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 from our Easter Sugar Cookies Recipe 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 (make sure to use aluminum free 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 and sugar then add egg and vanilla extract and beat 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)
- Gingerbread Man Cookies
- Angel Wing Cookies
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, (use aluminum free)
- 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
Filed Under
Hi! I’m Natasha Kravchuk, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, food photographer, and writer. Here you’ll find delicious, reliable recipes made with simple ingredients, plus easy step-by-step photos and videos to help you cook confidently at home. 
If I want to use sugar crystals instead of icing when baking cookies can I do that?
Hi Ellen, I haven’t tried that, but you might try this method from Land O-Lakes for adding crystal sugar to cookies.
These look fabulous, I’ll be making these this year for sure 😊 Do you have a recipe for homemade icing? Also, does the Wilton icing you mentioned solidify so it doesn’t smear when you box up the cookies? Thanks for this delicious recipe ☺️
Hi Terry. I do not have a recipe for the icing. We typically just use the store bought type for these. It is royal icing, which hardens and dries.
This recipe is great! However, I was just wondering, why do sometimes my cookies rise a lot and sometimes they hardly do?
It could be due to several factors. Make sure that you are following the amount of ingredients listed in the recipe. Like too much baking soda/ baking powder and flour can cause cookies to rise excessively.
Good taste i guess but didn’t hold it’s shape, at all…
Hi Tabatha. I’m sorry to hear that, this happens if your dough is too warm, or if your oven isn’t fully preheated when you start to bake them. You can try to refrigerate and chill your dough for a bit before.
Hi! Can this dough be converted into rolled balls instead of rolling out with a rolling pin?
You can, but they will not flatten and you may need to adjust the baking time.
If you want to just put sprinkles or colored sugar on them should you do that before or after baking?
Hi Sami! I have not tried baking these with sprinkles, so I don’t know which sprinkles are best to use and how they will hold up in the high heat. I don’t know how the sprinkles would adhere to these once they are baked without applying frosting.
Hi Natasha! Your recipes are always fantastic. I was wondering if these cookies can be frozen.
Hi Jennifer. They sure can! See my notes above in the blog post on how to store these in the freezer.
Hi! I haven’t tried this recipe but plan to. Could I sub honey for the sugar?
I haven’t tested that but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
I made these and they were delicious!
Can I use this same recipe and add cocoa powder to make them chocolate? Have you tried it? Or do you have a recipe for cut-out chocolate sugar cookies?
I’m glad you love it! I have not tested this recipe by adding cocoa powder so I cannot really advise. If you do an experimet, we’d love to know how it goes!
Oh wow! This is a wonderful cookie recipe! So easy to make. Making this for Christmas. I just made very very small modifications but nothing changed. So soft, yummy! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Cookies came out delicious! Thank you for sharing!
I don’t bake very well…. I’ve made these twice and they’ve come out awesome. Can’t even say first time was beginners luck!
Great job! Keep up the amazing work, Patricia!
Is it better to chill the cutout shapes before baking to help the cookie hold the shape?
Hi Mary, you could if you’d like, but there is very little to no spread with this cookie recipe so chilling is not required, they hold their shape very well.
Cookies came out wonderfully!!! These are light, airy, and tasty. My fist time making shaped sugar cookies. My shapes did hold well, but some cookies came out flat and even and some of them came out kind of puffy. What did I do wrong?
Hi Emily! It’s hard to say exactly workout being there. Some common causes are uneven heat distribution (hot and cold spots in the oven) causing uneven baking. I highly recommend investing in an Internal oven thermometer (Amazon affiliate link) to check and see how your oven is heating. It may help to rotate the pans every now and then during the baking process. Be sure to space your cookies so there is room for air to circulate in between, you don’t want to over crowd the pan. Lastly, cream/beat the butter and sugar well in step 2 to ensure even distribution of fat/sugar in the cookie batter. It will look chunky and gritty if it’s under-mixed. I hope that helps.
Great recipe was so easy and came together perfect I added a touch of peppermint so delicious thanks for the recipe
Merry Christmas
Hi Tammie, I am so happy to hear that. Merry Christmas!
Do you have to use a standup mixer? All I have is a handheld mixer.
Hi Bethany, yes, this will work with a handheld mixed. See this note in the recipe: “Using a stand-up or handheld mixer” I hope this helps! Merry Christmas!
Hi. I am gonna be doing these with my kids. Can self rising flour be used? Hope you can answer soon
Hi Annette, I have only tested these with all purpose flour. Generally, for many recipes, you can substitute self-rising flour with little other adjustments. However, for sugar cookies, you’ll want to use just all purpose flour.
Hi Natasha! Do you have an icing recipe for these cookies that you love? I have read and re-read your recipe and I don’t see anything specific (besides the Amazon links). Thank you!
Hi Lauren! I do not, I used premade Royal icing.
Hi
I just wanted to say Thank you for sharing your recipe!
I think it’s sad that some people can’t appreciate recipes and just cut them down. Sugar cookies are so good, but you need to frost them to get the full flavorful results. Most that cut down recipes make errors with their ingredients, I admit I have been guilty at that myself, but I learned from my mistakes and try the recipe again, it usually works. Nobody is perfect, so don’t cut down recipes that people take their time sharing with us. Plus, everyone’s taste buds are different so keep that in mind. Be Thankful!
Thank you again.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for your kind works, Tammy! Happy Holidays.
OMG they really are easy to make, making for two young girls to decorate