art end up playing so intensely that they meet at the net and embrace, prompting Tashi's iconic tennis yell before she gives one of her first genuine laughs of the film and the screen cuts to black. The first time I saw the movie, I thought "What?!" but the more I think about it, the clearer the Challengers ending is.

Patrick and Art (whose relationship begins six or seven years before the movie opens) haven't spoken since the big fight surrounding Tashi's injury, and their hug proves they're just happy to be playing together again. It's what they've always loved, and their fight over Tashi almost ended it forever. Tashi's pure elation shows she's happy to watch some good tennis, especially after she failed to help Art break out of his rut.

We've only seen Tashi scream like that once before, when she admits to a perfect tennis match. While Tashi does care for Patrick and Art, the end of Challengers proves the characters' true love was never really each other — it was always the game.