Everyone needs an Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe! These are buttery and literally melt-in-your-mouth delicious and my go-to sugar cookie dough. You can bake them soft or crisp. These Christmas Sugar cookies have been part of my holiday cookie-decorating tradition for years!
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I love festive holiday treats like melt-in-your-mouth Snowball Cookies, soft Chocolate Chip Cookies, and of course Baklava. These beautifully decorated sugar cookies are a beautiful addition to the Christmas cookie platter.
Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe
I love simple dishes that use minimal ingredients. During the holidays, I love baking, but I don’t love the cleanup afterwards. This recipe for Christmas sugar cookies gives me the best of both worlds — perfect cookies and an easy clean-up. You also don’t have to chill the dough so you can cut and bake the cookies right away, saving you time. I’m so excited to share this recipe with you!
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is cookie decorating, and my family has been doing this since the kids were tiny. The kids love the creative freedom to do what they want with their cookies, and of course, they are even more excited to eat them!
Whether you are planning a cookie-making party for your Christmas party or for the holiday cookie platter, you need a sugar cookie recipe that you can rely on. These cookies taste amazing, keep their shape, and are perfect for eating plain or decorating them with sugar cookie icing and sprinkles. Let’s get started!
Tips For The Best Christmas Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies may seem simple, but there are a lot of bad recipes out there! After much trial and error, I feel confident that I have mastered the art of the sugar cookie. Here are all the best tips and tricks I have gathered throughout the years to get the best flavor and texture:
Tip #1: Soften your butter
Butter should be softened at room temperature. If the butter is too soft or partially melted, you will end up with a sticky dough that is difficult to roll out.
Tip #2: Rolling Out Sugar Cookies Dough
Roll your dough out directly on a silicone baking mat or piece of parchment paper so you do not have to transfer your delicate shapes onto a baking sheet later. You can cut your shapes out right atop the mat and make your life a bit easier.
Tip #3: How Thick Should Sugar Cookies be Rolled Out?
Roll your dough out to about ¼-inch thick. This is the sweet spot. You’ll have cookies thick enough to keep their shape, while also thin enough to promote even baking.
Tip #4: Avoid Crumbly Dough
Crumbly dough makes for misshapen cookies that are prone to uneven baking. To prevent this, don’t overmix your dough. You want the dough to be as smooth as possible. However, if you do get a crumbly texture, add ½ tbsp of water, or milk to the batter and incorporate it until it remoistens the dough.
Tip #5: Avoid Overbaking
10 minutes might seem like a very short baking time for cookies. But, trust me, do not overbake them! At around 10 minutes, the edges of the cookies should just start to turn golden brown. This is the time to pull them! If you continue baking, you risk compromising that signature tenderness of a perfect sugar cookie.
How to Make Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
- Combine your flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set the dry mixture aside.
- Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, cream together your butter, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy.
- Add the flour to the butter mixture in thirds, mixing until incorporated between additions.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts and dust your work surface with flour to keep the dough from sticking. You can also dust the top of the dough lightly. Use a rolling pin to roll out each piece to an even ¼-inch thickness. Lift the dough gently to ensure it’s not sticking to your counter before cutting out shapes.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut out your favorite shapes or freeze your dough for later use. Note that larger cookies will take slightly longer to bake. Transfer the cookies to a cookie sheet, keeping them 1 inch apart (they do expand a bit in the oven).
- Bake the cookies at 350˚F for 10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to turn golden. That’s your cue to pull them out. Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for 5 minutes so they are easier to move without cracking then transfer to wire racks and let the cookies cool completely before decorating.
Storing Sugar Cookies
The great part about this recipe is that it can be made a couple of days in advance and the cookies will still retain their freshness. Below, I will share how you should store them and also how you can freeze your dough or baked cookies for later munching!
- Storing Cookies at Room Temperature: Store baked sugar cookies on the counter in an airtight container. They will keep for up to a week. Remember, if you have decorated your Christmas Sugar Cookies, let the frosting firm up, and then store them between layers of parchment paper to prevent sticking and/or destroying your designs.
- To freeze baked sugar cookies: allow cookies to cool completely, then stack the cookies in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper. Freeze cookies for up to 2 months. When you are ready to eat them, thaw at room temperature.
- To freeze your sugar cookie dough: roll it into a ball or a log. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and store it in an airtight container or freezer bag. The dough will keep for up to 2 months before you need to use it. When you are ready to bake, allow the dough to thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Then, bring it to room temperature for 1 hour before you shape your cookies and bake them.
How to Decorate Christmas Cookies
To decorate sugar cookies, I love to use our 3-ingredient cookie icing from our Gingerbread Cookie Recipe, or you can make a royal icing, and add food coloring. To pipe the frosting, transfer to a squeeze bottle or little zip bags (handy and inexpensive for cookie decorating parties).
If you prefer, you can purchase an icing decorating kit with pre-made frostings in a variety of colors, which makes it easy. Don’t forget the Christmas sprinkles and crushed candy canes.
Decorated Christmas cookies have a way of making the holidays more merry and bright, even if you aren’t the best at decorating. The perfectly imperfect ones are the most endearing anyway.
Christmas Sugar Cookies make my heart so happy because they unlock sweet memories over the years, like the cookie decorating party in the photo above when my husband and I hosted the family Christmas Eve party.
I’d love to hear about your special Christmas traditions around cookies in the comments below.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
These are our best-loved (and reviewed) Christmas cookies to fill up your holiday cookie tray. These are well-loved by all ages and you’re sure to find some new favorites in this list. Looking for more Christmas recipes and inspiration? Check out our Christmas archives here.
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Meringue Shell Cookies
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Madeleine Cookies
- Polish Cookies (Kolaczki)
Christmas Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg, (large)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, (measured correctly)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F with a rack in the center. Whisk together flour with baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- Using a stand-up or handheld mixer, beat the butter together with sugar. To the mixture add vanilla extract and egg and beat to combine.
- To the butter mixture, add flour in 3 parts until fully incorporated.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts. On a lightly floured surface, roll into ¼-inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out your favorite shapes.
- Bake cookies on a parchment or silicone-lined baking sheet at 350˚F for 10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to turn golden.
- Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely and decorating with cookie icing.
Nutrition Per Serving
Natalya Drozhzhin
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
The dough is so velvety and smooth and so easy to work with it literally took a few minutes to make about 34 cookie in total some where a bit larger than others! My first sugar cookies and they came out perfect. Mine took about 12 minutes to make as they where thicker and they came out super soft and tasty and not overly sweet! Will continue to make this recipe. Now after 5 hours of cooling it’s time to decorate.
Hi Maria! Thank you for trying my recipe. I’m so glad you loved it.
These taste great and were really simple! Difficult to mess up, which is perfect for me 🙂 Definitely saving this recipe.
Thank you, Patrick! Good to know that this will be added to your saved recipes!
Simple and successful. I’ll be using this recipe again! Thanks!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Gabriele!
These cookies are delicious! Measuring the flour accurately made for a velvety dough. I loved getting the cookies in the oven without having to chill the dough! This will be my new go-to recipe for cutter cookies!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Laurie! Thank you for sharing your fantastic review with me!
Does not work well at high altitude, added more milk to try and save the cookie dough
Hi Dawn! This recipe is not written for high-altitude baking. I do not have any experience with high-altitude baking but you may find this article helpful HERE.
I made these tonight. We loved them. Very easy to make.
My husband is a Cookie Monster and he loved them.
I will definitely use this recipe from now on… YUMMY
I’m so glad to hear that, Susie! Thank you for sharing.
I don’t recommend this recipe at all. The dough is the most crumbly dough I’ve ever made. Trying to roll it out was very frustrating. It split all around the edges and when trying to move the cookie from the counter to the cookie sheet they would break and rip. On a positive note, the flavor was decent. Not good, but not bad.
Hi Tina, based on how you described the dough, it sounds like too much flour was added (or not enough butter). Check out our helpful tips on How to measure ingredients for baking for great results every time.
Very easy and delicious sugar cookies. I will be making again . My family loves them
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Phyllis!
Can you use shortening or margarine if there’s no butter and will it bake fine on just a cookie sheet no paper?
Hi Gina! I haven’t tested it but one of my readers commented on using margarine.
Like others have mentioned I also needed to add 1/4 cup milk to this recipe. Without it the dough was a crumbly mess. I went as far as weighing out things like butter and flour to make sure I didn’t mess this recipe up and this still happened. Thankfully I read the comments before throwing the dough in the trash!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Hannah! Be sure to measure by fluffing the flour first with a spoon then spoon it into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you push your measuring cup into a flour bin, you will get up to 25% too much flour. Also, do not tap the flour down in the measuring cup.
I made the cookies I also had to add 1/4 milk plus 2 teas vanilla They turned out great.
This recipe is perfect!!
I also had to add a half cup of milk like another baker did, but this is the recipe I grew up with.
The only thing I changed was for extract, I used half vanilla and half lemon. (to honor my mother).
Thank you!!!
Sounds good! Thank you for sharing your experience trying out this recipe. We’re glad you enjoyed this!
I just realized it says preheat oven so sounds like you don’t chill prior to baking. Answered my own question!
Hello! About to make this recipe. I’m wondering if you chill your dough for 1-2 prior to rolling/baking? I want to make sure to get this right haha
Hi Megan! No, I do not chill the dough. 🙂 I hope you love this recipe!
These cookies came out a little dry. Tasty, but too dry for my taste.
This was my mother’s recipe. Just made some today. It is the best!
These cookies look delicious! Can you share a great icing recipe for these cookies? I don’t see one linked on this post.
Hi Abby! I don’t have a recipe for icing. We used a pre-made icing kit from the store/amazon.
The easiest cookie icing recipe is… Mix 10x sugar and a little milk until it has the consistency of Elmers glue. Have used this for years.
Will this icing recipe harden on the cookie? Thx and merry Christmas!
I toss together a bunch of confectioner’s sugar with some milk until it looks thick enough. Then stir in just a little karo syrup–that makes it harden into a glaze on the cookies.
for many moons i have always used sugar and have been seeing powdered sugar instead….wondering what the differences is for the cookies
They came out delicious not too soft definitely not too hard just right when you take a bite they crumble in your mouth this is my go to recipe thank you tried so many recipes and this is the best
Thank you for sharing that with us Donna. We’re glad that you loved this recipe!
J
Just made these cookies. They are yummy but I had to add at least 1/4 C of milk to the batter. Way too dry and I used exact measurements.
Natasha can l substitute almond flour in this recipe, thanks
Hi Elizabeth! I have not tested that to advise.