I Tried 7 Little Debbie Holiday Treats and This One Is the Jolliest of Them All

After unboxing and unwrapping seven varieties of Christmas treats from Little Debbie, I can officially report a winner. Thanks to the help of my highly esteemed taste-testing crew (my family), we tried every single tree, snowflake, and cookie and found our favorite. Which one would we buy again and which one would we leave on the shelf? Here’s what we have to say.

How I Tested

We all agreed that these were some of the cutest packaged holiday treats we’ve seen. Little Debbie received high marks from all testers when it came to appearance. Ultimately, though, we were here to taste, and taste is what we did. Each tester received a small sample from each dessert and was told to “eat and enjoy.” Extra samples were provided when needed (one tester apparently needed “several bites” to confirm results, but their motives seemed a little suspicious) and water was given as a palate cleanser between samples. This was official business, after all. Here are the results:

The Best Little Debbie Holiday Treats, Ranked

7th Place: Christmas Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a classic holiday cookie. I was most excited out of all of the testers to try this one. While I loved its soft texture and vibrant spice, the cookie somehow fell flat for me. Other tasters agreed. It was cute, but not as delicious as we’d hoped it would be.

6th/5th Place Tie: Christmas Tree Brownies and Snowflake Brownies

Shaped like a tree or hexagon and topped with a glossy sugar coating, these brownies were fun to look at, but their taste wasn’t a winner. They were oily and left an unpleasant aftertaste. I love brownies, but these felt heavier than a brownie and lacked that deep chocolate flavor you expect. Other testers agreed with one claiming that the icing was pretty, but didn’t add to the dessert.

4th Place: Cherry Cordials

This cookie is a twist on the OG cherry cordial. It’s made by sandwiching two soft chocolate-coated vanilla cookies together with cherry-flavored creme. Testers liked the idea of the classic flavor combination and also appreciated the softness of the cookie. The chocolate coating, however, wasn’t as substantial as testers would’ve liked. Instead, the cookie felt overly sweet, tasting mostly like the cherry creme filling.

3rd Place: Christmas Tree Cakes

Bring on the nostalgia! According to the website, Little Debbie has been making the Christmas Tree Cakes since 1985! To refresh your memory, it’s a yellow cake dessert shaped like a tree, filled with cream, and covered with white frosting. You can’t beat the look of it, but honestly, it was underwhelming. We all liked that it was soft, like cake should be, but the flavor just wasn’t there.

2nd Place: Chocolate Christmas Tree Cakes

The chocolate cousin to the classic tree cake! It’s just as cute as the white version, but fared better in the rankings thanks to all of that chocolate. Both the cake and the frosting in this dessert are chocolate and you can taste it. Testers agreed this one was tastier than the classic version.

1st Place Winner: North Pole Nutty Buddy

It’s a traditional Nutty Buddy but made to look like the North Pole. Cute! But what makes these different from other Nutty Buddies? The only difference we detected was the white coating versus the traditional chocolate coating. Other than that, it tasted like a Nutty Buddy. Testers loved the peanut butter paired with the crispy wafer inside. Hands down it was everyone’s favorite.