I make these Christmas sugar cookies for the vacations yearly! Reduce into festive shapes, they’re excellent for adorning with icing and sprinkles.

Let’s make Christmas sugar cookies! My household loves breaking out our cookie cutters to bake these cookies for the vacations yearly.
They’re basic cut-out sugar cookies, with crisp edges, mushy middles, and a heat, buttery taste from vanilla and almond extract. Made with a easy 8-ingredient dough, they maintain their form within the oven, which implies you could minimize them into every kind of vacation shapes.
When you might take pleasure in these Christmas sugar cookies plain, we predict half the enjoyable of constructing them is adorning them. Prime them with icing, plus sprinkles, coloured sugar, and/or candies for a festive vacation deal with.
Why You’ll Love These Christmas Sugar Cookies
- They’re simple to make with 8 elements. You in all probability have every thing you want already!
- They style scrumptious, with a heat, buttery taste.
- They’re excellent for adorning. Seize some vacation cookie cutters to chop out shapes, then high them with icing! I’m sharing a royal icing possibility and a non-royal icing possibility under.
- They freeze properly. This recipe requires chilling the dough, so it will probably take a number of hours to bake and beautify these cookies. I like to interrupt up the steps by baking the cookies, then freezing them in order that they’re prepared to embellish on one other day.

Methods to Make Christmas Sugar Cookies
Yow will discover the entire Christmas sugar cookie recipe with measurements on the backside of this publish. For now, right here’s a fast overview of the way it goes:
Begin by making the cookie dough. I exploit softened butter on this recipe, so I make the dough in a stand mixer (an electrical hand mixer works too).
I cream collectively the butter and sugar, then add an egg to bind the dough collectively and maintain the cookies mushy. Subsequent, I combine within the vanilla and almond extracts.
Lastly, I regularly add the dry elements and blend till a mushy cookie dough kinds.

Subsequent, chill the dough. Divide it in half, and type every half right into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap every tightly in plastic wrap and chill for no less than 2 hours and as much as 2 days.
- Tip: Don’t skip this step! Chilling the sugar cookie dough helps the minimize outs maintain their form.

After the dough chills, roll it out. Place one disk on a frivolously floured work floor, and use a rolling pin to roll it out till it’s 1/4-inch thick.
- Tip: If the dough is just too agency to roll out immediately, let it sit at room temperature for five to 10 minutes to melt.
Use cookie cutters to chop out your required shapes. Re-roll the scraps as obligatory, and repeat with the remaining disk of dough.
Bake the cookies in a 350°F oven till the sides are simply starting to show golden brown, usually 9 to 11 minutes. The cookies will nonetheless appear underdone within the center, however they may arrange as they cool.
Enable every batch to chill on the baking sheet for two minutes earlier than transferring to a wire rack to chill fully.
Ideas for Making Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Use parchment paper. It makes cleanup simple and helps the cookies bake evenly. I discover that after I bake cookies instantly on a baking sheet, they turn into too darkish beneath.
- Bake one sheet at time. Temperatures can fluctuate all through an oven. For essentially the most even bake, I like to recommend baking one cookie sheet at a time on a rack within the heart of the oven. You don’t need cookies on a low oven rack to burn earlier than ones on the highest rack are prepared!
- The bake time could fluctuate. It’s going to rely upon the dimensions of your cut-outs. I discover that 9 to 11 minutes is an efficient vary for many cookies, however if in case you have very small cookie cutters, begin checking the cookies at 7 minutes. In the event you’re making massive cookies, they could have to bake for 12 or extra.

Methods to Beautify Christmas Sugar Cookies
My favourite a part of making these cookies is adorning them! Listed below are the 2 sugar cookie icings I like to make use of:
- Royal icing (pictured) – Made with meringue powder, this kind of icing units up with a agency texture, which makes it nice for piping high-quality traces and flooding/filling in shapes. I’m sharing the recipe I exploit within the recipe notes under.
- An excellent easy sugar cookie icing – Once I’m not planning to embellish sugar cookies with intricate designs, I make a brilliant easy icing with milk (any variety) and powdered sugar. I begin with 1 tablespoon milk and three/4 cup powdered sugar and add extra of every as wanted to create a thick drizzleable consistency. This icing takes longer to harden. Retailer cookies in a single layer till it units up.
Be happy so as to add meals coloring to both icing to make your required colours. After including icing, high the cookies with candies, sprinkles, or coloured sugar to make them look extra-festive.
Methods to Retailer
Retailer iced cookies in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days. Unfrosted cookies maintain properly at room temperature.
These sugar cookies additionally freeze properly. Seal them in an hermetic container or freezer bag and freeze for as much as 3 months. You may freeze them earlier than or after adorning.

Extra Christmas Cookie Recipes
In the event you love these Christmas sugar cookies, attempt one in all these festive cookie recipes subsequent:

Christmas Sugar Cookies
Serves 30
These Christmas sugar cookies are excellent for the vacations! They’ve crisp edges, mushy middles, and a scrumptious buttery taste. Children and adults will love adorning them!
Forestall your display screen from going darkish
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In a medium bowl, whisk collectively the flour, baking powder, and salt.
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Within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or utilizing an electrical mixer, cream the butter and sugar till mild and fluffy. Add the egg and blend to mix, then combine within the vanilla and almond extracts.
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Steadily add the dry elements, mixing on low velocity till mixed. The dough might be mushy.
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Divide the dough in half. Type every half right into a ball, then flatten right into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for no less than 2 hours and as much as 2 days.
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Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two massive baking sheets with parchment paper.
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Roll out the dough on a frivolously floured floor till about ¼-inch thick. If the dough is just too agency to roll immediately, let it sit at room temperature for a couple of minutes to melt. Use cookie cutters to chop out desired shapes, then switch the cut-outs to the ready baking sheets, re-rolling the scraps as obligatory.
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Bake, one sheet at a time, for 9 to 11 minutes, or till the sides of the cookies are simply starting to show golden brown. The cookies will appear underdone within the center, however they may arrange as they cool. The precise timing will rely upon the dimensions of your cookie cutters.
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Let cool on the baking sheets for two minutes earlier than transferring to a wire rack to chill fully. As soon as cool, beautify with royal icing or as desired.
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Makes about 30 cookies. Actual yield will fluctuate primarily based on the dimensions of your cookie cutters.
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