Best Christmas Cookie Recipe For Decorating

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Decorating Christmas cookies is one of the best parts of the holiday season—besides eating them, of course! You can let your creativity shine by using fun cookie shapes, cool frosting designs, and unique sprinkles and toppers to create cookies that everyone from house guests to Santa will love. Gather some helpers and your favorite cookie decorations, and enjoy!

1
Roll out sugar cookie dough to ¹⁄₄ inch (0.64 cm) thickness. You can make classic sugar cookie dough by mixing together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, and baking powder. Chill it for about an hour, or until it's firm, and set it on a floured surface, like a clean counter. Use a rolling pin to roll it out.^[1]
- Roll out your dough into smaller chunks to keep it more manageable.
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Use cookie cutters to easily make Christmas shapes. You can find a variety of Christmas cookie cutters online and in home stores. Choose a pack with lots different shapes, like Christmas trees, stars, snowflakes, and ornaments. When you're ready to cut your cookie dough, lightly flour the sharpened side of the cutter and press it into the dough.^[2]
- Cut as many cookies from the rolled-out dough as you can, turning your cookie cutters at different angles to use as much of the surface as possible. This will help you conserve dough, giving you more cookies to decorate later!
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Make your own cookie cutters to create your own shapes. To save money or make your own designs, cut out strips of aluminum and fold them inwards a few times to create long, strong, flexible lengths. Bend them into the shape you want, going freehand or following a particular design.^[3]

Tip: For an even easier cookie-cutting option, make a template out of paper, then simply place it on your dough and trace around it with a knife.
4
Make small adjustments with a knife. Cut off unwanted pieces of dough on the edges of your cookies, or personalize your shapes as much as you want. It'll be difficult to change the shape of your cookie once you've baked it, so make any last changes now!
- For example, you might want to cut a hole in a wreath-shaped cookie, or add a star to the top of a tree.
- Be careful of making any edges too thin or pointy. They have a better chance of falling off or getting burned in the oven.
5
Bake your cookies using the recipe's instructions. Use a spatula to place your cookies on a baking sheet, then bake them at the heat and time specified in the recipe. Once they're done baking and have cooled for a few minutes, you're free to decorate them more—or enjoy them just as they are!
- You can keep your cookies fresh for up to a week in a sealed, airtight container, or for a month if you freeze them.
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1

Make a simple buttercream frosting. You can make a sweet, creamy frosting by beating butter with a hand mixer until it's smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix it there are no lumps, then add cream, almond extract, and salt and mix until everything is blended.^[4]

Want different frosting flavors? Sprinkle in favorite spices like cinnamon, or add cocoa powder for a chocolate taste.
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Separate the frosting into bowls and use food coloring to create colors. Use a spoon to divide the frosting into at least 4 different bowls. Keep one bowl of frosting white, then mix a few drops of food coloring into the other bowls to create festive colors. Follow the directions on the food coloring and remember that the more drops you add, the darker the color will be.^[5]
- You can create as many colors as you want, but consider including classic Christmas colors like red, green, and blue. You may also want yellow for accents or stars.
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Frost your cookies with a piping bag and tip for the most precise designs. Pour your frosting into separate piping bags, or into Ziploc bags with a small hole cut in one corner. Start frosting by tracing the outline of each cookie shape, then filling in the middle. Creating the outline first will keep the rest of your frosting neatly inside it.^[6]
- Hold the piping bag just slightly above the cookie so you don't smudge the frosting.
- You can keep your layers of frosting as thick or thin as you want. Just make sure it's thick enough that you can't see any of the cookie underneath.
Tip: You can frost your cookies any color you want! Go with traditional colors, like green for trees and white for snowflakes, or mix things up for a more playful look.
4
Use a knife to frost if you don't have a piping bag. If you don't want to use a piping bag to frost your cookies, get out a few butter knives, one for each bowl of frosting. Use the knives to smooth the frosting onto each cookie. You won't get as smooth of a layer as with a piping bag, but the cookies will still look and taste just as good.
- Apply the frosting with the flat of your knife, creating as smooth and even a layer as you can.
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Add polka dots for a fun, popping design. Use a piping bag or the tip of your knife to scatter small dots of frosting across your cookie. Use a different color to make the design really pop. You could even match your polka dots to the shape of the cookie, creating ornaments on a Christmas tree or buttons on a snowman.^[7]
- Keep the polka dots small—they'll likely enlarge as the frosting dries.
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Create tiny hearts with polka dots and a toothpick. You can turn your frosting polka dots into tiny hearts by simply passing a toothpick straight through the middle of each dot. Doing this while the frosting is still wet will create the "tail" of the heart. Clean off the toothpick in between hearts so you don't collect too much frosting on it.^[8]
- For more whimsical look, pull the toothpick through the dots at a slight angle. This will make the hearts look tilted and playful.
- Adding hearts could be a great addition to cookies shaped like ornaments, trees, or hearts themselves!
7
Mix and match different colors for more complicated designs. You don't have to use the same color of frosting for the whole cookie; in fact, using different shades on the same cookie can create a bright, colorful effect. Decide what sections you want to be different colors first, then go one color at a time. If you're short on time, you can frost the different colors back to back, but they might end up smearing. If you can, let them dry for at least 4 hours before adding the next color.^[9]
- This technique great for alternating patterns, like the stripes on a candy cane, or details like the white trim of a red Santa hat cookie.
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Let your frosting dry for at least 4 hours. You'll need to give your frosting time to dry before moving or stacking your cookies. Place the cookies on a flat surface, like a table, to dry. You can place down newspaper to protect from crumbs. Let them sit for 4 hours to get mostly dry before eating, or up to 8 if you're planning on packing them away.^[10]

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1
Mix and match sprinkles to add color in a simple, easy way. Adding sprinkles to your cookies is an easy way to make them really pop with color. Make sure to use colors that match, like white sprinkles on a red cookie, or green and red sprinkles for a white cookie. You can add more or less sprinkles depending on the look you're going for, as well.^[11]
- For example, instead of using green frosting to make your wreath or Christmas tree cookie, you could give it a fun texture by frosting it in white, then completely it in green sprinkles.
Tip: Make sure to add sprinkles and any other additions while your frosting is still wet, which will help them stick.
2
Sprinkle on chunks of chocolate or candy for a particular look or taste. Store-bought sprinkles look great, but they don't add a lot to the taste of a cookie. If you're looking for an extra burst of sweetness, try adding pieces of candy or chocolate, like crushed up candy canes or chocolate chips, to make your cookies look and taste unique.^[12]
- You can try to match your candy decorations to the cookie itself. Add crushed candy canes to a candy cane-shaped cookie, or scatter M&Ms on Christmas tree cookies as ornaments.
3

Press round chocolates into plain, round cookies to make thumbprint cookies. Bake a batch of round sugar cookies. When they're still hot from the oven, press a small, round piece of chocolate, like a Hershey's Kiss, into the center. You can use regular chocolates for a classic look and taste, or go with different colors like red, white, or striped patterns, for a festive take.^[13]
4
Dip cookies in melted chocolate for a richer taste. If you're looking for a more chocolate-y taste to your cookies, skip the frosting and dip them in warm, melted chocolate instead. You can submerge the cookies all the way for the sweetest taste, or dip them in halfway at an angle for a pretty, modern look. Scatter sprinkles on the chocolate afterwards to keep the festive, Christmas cookie look.^[14]
- Use dark chocolate for the richest flavor.
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Indent cookies and fill them with jam or melted candy for a colorful, sweet addition. This colorful take on thumbprint cookies looks pretty and adds a tasty new flavor to your batch of cookies. To make simple jam cookies, create circular indents in round cookies, bake them, then spoon in the jam.^[15]
- To create "stained glass" cookies, hollow out the centers of your cookies and bake them for about 5 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, sprinkle crushed Jolly Rancher candy into the center holes, then finish baking them. The candy will melt and create colorful, glassy centers.
- Use red jam or red and green candy to keep with your Christmas theme.
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Once you get familiar with some standard ways to decorate, feel free to get creative, experiment, and make up your own to create one-of-a-kind Christmas cookies.

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Things You'll Need

Sugar cookie dough
Baking sheet
Cookie cutters (store-bought, optional)
Aluminum foil (for making your own cookie cutters)
Butter knife

Buttercream frosting
Food coloring
Bowls
Piping bag or Ziploc bag
Butter knife
Toothpick

Sprinkles
Chocolate chips (optional)
Crushed candy canes (optional)
Melted chocolate (optional)
Hershey's kisses (optional)
Jam (optional)
Crushed Jolly Ranchers (optional)

About This Article

Article SummaryX

To decorate Christmas cookies, consider making buttercream frosting with food coloring to make your cookies bright and colorful. Apply the frosting all over or in any pattern you like with a piping bag or the flat side of a knife. You can also add polka dots of frosting for things like Christmas tree ornaments or a snowman's buttons. Alternatively, you can decorate your frosting with sprinkles or chunks of your favorite candies. If frosting isn't your thing, consider dipping your cookies in melted chocolate for a richer taste. You can also press round chocolates, like Hershey's Kisses, into the center of your cookie to make thumbprint cookies. For more tips, including how to make your own cookie cutters to create personalized cookie shapes, read on!

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