5 Prague spots for Czech Christmas cookies, picked by a pastry chef

No Czech Christmas would be complete without platters of dainty, homemade cookies, a cultural tradition synonymous with the holiday season. Many recipes, especially gingerbread, need time to mature, so the baking process starts early in the season, allowing the flavors to meld and fills homes with that unmistakable Christmas aroma.

These treats are small but precise, often shaped by hand, with families baking 10 or even 20 varieties throughout December. Tables brimming with cookies, many topped with Czech-grown garden walnuts, symbolize abundance, comfort, and good fortune in the coming year and are often gifted to visitors or colleagues.

Every family has their own way of doing things, shaped by unique techniques, grandma’s tricks, and little secrets that have been passed down quietly from one generation to the next. So while most bakers rely on classics like vanilla crescents, Linzer cookies, and gingerbread, no two versions of these treats taste quite the same.

We asked Klára Řezníčková, long-time pastry chef at Červený Jelen, for her top recommendations on where to sample these traditional treats this holiday season.

While you won’t find a full spread of Christmas cookies at Červený Jelen, Řezníčková is adding a gingerbread honey cake to the dessert counter, a festive twist on a seasonal classic with warm spice and gooey layered sweetness. Everything is made from scratch in the restaurant’s pastry kitchen, where high-quality ingredients are the rule, and the team takes pride in doing every step by hand. 

For a carefully curated collection of traditional Czech festive sweets that taste like they’ve been pulled from someone’s secret family archive, you won’t want to miss Cukrář Skála’s decadent holiday offer. The pastry team at this elevated bakery keeps the flavors honest and the textures just right. Boxes packed with favorites like Linzer cookies filled with jam, nut rolls, coconut wreaths, and classic butter-and-nut “vanilla” crescents are quick to sell out in the lead-up to Christmas, so order well in advance at one of the bakery’s three locations to avoid missing out. 

This legendary bakery treats its Christmas cookies with the kind of care that starts with good butter, real nuts, and classic spice blends. The kitchen leans on quality ingredients and time-tested recipes, giving their vanilla crescents, jam-filled Linzers, and nut cookies a richness that feels both traditional and refined. Regulars trust Myšák because the flavors stay true year after year, so if you are hoping to taste the season the way your Czech grandma intended, this centrally-located cafe is a sure bet.

If you’re hunting for a batch of classic Czech Christmas cookies with a little more polish, pop over to Café Imperial Dolce. The pastries come from the same team behind the iconic Café Imperial, so the craft and consistency are already well proven. The cookies are carefully shaped, evenly baked, and visually polished, so they look as good as they taste. The flavors themselves remain traditional, but the subtle finishing touches—perfect dustings of sugar, clean lines on jam-filled Linzers, uniform sizes—give them a slightly elevated feel that is hard to match.   

Etapa’s famous Beehives always generate a lot of holiday buzz; their Včelí úly (also called Vosí hnízda) are beautifully made and carry the warm, familiar flavors of Czech Christmas. These cookie-sculptures require a special mold to capture the nest-like shape, which is made from a ground-up mix of vanilla biscuits (piškoty works well), nuts, cocoa powder, butter and sugar, then filled with a sweet custard before being sealed with a whole vanilla biscuit (both the cookie and the custard often contain rum or eggnog liquor, for an added punch). This cozy Karlín spot allows you to buy cookies individually, making it easy to sample a few with your coffee before choosing your favorites to take home.