(© stokkete – stock.adobe.com)
Can St. Nick leave a tip? Cookie costs are up over $2 compared to 2020.
In A Nutshell
- Butter ($2.99) is the most expensive ingredient per batch, while milk was the only item rising slower than overall inflation at 17%
- Leaving cookies and milk for Santa now costs $8.44, up 31% from $6.42 in 2020, outpacing the 25% national inflation rate
- Egg prices drove most of the increase, jumping 136% since 2020, with wild swings hitting 187% in 2022 and 180% in 2024
- The biggest price jump happened between 2021 and 2022, when cookie ingredients surged 32% while overall inflation rose just 6.5%
Baking Christmas cookies for Santa has been a cherished family ritual for generations, but inflation is making this simple tradition considerably more expensive.
A FinanceBuzz analysis of government data and grocery prices shows that leaving out cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and his reindeer now costs $8.44. Five years ago, the same holiday spread ran just $6.42. The 31% increase outpaces the national inflation rate of 25% during the same period, meaning families are paying disproportionately more to maintain their Christmas Eve customs.
Egg prices bear much of the blame, having jumped 136% since 2020. Between 2021 and 2022 alone, the cost of cookie ingredients surged 32% while overall inflation climbed just 6.5%. After hitting nearly $8.50 in 2022, costs dipped to about $8 in 2023, then climbed back above $8.40 in both 2024 and 2025.
The numbers tell a story familiar to anyone who has shopped for groceries recently. What once qualified as a negligible expense, something parents could do without thinking twice, now requires budgeting alongside other holiday costs. For households already navigating higher prices on everything from gas to rent, even small traditions add up.
Making cookies for Santa is turning into an expensive Christmas tradition. (© deagreez – stock.adobe.com)
Why Christmas Cookie Costs Have Soared
Eggs stand out as the most volatile ingredient in the holiday baking basket, with prices reaching 187% above 2020 levels in 2022 and 180% in 2024 before settling at the current 136% increase.
Other staples saw more modest increases. Both sugar and butter rose 35%, while salt jumped 73%. Flour matched the national inflation rate at 25%. Milk was the only ingredient rising more slowly than overall inflation, up just 17% since 2020.
The recipe FinanceBuzz analyzed called for standard Christmas cookie ingredients: 2¾ cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups white sugar, 1¼ cups butter, 2 large eggs, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract, and frosting made from confectioners’ sugar, milk, corn syrup, and almond extract.
Saving Money on Holiday Baking
For families looking to keep their holiday baking affordable, a couple of tactics can help offset rising ingredient costs. Using a cash-back credit card at grocery stores returns a percentage of spending on butter, flour, and other essentials. Many cards offer higher rewards at supermarkets, particularly during the holiday season.
Grocery delivery services may provide savings through membership programs that eliminate delivery fees, potentially making last-minute ingredient runs more affordable.
Christmas Cookie Inflation Mirrors Broader Food Price Trends
Christmas cookies aren’t alone in becoming more expensive. Food prices across categories have risen faster than the overall economy in recent years.
The 2021 to 2022 period marked a turning point for grocery costs. Cookie ingredients increased nearly five times faster than the general inflation rate during those 12 months. Prices have stayed at that elevated level rather than returning to pre-2022 costs.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that many food staples remain 25% to 35% above their 2020 prices.
(Credit: FinanceBuzz.com)
Breaking Down the Costs
A glass of milk (8 ounces) currently costs $0.23, up from $0.19 in 2020. One pound of carrots for the reindeer runs $1.11, compared to $0.90 five years ago. The cookie ingredients themselves total $7.09, with butter at $2.99 as the largest single expense.
Vanilla extract adds $1.55 to the batch cost despite requiring only 2 teaspoons. The high per-batch cost reflects vanilla’s premium price per ounce, though a single bottle lasts for multiple baking sessions. Food coloring for decorating contributes $0.16, up from $0.14 in 2020. Corn syrup has remained steady at $0.07, making it one of the few ingredients immune to price increases.
Flour costs $0.43 for the 2¾ cups the recipe requires, up from $0.34 in 2020. Sugar, at $0.87 for 2 cups, has climbed from $0.65. Two eggs now cost $0.58, though they peaked at $0.71 in 2022 during egg market volatility. Baking soda adds just $0.01 to the batch, up 30% from 2020 but still negligible in absolute terms. Salt costs $0.01 for the half teaspoon needed, reflecting a 73% increase from less than a penny in 2020.
(Credit: FinanceBuzz.com)
The frosting ingredients show varied patterns. Confectioners’ sugar costs $0.31 for one cup, up 28% from $0.24. Almond extract runs $0.10 for a quarter teaspoon, a 21% increase. Light corn syrup for the frosting, at $0.07 for 2 teaspoons, hasn’t budged from its 2020 price.
Some ingredients showed relative stability while others fluctuated wildly. Corn syrup changed 0% from 2020 to 2025, while baking soda increased 30% and vanilla extract rose 16%. Salt’s 73% increase exceeded most other ingredients but paled compared to eggs.
For many families, the rising cost of Christmas cookies won’t stop the tradition entirely. But at more than $8 for a single batch, what was once an inexpensive gesture now carries real weight in holiday budgets already stretched thin by higher costs across the board.
Study Methodology
FinanceBuzz researchers selected a top-rated sugar cookie recipe from AllRecipes.com and calculated the cost of each ingredient needed to prepare one batch. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index provided data for most common baking staples including flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and milk. For ingredients not tracked by the BLS (extracts, corn syrup, and food coloring), researchers collected current and archived pricing from national grocery retailers including Walmart. The USDA provided carrot price data.
Cost calculations reflect the specific quantities required by the recipe rather than full package prices. All prices represent November or December values for each year from 2020 through 2024. Data for 2025 comes from September, the most recent month available at the time of analysis. National inflation rates come from the BLS CPI Inflation Calculator, which showed cumulative inflation of 25% from December 2020 to September 2025.
The total cost calculation includes ingredients for one batch of frosted sugar cookies (yielding approximately 30 cookies), one 8-ounce glass of milk, and one pound of carrots for Santa’s reindeer. The analysis examined year-over-year price changes for each ingredient and compared ingredient-specific inflation to the overall national inflation rate during the same period.
