Buttery Christmas sugar cookies with creamy buttercream frosting. These are classic sugar cookies and perfect for Christmas!
Our Christmas sugar cookies are simple to make, buttery, sweet and delicious paired with our classic buttercream recipe!
You also don’t need to be a professional to decorate these cookies! Using one piping tip, you can create texture and add cute little sprinkles as ornaments to each tree.
So get out your ingredients, play the Christmas music and start baking!
Here are a few things you’ll need to make these Christmas sugar cookies:
- Tree Shaped Cookie Cutters
- Green Dye
- Star Piping Tip
- Piping Bags
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Sheets
- Sprinkles
Tips for Making Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookie dough works better when it’s cold, but not so cold that it’s impossible to roll out.
- Right after the dough is made, roll it into a ball and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. Then, roll the dough out. The shapes will come out cleaner and easier to lift up to put on the cookie sheet.
Another quick tip when rolling out sugar cookie dough is to use powdered sugar on the surface and the rolling pin, not flour.
The flour will make the cookies tougher, but the sugar just makes them a little sweeter! It really helps a lot not adding more flour to the dough and the powdered sugar keeps the stickiness down.
The cookies bake quickly, so keep an eye on them! They really only need about 7 minutes until their golden brown. Of course, everyone’s oven bakes differently, so watch them closely.
Buttercream Frosting for Christmas Sugar Cookies
There are two types of frosting for sugar cookies, a royal icing or a buttercream. Royal icing is a flat icing that blends together, creating a smooth texture. You can add more texture with royal, it just takes a few more steps.
So for easy decorating, we used buttercream on these Christmas sugar cookies. Using one frosting tip, we gave these cute Christmas tree cookies fun texture!
This is the buttercream recipe we used for this recipe. Adding green dye for the color.
Frosting Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Make a batch of our creamy buttercream frosting.
- Divide it into two or three bowls to make different shades of green.
- Add each color into different piping bags fitted with the Wilton star stip.
- Make little lines going down to create the texture, similar to leaves!
MORE COOKIE RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE!
- Butterless Chocolate Chip Cookies – Our most popular cookie!
- Bunny Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Tail – These are too adorable!
- Italian Rainbow Cookies – Can take some time, but they are SO good!
- Gingerbread Spice Cookies – Pretty for the holidays.
- The Best Snickerdoodle Cookies – These are chewy and filled with cinnamon and sugar flavor!
- Chocolate Cherry Cookies – A real cherry cooked in the middle!
- The Cutest Santa Cookies – The sweetest Santa sugar cookies!!
- The Best Shortbread Crumble Bars
- How to Make a Gingerbread House – Step-by-step instructions!
Also check out 7 steps for hosting a cookie swap!
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Christmas Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup butter, 3 sticks, room temp.
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp whole milk
- powdered sugar, for rolling the dough
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and sugar together until light in color.
- Add in the egg, vanilla, and milk and continue to beat.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture with the mixer on low speed.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix until combined, but don’t over mix. Just until the ingredients are together.
- Roll the dough in a ball and refrigerate for 20 minutes so it firms up a little and is easier to cut the shapes from.
- Prepare two (or three) cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Remove dough from the fridge and make a space on the counter to roll it out. Use powdered sugar rather than flour when rolling the cookies so they don’t stick to the surface. You can use the sugar on the top and bottom of the dough and the rolling pin. Roll to about 1/4 to 1/2″ thick.
- Use a Christmas tree cookie cutter to make the shapes. Place them on a lined cookie sheet, about 1/2″ apart.
- Bake in the oven for 7 minutes or until cookies are just about to turn golden brown.
- Remove and let them cool before you frost!
Can I put these in the freezer?
Yes!